Eh, making brides cry isn't hard... they're mostly ready to burst into tears at any given moment anyway

Just kidding, that was pretty goddamn cool.

Props to the dude in the back with the taiaha!

I'm going be honest here.
I'm getting tired of seeing Haka all over social media.
But maybe not in the way you think.

It's a deeply emotional and personal dedication of feelings and respect. It's amazing and a great show of power which presents and reinforces the dedication a group has to another.

It's deeply spiritual and steeped in tradition.

But the way it's plastered all over Social Media, it's become a spectacle. It's become something to gawk at, and it trivializes what's really going on. It's so deeply personal. This exchange is more of an experience in it's presentation.

Of course this is just my opinion. My opinion is irrelevant in this matter, and I would never try to force my opinion on others. I'm not advocating some kind of Social Justice enforcement or cultural appropreation, or what ever the internet trend is.

FOR ME, I just feel the deep importance is stripped away as we look in. It would be fine if I saw one or two, and I experienced the power to understand it. But it seems like every time I turn on my computer, someone else has posted another one. (This one isn't new to me, I've seen it in at lease 20 other places on the web on other SM platforms. It's becoming a meme which does it some discredit.

Thanks for letting me voice my thoughts.

Your not the only one to relay these thoughts. There are members of the All Blacks that are getting tired of constantly performing the Haka during their contests. 20 times a year is wearing thin on some of them.

This Haka moved me much in the same way as witnessing the Haida perform their traditional dance at a wedding I attended a few years ago in Haida Gwaii.

This is the first I've ever heard or seen this. Not knowing the traditional ceremony or history, all I know is that I could relate to it when I first got married at 20.

I get where you're coming from.

But I'll tell you with this my feelings are more along the likes of

**Jealousy** : Wish I had that type of communion at my wedding or any type of gathering of friends : pure and raw expression of individual and shared emotions... which brings me to :

**Shame** : In a way I fell this shouldn't be shared with anyone else that wasn't there that day.

That was pathetic. Women: not Haka. White people: not Haka. (Not that there are any full-blood Maori's left, but for fuck's sake at least look like one.) Haka now seems to be some kind of novelty dance that anyone can do whenever they please. It is supposed to be terrifying; you are filling your enemies with the fear that that are about to be slaughtered and eaten. Why the fuck would anyone do it at a wedding?

After all, when you are the baddest mutherfucker on the planet, restraint is your finest attribute.

I always thought of weddings as feminine reverie. I suppose the masculines need to make it about themselves so as to not look soft.

Just because I'm doing this girly thing doesn't mean I can't kick your ass. Now, play that Beer Barrel Polka!

Ok, I was going to keep silent, because I am no way an expert on Maori culture, but this is just so full of bullshit.

1: There are obviously Maori people at that wedding... the bride for instance.
2: Women do perform haka, it's just traditionally different from mens haka, but even that is changing/
3: Pakeha can't perform Haka? Tell that to the All Blacks... just make sure your health insurance is paid up first.
4: There are no full-blood Maori's left.... oh fuck right off with that nonsense. There are no "full blood" anybody of any kind left. Doesn't make you any less Maori if that's your culture.

And Kapa Haka can be performed for all kinds of reasons. You can perform a haka to welcome someone to a marae for example.