![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/C2T7R4Y6UBEI3G4Q4JIHYCTIMA.jpg\")
Hei t\u0101 Joan Daus\u00e0, kua oti i a ia te whakamahi i taua kanikani haka i roto i ana konohete. Photo \/ YouTube. Ng\u0101 \u0101puta i ng\u0101 ture p\u0101hao ahurea<\/p>\nM\u0101ori in Europe are calling for greater protection of haka and M\u0101ori culture, after a Spanish artist was criticised for using haka-like choreography in his performances. <\/p>\n
The case has raised concerns about gaps in M\u0101ori intellectual property protection.<\/p>\n
The video in question, which has since been removed following Te Ao M\u0101ori News\u2019 investigation, shows Catalan artist Joan Daus\u00e0 performing a haka-like dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I saw it, I was really shocked. I thought to myself, au\u0113 – it hit my heart quite hard,\u201d says Tamar, a Ng\u0101i Tahu singer and music teacher living in Catalonia, Spain.<\/p>\n
Daus\u00e0 has around 295,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and it was Tamar who saw the dance in a promotional video for an upcoming tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt disbelief as to how a Catalan artist could come to this conclusion to create mahi with what seemed to be no tikanga whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hei t\u0101 Joan Daus\u00e0, kua oti i a ia te whakamahi i taua kanikani haka i roto i ana konohete. Photo \/ YouTube. Ng\u0101 \u0101puta i ng\u0101 ture p\u0101hao ahurea<\/p>\n
Intellectual property lawyer, Lynell Tuffery Huria, says the case follows a long history of haka being used without proper cultural guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it\u2019s atrocious,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] reminds me of videos we used to see back in the 90s of haka being used in a number of different arenas without permission and in a manner that was really quite insulting and offensive to our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuffery Huria says Aotearoa\u2019s intellectual property laws, including the Copyright Act 1994, do not fully protect traditional M\u0101ori cultural expressions such as haka.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause our culture has been around for generations, [we] don\u2019t have the ability to enforce that kind of general right to protect our culture against misuse and misappropriation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says haka like Ka Mate show the limits of copyright law.<\/p>\n
\u201cKa Mate, for example, was written several hundred years ago, or several decades ago – that haka no longer has copyright protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act 2014 provides some protection for Ka Mate, recognising its connection to Ng\u0101ti Toa Rangatira, but it does not give the iwi full control over how the haka is used.<\/p>\n
Tuffery Huria says these gaps have been known for decades, including through the Wai 262 claim, filed in 1991.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The claim was] identifying these gaps and asking the Government to fill those gaps, particularly at the domestic level, and then to inform the international conversations that we would have.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AO4NAEV22FH4PGSLFSK5OVKSQQ.jpg\")
He maha tonu ng\u0101 pakihi i t\u0101w\u0101hi e whakaako ana i ng\u0101 mahi haka. He whakaiti, he whakah\u0101wea r\u0101nei?<\/p>\n
Tamar says she is not necessarily asking Daus\u00e0 to stop using haka, but believes he should seek appropriate cultural guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to share, but it\u2019s also very important to be careful of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuffery Huria says the focus should be on ensuring M\u0101ori are involved when M\u0101ori culture is used.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim is just to ensure that it\u2019s celebrated in an appropriate way.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she says Daus\u00e0\u2019s performance is not cultural appreciation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not an example where he is celebrating the haka in a way that\u2019s consistent with our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/KGDGA26TQ5DKTLFRWSLP5KYJTQ.png\")
Ehara t\u0113nei kaupapa, te p\u0101hao ahurea, i te kaupapa tauhou ki te M\u0101ori. Photo \/ YouTube. He aha te ara whakamua?<\/p>\n
Tamar says she raised her concerns with Daus\u00e0 and his team, asking that the performance be stopped in its current form and that M\u0101ori guidance be sought.<\/p>\n
Whilst Daus\u00e0\u2019s team was apologetic, Tamar says her manager rejected the cultural appropriation claim, citing UNESCO principles and cultural diversity.<\/p>\n
Tamar says M\u0101ori lawyers in the UK and Aotearoa have advised that there are no clear avenues to address the cultural concerns, other than potentially through European fair-trade mechanisms. She also says assistance was sought from the New Zealand Embassy in Spain but was not available.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to protect and preserve the gifts and the treasures of the ancestors, no matter which cultural root you come from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tamar has also established a r\u014dp\u016b, Te Ao M\u0101rama i \u016aropi, to connect M\u0101ori across Spain and Europe.<\/p>\n
Te urupare a Joan Daus\u00e0 <\/p>\n
Te Ao M\u0101ori News reached out to Daus\u00e0 for comment.<\/p>\n
He says he respects the concerns raised about his performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand and respect that there may be different sensitivities surrounding the representation of a cultural expression such as the haka.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daus\u00e0 says there was no intention to disrespect or appropriate M\u0101ori culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were inspired by the energy and impact that we feel when watching a haka and, from that inspiration, we created our own choreography for our song. We did so respectfully, with no intention of appropriating a cultural expression or trivialising it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the concerns were raised, Daus\u00e0 says he has stopped using the haka-like choreography and removed it from his concerts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not want to hurt anyone\u2019s sensitivities. Quite the opposite – I believe that listening, understanding other perspectives and incorporating them when possible is also part of our responsibility as artists,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain willing to continue listening and talking about it with respect and an open mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daus\u00e0 says Tamar has been invited to meet face to face in September, after his tour is finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"M\u0101ori in Europe are calling for greater protection of haka and M\u0101ori culture, after a Spanish artist was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[157334,156,31423,1019,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-583280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cultural-appropriation","tag-entertainment","tag-haka","tag-international","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}