How this East Coast kapa survived Cyclone Gabrielle to get to Te Matatini

“We are alive and in time we will rise again.”

Tā Derek Lardelli (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Konohi, Rongowhakaata, Ngai te Aweawe) is one of Aotearoa’s most-respected artists and the kaitātaki tāne of his rōpū Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti who are competing at Te Matatini this year. 

He spoke to Re: News about why his group decided to come to Te Matatini after Cyclone Gabrielle.

CORRECTION (24/02/2022, 8.05pm): In the captions of the video and this article, the name of the kapa haka group was misspelled as Whāngārā Mai Tawhiri and Whāngāngā Mai Tawhiti when it should have been Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti. We apologise for this mistake. 

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