Savagery.

At Intermediate when I did kapahaka (not my choice, but more because I was one of two maoris in my class and was expected to do it), the tutor told the group that back in the old days the Maori stood on the shores and acted ferocious to the shiploads of Europeans who came to colonize. It was meant to intimidate.

If I was the one approaching on the boat, and a part of me was because my great-great-great-great-grandfather was a whaler from the UK, all I'd be thinking is, what in the bloody hell are those people doing?

The savage parts of the Matatini competition tonight got me thinking. One barbaric act, in particular, reminded me of the episode from Dora the Explorer where Boots, the monkey, was trying to warn her from afar of a vulture overhead that was eyeing a chinchilla in her backpack.

The pukana is not an art.
It's an unyielding spectacle.