Ka Mate haka: the words and what they mean

The words of the Ka Mate haka mean “Will I die? Will I live?” and then “I live!”: by the account of his own iwi, they are what the chief Te Rauparaha said while hiding in a food-storage pit from a war party, and what he exclaimed when he came out into the sun. It opens with Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! ‘Will I die! Will I die! Will I live! Will I live!’ Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, says the haka is interpreted as a celebration of the triumph of life over death. Ka Mate was composed by Te Rauparaha, a chief of Ngāti Toa Rangatira, and New Zealand law, in the Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act 2014, records its words and that attribution. This guide gives the full words as the Act sets them out, a word-for-word translation of every line, the story behind them and where the accounts differ, how the All Blacks came to perform it, and how to treat it with respect.

Updated 17 October 2026 · 13 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

The words of Ka Mate

Ka Mate was composed by Te Rauparaha, a chief of Ngāti Toa Rangatira. The Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act 2014 requires this statement, clear and reasonably prominent, wherever Ka Mate is published commercially, communicated to the public or shown in a film. Ngāti Toa Rangatira are its kaitiaki, its guardians.

These are the words exactly as the Schedule of the Act prints them, in Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s own statement about the haka, with its line breaks and capitals:

Ka Mate! Ka Mate!
Ka Ora! Ka Ora!
Ka Mate! Ka Mate!
Ka Ora! Ka Ora!
Tenei te tangata
Puhuruhuru nana nei i tiki mai
Whakawhiti te ra!
Upane, ka Upane
Upane, ka Upane
Whiti te ra!

The statute marks no long vowels, so it prints Tenei, Puhuruhuru, nana and ra. New Zealand Rugby, which publishes the words on the All Blacks’ website, spells them with macrons, Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru ‘This is the hairy man’ and Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā ‘who fetched the sun and made it shine’, and that is the spelling Te Aka Māori Dictionary gives for each word. The words are the same; the macrons mark which vowels are said long, as the Māori pronunciation guide explains. New Zealand Rugby’s version also differs slightly at the end: Ā, upane! Ka upane! then Ā, upane, ka upane, whiti te rā!, with an extra ā and the last two lines run together.

Ka Mate line by line

The word-for-word column gives each word’s meaning from Te Aka Māori Dictionary. The last column sets Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s own reading, from their statement in the Act, beside New Zealand Rugby’s published translation.

Māori	Word for word	What it means
Ka mate! Ka mate!	ka (an event happens) + mate (be dead), twice	“Will I die!” (Ngāti Toa); “I die! I die!” (New Zealand Rugby)
Ka ora! Ka ora!	ka + ora (be alive, safe, well), twice	“or will I live!” (Ngāti Toa); “I live! I live!” (New Zealand Rugby)
Ka mate! Ka mate!	the same, repeated	Will I die!
Ka ora! Ka ora!	the same, repeated	I live! I live!
Tēnei te tangata	this, the person	The line runs on into the next.
Pūhuruhuru nāna nei i tiki mai	hairy; it was he or she who fetched, here, this way	Who fetched (the sun) here: see the readings below.
Whakawhiti te rā!	make shine, the sun	“and caused it to shine again!” (Ngāti Toa); “and makes it shine” (New Zealand Rugby)
Upane, ka upane	step, rank abreast; it steps	An ancient command to advance together (Ngāti Toa); “A step upward, another step upward!” (New Zealand Rugby)
Upane, ka upane	the same, repeated	The command again.
Whiti te rā!	shine, the sun	“into the sunlight” (Ngāti Toa); “the sun shines!” (New Zealand Rugby)

Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru: who is the hairy man?

Word for word, tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru is this, the hairy person: Te Aka glosses pūhuruhuru as hairy, covered with hair, and its own example is the Māori Bible’s “Esau my brother is a hairy man”. Who the line means is where the readings part. New Zealand Rugby translates it as “This man of men”. Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s statement in the Act translates the whole closing exclamation, from Ka ora! Ka ora! to whakawhiti te rā, as “I live! I live! For it was indeed the wondrous power of a woman (‘the Noa’) that fetched the sun and caused it to shine again!” In Ngāti Toa’s reading, then, the line honours the woman who sat over the pit, and New Zealand Rugby’s own account of the story says the same: that Ngāti Toa tradition holds the haka honours not just the chief Te Wharerangi but the spiritual strength of a noble woman, Te Rangikoaea.

