The Haka - Ka mate

Ka mate, ka mate! ka ora! ka ora! Ka mate! ka mate! ka ora! ka ora! Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru Nāna nei I tiki mai whakawhiti te rā Ā, upane! ka upane! Ā, upane, ka upane, whiti te ra! 'Tis death! 'tis death! (or: I may die) 'Tis life! 'tis life! (or: I may live) 'Tis death! 'tis death! 'Tis life! 'tis life! This is the hairy man Who summons the sun and makes it shine A step upward, another step upward! A step upward, another... the Sun shines! The man who led New Zealand troops in the first Anzac Day service in 1916 was also one whose fighting style against the Turkish soldiers had a uniquely Kiwi hallmark. To the end, Captain Pirimi Tahiwi - at various points, a schoolteacher, Maori All Black, and musician, known as Uncle Prim to Rupene Waaka, one of his living descendants, and his whanau - remained a military man. Pirimi Tahiti, in a photo showing officers of the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion in 1919.  "He walked as an officer, and relayed himself as a gentleman, with not a hair or a crease out of place, and he held himself with a ramrod-straight back - he walked round like an officer, which he was." "My grandfather was his youngest brother. We called him grand uncle." Pirimi had served with the Territorial Force as a private, and at the outbreak of war, signed up with the Maori Contingent of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, where, as a schoolteacher, he was promoted to officer. "Our Pakeha boys landed on the 25th of April. About a week or two afterwards, we landed. I suppose they wondered who on earth all these savages were," Pirimi said. He was one of those commanding 70 soldiers ordered to attack and clear an enemy trench in the battle for Sari Bair, in August 1915, whose request for extra reinforcements was denied. Undeterred, they drew on everything they had. "We didn't want to go back, so we went ahead on our own. We thought a good way to try and frighten the enemy as well as to repeat this Maori haka, 'Ka Mate Ka Mate'." Rupene is understandably proud of his uncle. "It'd be a bit whakahihi - a bit blowing one's own trumpet - if we said that Uncle Prim led the haka: he was in there, and that's what officers got to do - blow the whistle, charge. "It was echoed through the trenches and before they set off, 'Ka Mate, Ka Mate'." In the darkness, they couldn't see the other men, but the haka did the trick for Pirimi and his men. "They may have put the fear of God into them, we didn't have to put any bayonet through any of them at all - I mean, I suppose the haka was enough for them." After the attack, they were ordered to the beach, for a smoko and to have a break, but the success of the victory was short-lived. "When Uncle was seriously wounded on Gallipoli, he took a drink from his water bottle, and a sniper got him. Just missed his jugular," Rupene remembers. Captain Tahiwi narrowly escaped a more serious injury: "The Turkish bullet shot me in right through the neck, went right down the spine paralysing the whole of my right side." "Doctor Buck was alongside me. He put his finger right through the hole, and I can still remember him saying, 'You're all right Prim, don't worry, you're all right.'" While convalescing in England, Captain Tahiwi led New Zealand troops at the first Anzac Day service in 1916, and returned to Gallipoli for the 50th commemorations. He took a pounamu mere with him, laid it on the memorial at Chunuk Bair, and quietly gave a karakia. For his whanau, Captain Tahiwi's service and actions are a source of great pride. "It's outstanding because their first language was Te Reo Maori - they were brought up in a totally Maori environment, but at the same time, they were educated. He didn't walk away from his culture." reference-https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/271343/'the-haka-did-the-trick'