Rob Ruha’s “Bullet Points of Brilliance” in Kapa Haka and Modern Waiata

Art by Keelin Bell

Two months ago, kapa haka group Te Taumata-ō-Apanui stepped onto the Matatini regionals stage, the late summer sun beating down on their faces and raucous cheering from the audience. The crowd gathered before the stage seemed almost frantic in their excitement, screaming at the call of the pūkaea and the swish of their piupiu.  

Hidden within the uniform lines and movements of his group, Rob Ruha reveled in the team's success with the crowd after months of coaching and choreographing them. But he knew better than anyone there that his success as a rising R&B musician had nothing to do with the crowd’s excitement. After abandoning the kapa haka stage in 2013 to build his career, Ruha was practically a stranger to the stage that had shaped him for most of his life.  

But on that stage and on that day, Ruha made it clear to the crowd and himself that kapa haka is the “backbone” of his career, and “the mothership of Māori Music” as a whole. 

His earliest introduction to music was through kapa haka performances he would copy with childish stumbles. These early performances were a “staple musical diet” for his future inspiration. They were what caused him to fall in love with music and pursue it into his teenage and adult years.  

In 2021, Ruha released his hit single, 35, and the song was quick to trend on Aotearoa TikTok and beyond. But now, Ruha has nurtured that childhood love of kapa haka into a lifelong passion and successful career. When Massive asks what inspires his music-making process today, Ruha credits his muse as the music itself. 

“There is a waiata for everything and when you hear a good one, it is powerful. I love the way it makes you feel, think, and behave.” 

“Music can change the world in every definition of the sense and that power inspires me.” 

Throughout the years Ruha has tried to maintain a strong connection to his roots in early kapa haka. “The way we tell stories and write bullet points of brilliance is magnetic and electric. It is also unique to us as Māori in a greater sense, and the brand of Tairāwhiti songwriting that I was raised in through haka is life-affirming”. 

Like many modern kapa haka performers, Ruha later found a way to seamlessly integrate popular beats with the traditional rhythms and movements of kapa haka. For him, doing so brings together the best of both his worlds and allows him to find the most satisfaction when coaching his team through late night practices. When I ask if doing so was difficult, Ruha states that “just a feeling in your puku is enough to crack it”. 

Ruha has approached his long-awaited return to the competitive kapa haka stage as an opportunity to test musical ideas in a setting that can be a “highly critical kaupapa to be a part of”. With Ruha’s take on the critique of kapa haka being that you are often damned if you do and damned if you don’t, he says he goes for what feels right for him. And in his pursuit of what feels right, kapa haka gives him ample inspiration by surrounding him with “oranga and goodness”.  

While Ruha loves jamming R&B in the studio, he prefers the tight-knit community and culture offered through the sweat and tears of traditional kapa haka.  

“There is just something else about performing on a haka stage that is thrilling and deeply powerful. You are connected physically and spiritually to an ancient practice that stretches back to the beginning of all things”. 

Translations

Pūkaea: Long wooden trumpet with a bell-shaped end 

Piupiu: Skirt like garment made of flax strands hanging from the belt 

Oranga: Life, welfare 

Kaupapa: Strategy, policy, or cause