The grammar fits that reading. Nāna, in Te Aka’s second sense, means he or she did, by him or her: the line says it was that one who fetched the sun. Māori marks no gender here, so nothing in the words decides between a man and a woman. Tiki is to fetch, go and get, and mai points the fetching towards the speaker. Whakawhiti has two unrelated senses in Te Aka, to cross over and to make shine; next to te rā ‘the sun’ it is the second.

Upane and whiti te rā: out into the sun

Te Aka gives upane as a step, and as a verb to be abreast, side by side, ranking evenly, with the example of a line of performers that is out of line. Ngāti Toa’s statement calls it “an ancient battle command meaning to advance or an order to advance en masse”, and says the composer is likening his climb out of the pit to the advance of an attacking party. New Zealand Rugby translates it as “a step upward”. The last words, whiti te rā, use whiti in Te Aka’s sense to shine (of sun); Ngāti Toa’s statement says the phrase means “into the sunlight” and describes his survival from capture and possible death.

What “ka mate, ka ora” really means

Neither half has a word for I, and neither has a tense. Te Aka describes ka as the particle that names an event as happening, adding that “no tense is implied so it may be past, present or future”. Mate is to be dead, killed, or sick, and ora is to be alive, well and safe. So Ka mate! Ka ora! can honestly be put into English as “death! life!”, as “I die! I live!”, or, as Ngāti Toa’s statement puts it, as a question: “Will I die! … or will I live!” The Māori leaves the listener in the pit with the man who does not yet know the answer.

In Ngāti Toa’s account he muttered “Ka Mate! Ka Mate!” under his breath when he could feel the power of the pursuers’ incantations, and “Ka Ora! Ka Ora!” when it weakened, repeating the lines many times as that power rose and fell. That is why the repetition is not padding: it is the man’s fear and relief taking turns. Tihema Baker, a writer of Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ends his account of the haka in NZ Geographic with the same question, “Will I die? Will I live?”, and says that for the descendants of Te Rauparaha the answer is as clear as daylight.

The story behind Ka Mate

This is the story as Ngāti Toa Rangatira tell it in their statement in the Act, which says it is well known within the iwi’s oral histories. It happened while Ngāti Toa were still based at Kāwhia, under pressure from Waikato iwi who wanted control of the harbour and coast, and Te Rauparaha was travelling to seek allies, among them Ngāti Tūwharetoa of the Lake Taupō region.

At Te Rapa, near Tokaanu, the Tūwharetoa paramount chief Te Heu Heu II Mananui told Te Rauparaha that a war party of Ngāti Te Aho was pursuing him, seeking revenge for an earlier incident, and sent him to his relative Te Wharerangi, whose pā stood on Motu-o Puhi, an island in Lake Rotoaira.
Te Wharerangi hid Te Rauparaha in a food-storage pit and told his wife, Te Rangikoaea, to sit at its entrance. That hid him physically and, more importantly, spiritually.
The war party’s tohunga ‘priest, expert’ chanted incantations to find him, but Te Rangikoaea’s presence, her noa, acted as a barrier and the incantations failed. Te Aka defines noa as being free from the extensions of tapu.
Te Rauparaha, feeling the power of the incantations, muttered the lines of fear and relief until the pursuers were convinced he had escaped towards Taranaki. Only then did he exclaim the closing lines, and climb out into the sun.

Te Rauparaha was born at Kāwhia, a descendant of Hoturoa, captain of the Tainui canoe, and died in 1849 at Ōtaki. The Act calls him “a man of great mana”: he instigated Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s migration from Kāwhia and their conquest and settlement of Kāpiti, Port Nicholson and Te Tau Ihu, and their revitalisation as an iwi.

Where the accounts differ

Like any oral history, the story has variations, as NZ Geographic notes, and the published accounts do not agree on every detail. None of the differences changes the meaning of the words.

Detail	Ngāti Toa’s statement (the Act)	Other published accounts
The pit	a taewa ‘potato’ pit	a kūmara ‘sweet potato’ pit (Te Ara, NZ Geographic, New Zealand Rugby)
Where Te Rangikoaea was	sitting at the entrance	sitting before the entrance (NZ Geographic); sitting or squatting above the pit (New Zealand Rugby, Te Ara)
Why the incantations failed	the noa of the woman acted as a barrier	the tapu of her genitals rendered the incantation noa, powerless (NZ Geographic)
The pursuers	a war party of Ngāti Te Aho	unnamed “pursuers” or “rival warriors” (Te Ara, New Zealand Rugby)
The island	Motu-o Puhi, in Lake Rotoaira	Motuopuhi, northwest of Mt Tongariro (NZ Geographic)
When	while Ngāti Toa were still based at Kāwhia	around 1820 (New Zealand Rugby, Te Ara); the early 1800s (NZ Geographic)
Te Rauparaha’s birth	the 1770s, at Kāwhia	probably the 1760s, at Kāwhia or Maungatautari (Dictionary of New Zealand Biography)
How new the words were	composed by Te Rauparaha	some say parts of Ka Mate, and of the chant before it, were existing chants he built on (NZ Geographic)

