Participants in Saturday's National Kapa Haka Festival in Canberra gave a Powhiri, a traditional Maori welcome, on Friday as a sign of things to come.
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The Powhiri was organised by Canberra's Tumanako Māori Cultural Group and the ACT was one of the states and territories from which the six competing groups featuring a total of 350 people came. Other groups travelled from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, said Isaac Cotter, the chairman of Maori Performing Arts Australia.
Mr Cotter, a Queanbeyan resident who was born in New Zealand and who came to Australia in 1975, said the National Kapa Haka Festival was a celebration of Māori performing arts with the groups competing in seven categories including tribal chant, poi dance, haka and action song.
The winner will be crowned Kapa Haka champion and win the right to compete at Te Matatini - the New Zealand Kapa Haka championships in Wellington in 2019.
The festival has been held every two years since the first one in Sydney in 2006.
"This is the third time it's been in Canberra," Mr Cotter said.
The national capital previously hosted it in 2010 and 2012.
The seventh Australian National Kapa Haka Festival is on at the Budawang Building, Exhibition Park in Canberra, Flemington Road, Mitchell on Saturday, March 10 from 8.30am to 4pm. $20 adults, $10 children, free for children under five, $50 for a family of four (two adults, two children).
