A new research grant to investigate the benefits of kapa haka on heart health – an area that has seen surprisingly little research – has been announced.
The grant, worth up to $300,000, from Pūtahi Manawa, a national Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) hosted by the University of Auckland, will support a Māori-led research project investigating how kapa haka contributes to cardiovascular health and wellbeing.
Pūtahi Manawa co-director Māori, professor Karen Brewer (Ngāi Te Rangi, Whakatōhea) told RNZ this grant is part of Te Korowai Pūtahi Manawa funding stream, which already has six projects up and running.
"So we're looking to fund a two-year project where the researchers work with a kapa, or maybe several kapa, follow them as they do their training and performances, and take some cardiovascular health measures along the way, things like blood pressure, blood sugar, that kind of thing, so that we can see the impact of the involvement in kapa haka on their heart health."
Māori have heart health problems earlier and are generally more severely affected, and research has shown that Māori receive less treatment for heart health conditions, she said.
"So there's a few things stacked against us in terms of environmental factors and social determinants and health and all of those things that make the wrong conditions for heart health in the first place, and then we've also got a health system that isn't dealing with it very well."
Brewer said they were "baffled" when they realised there was surprisingly little research on physical and physiological impacts of kapa haka, particularly in relation to heart health.
"There's a lot about Māori health that's under-researched and particularly things that are innate to te ao Māori. I think there's an element of snobbery here, I don't know if I can say that, or maybe a more academic way to say it would be a clash of paradigms.
"So we've got the health system, we've got the science research system, and these are very Pākehā systems, and they have their own tikanga and their own ways of doing things and their own ideas about what health research and health practices look like. And as yet, those systems have been very slow to expand to include Māori ways of being and doing."
Brewer said there is a lot of research on the wellbeing benefits of kapa haka, as well as a recent study on the exercise and heart health components of kapa haka by the Centre for Health in Tauranga.
It was only a small study, but it was enough to show that this topic is worthy of further investigation, she said.
Pūtahi Manawa Pou Tikanga Joe Pihema (Ngāti Whātua) told RNZ the grant is about taking something which is very visible in Māori culture and establishing some baseline data on its benefits.
"It's often been taken for granted that kapa haka is a source of well-being, of fitness and health for our different communities and we wanted to test that by finding out actually what are the cardiovascular health benefits that kapa haka offers our people and as far as we know there hasn't been any major research undertaken. So this particular grant here, he whakamātau i tērā whakaaro, he painga tō te ao kapa haka ki a tātou ki te tangata, ki o tātou nei manawa."
Pihema said it's plain to see that a kapa haka performance involves a lot of physical exertion, but it goes beyond one 25-minute performance on stage involving hundreds of hours of work to be performance ready.
"I've been in kapa haka for over 30 years, and it's my gut feeling that most kapa haka will give some type of benefit back to the heart health."
Pihema said people change their whole lifestyle for six months to prepare to stand on stage at competition.
"We're one of the highest ranking in the world for cardiovascular disease, and it's, I think, a timely announcement from Pūtahi Manawa that we're making available this research opportunity, because kapa haka is growing, and we want to see if it can affect the well-being of our people."
Applications for the grant close on August 18.
"It's helpful if you're a research group or a researcher that you have connections into te ao kapa haka that'll allow you to undertake this examination of kapa haka as they get ready for maybe a local competition or hopefully Matatini. The timing is perfect," Pihema said.
Brewer said in terms of the timing of the grant, there is an obvious link to Te Matatini, with the national event coming up in Hopuhopu in February 2027.
"We're really interested to know what the health effects are at that high-level competition, where it's really obviously physically demanding. But we're also interested in what happens at maybe your kaumātua rōpū at the local marae. We're not all going to be on the stage at Te Matatini, and we can't all do that really high-intensity stuff, but I expect that there's benefits to be had right across the spectrum."
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