Huia Publishers and Te Matatini Society have released “He Tau Makuru: 50 Years of Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival,” celebrating the people, their stories and experiences of the previous 24 festivals of Te Matatini.
“It is a collection of these amazing stories and memories from these people who have made Te Matatini the phenomenon that it is today," Huia Publishers director, Pania Tahau Hodges says.
"It's special because there are so many beautiful stories that I think, unless you are related to these people or your part of these kapa that we celebrate every two years, you don’t hear these stories,” Pania says.
“There's a lot of beautiful images from the five decades that the book covers, some obviously a bit grainier and a bit more pixilated than others, because we’re talking about going back to the 70s," she says.
Kaumatua and legendary kapa haka photographer Vince Heperi has provided photos spanning more than three decades of covering Te Matatini.
Heperi sadly passed away during the official pōwhiri last week at Ōkahu Bay while working doing what he loves taking his legendary kapa haka photographs.
"A lot of the images, most of them we published in the book were given by Te Matatini and then there's a whole lot of other images provided by people's personal collections such as Matua Vince," Pania says.
“His work captured many of the beautiful moments from te ao kapahaka. He made his mark with the beautiful photography that he did," she says.
The book is now available online at Huia Publishers.
