Sipsey Street Irregulars: Haka: This is how to mourn a warrior.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Haka: This is how to mourn a warrior.

My son sent me the video below of a recent Haka by a New Zealand military unit.

This is the translation:

We are ready, yes we are ready If we the warriors of the Second First should go to war Beware enemy, beware! Those of you who wish to do battle with us, where are you? Come stand face to face with us and we will strike you down Be strong warriors of the Second First We will gather the energy from the Earth to strengthen our bodies to destroy our enemies Rise up, soldiers of Second First to the call of battle We will fight and destroy our enemies and send them to the dark pits of hell!

Haka is used throughout New Zealand by many, not only Māori, to demonstrate their collective thoughts. There is a haka for each of the Services, as well as the Defence Force. Units with the NZ Army have their own haka. This video shows the soldiers of 2/1 RNZIR Battalion performing their Unit haka, powerfully acknowledging the lives and feats of their fallen comrades as they come onto the Unit's parade ground. It is also an emotive farewell for they will leave via the waharoa (the carved entrance way) for the very last time.

Haka --sometimes termed a posture dance could also be described as a chant with actions. There are various forms of haka; some with weapons some without, some have set actions others may be 'free style.' Haka is used by Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) for a myriad of reasons; to challenge or express defiance or contempt, to demonstrate approval or appreciation, to encourage or to discourage, to acknowledge feats and achievements, to welcome, to farewell, as an expression of pride, happiness or sorrow. There is almost no inappropriate occasion for haka; it is an outward display of inner thoughts and emotions. Within the context of an occasion it is abundantly clear which emotion is being expressed.

2nd 1st Farewell Their Fallen Comrades With A Huge Haka

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: A warrior's farewell, by warriors.

B Woodman
III-per; June 30, 2015 at 8:19 AM
Anonymous said...: A wonderful tribute!; June 30, 2015 at 10:12 AM
RVN11B said...: Chills go up and down my spine every time I see this. I would not complain if my passing was commemorated this way.; June 30, 2015 at 12:01 PM
Arkindole said...: Retro war Haka for the win...(plus ample soft metal).

https://youtu.be/54XeuHHFc8o; June 30, 2015 at 12:05 PM
Anonymous said...: Politicians and conniving humans have used and harnessed men's inner warrior spirit to do their dirty work for them for as long as we have been living in groups. I have nothing but respect for the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend the ones of their loved ones.; June 30, 2015 at 12:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Now , try on the powhiri "welcome"

Modified somewhat with secret service and a bit of distance
Normally engaged at spitting distances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fag_MhKByhA; June 30, 2015 at 10:13 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Haka: This is how to mourn a warrior.

6 comments:

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