Maoris hacked off at haka exploitation
WELLINGTON — The haka is best known to rugby fans as the spectacular pre-match challenge issued by the All Blacks — but it’s also a revered cultural tradition among New Zealand’s Maori, who resent it being mocked or exploited for profit.
The All Blacks have performed the foot-stomping, eye-rolling ritual since 1905, now firmly entrenched as part of the sporting theater that surrounds New Zealand’s matches.
It’s no novelty act for Maori, though, with New Zealand’s Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell describing it as “a part of our culture and identity.”
“We use haka to express ourselves in many different settings,” he told AFP. “That includes welcoming guests, saying goodbye to our dead, celebrating success, [and] showing our pride.”
Small wonder then, that Maori bristle when advertising executives use their esteemed custom as a punchline in commercials and marketing campaigns.
In recent years, haka parodies have been used to sell everything from British menswear to Japanese soft drinks — all without permission and without a cent being paid to the haka’s traditional owners.
“It’s a feeling of disappointment that people don’t understand what it’s about,” Kahu Ropata, a cultural adviser with the Ngati Toa iwi (tribe), told AFP.
“Using it for profit, that’s not what the haka was intended for. It should be treated respectfully.”
New Zealand’s players perform the haka and Tonga’s perform the Sipi Tau prior to a Pool C match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between New Zealand and Tonga at St James’ Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, northeast England, on October 9, 2015. – AFP
‘NO ROOM FOR DISRESPECT’
Numerous versions of the haka exist, but the All Blacks only perform two — the traditional Ka Mate and Kapa o Pango, which was introduced in 2005 and includes a controversial throat-slitting gesture.
Ka Mate is Ngati Toa’s haka, composed by the warrior chief Te Rauparaha around 1820 to celebrate his escape from a rival tribe’s pursuing war party.
“The essence of the haka is about life [triumphing] over death, the little guy beating the big guy and punching above his weight,” Mr. Ropata said.
Over the years, Ka Mate has evolved into New Zealand’s haka, with Mr. Ropata pointing out: “It’s reverberated around the battlegrounds of Chunuk Bair and Gallipoli and El Alamein.”
Ngati Toa are still regarded as Ka Mate’s custodians, a situation Mr. Flavell said the government recognized last year when it passed a law requiring the iwi to be acknowledged when the haka was used.
The tribe also have an agreement with New Zealand Rugby about using the haka and last month hosted All Blacks players at their meeting house near Wellington before the players departed for the World Cup.
But such laws and agreements have no force beyond New Zealand, and Mr. Ropata said his people were reliant on overseas companies doing the right thing, inviting them to consult the iwi before using the haka.
“For Ngati Toa, there’s no room for disrespecting the haka,” he said.
“So the word to the marketing companies is that if they are to use it, use it appropriately.”
While commercial exploitation of the haka may rankle, Mr. Ropata said Ngati Toa took immense pride in seeking the Ka Mate haka performed on the world stage by the All Blacks.
His tribe’s Ka Mate has been the only haka performed so far at this tournament, with Kapa o Pango yet to make an appearance.
The French team have a history of confronting the Maori challenge, and Mr. Ropata was intrigued to see how they would respond to it at last weekend’s World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand in Cardiff.
“To stand there eyeball to eyeball, I think that’s the whole way of approaching it,” he said.
“It shows your opposition, in this case the All Blacks, that you’re ready to go into battle on the field.”
In 2007, the French wore red, white and blue shirts to form a giant tricolor, staring down the New Zealanders before scoring a famous 20-18 quarterfinal victory in Cardiff.
Four years later, before the 2011 final, they formed a flying-V and marched into the All Blacks’ half, falling just short of a another stunning upset before New Zealand prevailed 8-7.
“It’s saying that this is our land, our whenua (territory), our field and we’re here to play,” Mr. Ropata said.
Before Sunday’s quarterfinal, the French stood in red jerseys, arms and shoulders interlocked and their stare held as the All Blacks issued the traditional challenge. However, New Zealand thrashed them in the game that followed, winning 62-13. — AFP
Megaworld opens newest hotel brand
ON OCT. 8, the Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. introduced the company’s newest hotel brand with the opening of its first property in Resorts World Manila in Pasay City.
The Belmont Hotel Manila is a 10-storey, 480-room business hotel designed with a “natural” theme in mind, as the lobby is a study in wood and marble, with green glass “shells” suspended from the ceiling.
Likewise, wood and glass and marble dominate the hallways and the rooms.
During the launch and the subsequent tour, Lorenzo Tang, the hotel’s general manager, told the press that the hotel — currently on its soft opening with a planned grand launch in November — will “probably” have a $100-$200 price point.
“Prices are changing based on seasonality… at the moment we’re still testing the market [as] we do not want to overcharge,” said Mr. Tang, before adding that due to their proximity to the country’s international airports, they are expecting that 40% of their customers will be foreign business travelers and that the average stay of each guests will be around one to two days.
The hotel is said to be in the four-star category and boasts of a rooftop pool which turns into a bar at night, an all-day dining restaurant which can seat 89 people, a fitness center (with saunas and steam rooms), function rooms, and a business center.
Hotel rooms are sized at around 25 square meters with room categories being based on the amenities provided and on location and not much on size.
“We are developing different room categories. The differentiation will not be on the size like a normal hotel but more on amenities,” he told BusinessWorld during the tour of the property.
