A group of Japanese students showed a perfect display of "love and appreciation" for Māori culture when performing a haka during a school festival in Japan.
Posted to TikTok, @m_douga shared the clip of the group putting their all into the haka, alongside a caption that translates: “I went to my friend's school festival and suddenly the haka started.”
The group put their all into the performance, showcasing some strong stances and their best pukana.
But the most impressive of all was that they shared Māori culture in another part of the world, where many may have never seen such a haka, especially in person.
The culture has travelled and the execution was near perfect.
Commenters were impressed with the mana the fellas put in.
One user said: “They are definitely respecting and doing the culture justice ❤️”
Another wrote: “They certainly are committed to doing a good job. Ka pai kotou katoa.”
“NGĀ mihi ki a koutou mō tōu mana i roto i tōu Haka.. Mauri Ora,” wrote a third.
While a fourth added: “Amazing 🙏thank you for showing appreciation to our culture."
Others were impressed by the attention to detail.
“They're dropped low and elbows are high and strong. they did a great job! Beautiful,” one wrote.
Another added: “Meeean. They’ve got mean haka stances 👌”
“A+ Pronunciation,” said a third.
It’s awesome to see these guys embracing Māori culture with respect and passion. Just last month, a similar story went viral when a Brazilian man went viral for performing a massively moving haka at his sister's wedding.
Having returned from a uni exchange in NZ, nearly every video on @caiobcpc's TikTok account references customs, slang and even dances he learned about while here.
But the most impressive display of his Māori cultural knowledge is the haka he performed in front of his sister, her groom and the wedding crowd - a ritual foreign to everyone but him.
These two haka performances prove that culture can be shared and honoured all over the world - we sure appreciate it!