One category will be a “tranquility room,” described by Mr. Tang as “almost a spa room” because they will be scented with lavender, located in hallways with less foot traffic, and will face the atrium or a mini-patio. Corner rooms will have two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows offering almost-unobstructed views of the streets (which isn’t really very pretty at the moment what with the construction of the Skyway).
“There won’t be suites in the traditional way — so no rooms with different areas,” he said, though they will offer a category with upgraded and branded amenities.
The hotel functions using an “internal business model like a condo-tel.”
“All the hotel rooms were sold to individual investors,” Mr. Tang said, before adding that Megaworld retained ownership of at least 10% of the rooms. Each unit is said to have cost P4 million. The same business model is expected to be followed by subsequent Belmont hotels — one in Cebu and one in Boracay — ensconced in Megaworld townships.
The Belmont Manila is the fourth hotel to rise in the mega-casino-resort complex after the Remington, Marriott and Maxims, with three more hotels to open in the near future including another local brand, Savoy Hotel — which Mr. Tang said would be “bigger at 780 rooms” and is expected to open in 2017 — aside from international chains such as the Starwood-operated Sheraton and a Hilton.
Mr. Tan, according to a press release, is planning to be “the country’s biggest hotel developer in the next five years” as Megaworld, together with its subsidiary Global-Estate Resorts, Inc., and Travellers International Hotels Group, Inc., will be completing “a total of 10,000 hotel rooms in various Megaworld townships in the country,” bringing the total of hotel rooms under Mr. Tan to 12,000.
Two hotels (one under the Richmonde brand) are planned to be constructed in Iloilo, one in Tagaytay, four hotels in Boracay (including Belmont) and five in Cebu. — Zsarlene B. Chua
Zamboanga City’s old, colorful soul
Text and photos by
Carmencita A. Carillo Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY — Two years after the September 2013 siege — when Moro National Liberation Front forces forcefully took over the city, hostaged residents, and engaged the Special Operations Group of the Philippine Navy in a fire fight that lasted almost a month and took many lives — this city is once again hopeful that its tourism industry will bounce back as it celebrates the annual Hermosa Festival this month.
“Zamboanga is going to be back in the tourism map judging from the number of visitors in this year’s festival, specifically the Regatta de Zamboanga,” said Councilor Vincent Paul A. Elago, chairman of the city council committee on tourism, on the sidelines of the vinta (a form of sailboat) competition conducted along the R.T. Lim Boulevard that used to be known as Cawa-Cawa.
The one-kilometer stretch of the boulevard used to be occupied by families who were displaced during the siege, mostly people from the Badjao indigenous group. But the tents that served as temporary shelters are gone and have been replaced by a view of the traditional vintas with their colorful sails parked along the shore.
Mr. Elago estimated that the number of spectators, who stood from end to end of the boulevard to cheer during the Regatta, were at least 50,000, including foreign visitors.
The Regatta de Zamboanga, a traditional race of vintas, also had a record-breaking number of participants with 180 bangkeros (boatmen).
“The vintas are one of the most popular icons of Zamboanga, but most of the Badjaos who used the vintas for fishing have started to look for other means of livelihood in the city so we feared that the vintas would disappear,” Mr. Elago said.
He said the local government hopes to bring back the art of fishing and sailing the vintas through the holding of the Regatta de Zamboanga every year.
Hajad M. Hamid, who used to be a fisherman but now works at a state university here, and his brother Danny paddled and steered vinta No. 006 to victory, keeping their winning record from the past.
“It took me almost a month to practice whenever I have free time,” Mr. Hamid said in the dialect.
“Zamboanga’s vibrant tourism industry suffered a setback because of the siege but we have recovered and are rebuilding tourist confidence in the area,” Department of Tourism (DoT) Zamboanga Peninsula Region Director Mary June G. Bugante said.
The region’s tourist arrivals dove after the siege by almost 50% to 344,000 from 658,000 in 2012. Last year, a slight increase was recorded at 370,000, composed mostly of domestic travelers.
Ms. Bugante said the top attractions of Zamboanga remain to be its culture and beaches.
Zamboanga City was already a trading center among its Asian neighbors as far back as the 13th century, and Spain’s influence is also indelibly marked around town as well as the local Chavacano language, a form of Spanish pidgin.
Fort Pilar, built by the Spaniards in 1635 as a military fortress, was a declared national cultural shrine and currently serves as a shrine to the Catholic Mother Mary and a regional museum of the National Museum of the Philippines.
Zamboanga also has 11 islands in the east that are being pushed for development as a tourism product.
“The Eleven Islands could be our next attractions but we have to make sure they are developed sustainably,” Ms. Bugante said.
But the city’s biggest charm is its cultural heritage that tourists can soak in with a leisurely walk around town, starting at the City Hall that was built by the United States to house the American governors during World War I, including John J. Pershing who started the construction of Pasonanca Park in 1912.
A few minutes away from the City Hall is the Pettit Barracks — named after James S. Pettit, a US colonel who at one time was in charge of the city’s civil affairs — which has been declared by the National Historical Institute as a heritage zone not only for the structures but the more-than-a-century-old acacia trees that line the streets.
These trees stand witness not just to two world wars but the many other struggles, as well as the victories, of the city and the Chavacano people.