The opening chant: Kikiki kakaka

The Act’s Schedule prints a ten-line chant before the familiar words. Te Ara calls it a ngeri ‘short haka’, a chant with actions, composed by Te Rauparaha, which “forms the start” of Ka Mate and “is not often performed”; Te Ara links a recording of members of Ngāti Toa performing it. Te Aka defines a ngeri as a short haka with no set movements, usually performed without weapons. The Act’s text:

Kikiki kakaka kau ana!
Kei waniwania taku tara
Kei tarawahia, kei te rua i te kerokero!
He pounga rahui te uira ka rarapa;
Ketekete kau ana to peru koi riri
Mau au e koro e—Hi! Ha!
Ka wehi au a ka matakana,
Ko wai te tangata kia rere ure?
Tirohanga ngā rua rerarera
Ngā rua kuri kakamu i raro! Aha ha!

Te Ara’s printing differs in a few words (kauana, kairiri, Ka wehi au ka matakana, kakanui). Neither the Act nor Te Ara translates these lines, and this guide does not either: no translation from Ngāti Toa or another authoritative source was found, and a guess would not be good enough for a taonga.

Ka Mate and the All Blacks

Ka Mate reached the world through rugby. New Zealand Rugby records that it was performed by the New Zealand Native team on its 1888–89 tour and by the “Original” All Blacks in 1905, and that in 1987 Wayne Shelford and Hika Reid helped revive it in New Zealand, restoring its intensity and cultural integrity. Taku Parai of Ngāti Toa told NZ Geographic that “rugby was one of the first vehicles that carried te reo Māori to the world.” The cost, Tihema Baker wrote there, was that the words became household while their significance did not: to most people, Ka Mate was part of the All Blacks brand.

Since 2005 the All Blacks have had a second haka, written for them. Kapa o Pango ‘team in black’ was composed by Derek Lardelli of Ngāti Porou, developed over a year with the team, and first performed under captain Tana Umaga before a Tri Nations Test against South Africa at Carisbrook in Dunedin. New Zealand Rugby says it is performed at the team’s discretion, alongside Ka Mate. New Zealand Rugby’s other teams have their own: Ko Uhia Mai for the Black Ferns and Te Tīmatanga for the Māori All Blacks.

The Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act 2014

The Act came out of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement of Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s historical claims, whose deed was signed on 7 December 2012, and received the Royal assent on 22 April 2014. In it the Crown acknowledges Ka Mate as a taonga ‘treasure’ of Ngāti Toa Rangatira and an integral part of their history, culture and identity, and recognises that the iwi hold a right of attribution. That right covers the words and the actions and choreography, in whole or in part.

What it requires: a statement that Te Rauparaha was the composer of Ka Mate and a chief of Ngāti Toa Rangatira. It must be clear and reasonably prominent, and likely to bring his identity to the attention of a viewer or listener.
Where it applies: any publication of Ka Mate for commercial purposes, any communication of it to the public, and any film that includes it and is shown or issued to the public, including a performance or representation of the haka.
Where it does not: a performance of Ka Mate, including by a kapa haka group; use for educational purposes; criticism, review or reporting of current events; and non-commercial communication of a performance or a report.
How it is enforced: only by Ngāti Toa’s rights representative, Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, through a declaratory judgment from the court, with costs. The iwi can also waive the requirement in writing.

The Act grants attribution, not control. It does not require permission to use Ka Mate and gives no power to stop an offensive use: as Te Ariki Wi Neera of Ngāti Toa’s Ka Mate Haka Committee told NZ Geographic, “Attribution isn’t protection, though.” The law firm AJ Park cites the 2015 “Hakarena” campaign, a mash-up of the Macarena and Ka Mate performed by English rugby players, as one of the uses considered unauthorised and offensive. The Act required the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to review it after its fifth anniversary, to consider whether Ngāti Toa’s interests are sufficiently protected.

How to treat Ka Mate with respect

Ka Mate is often called a war dance, and the description fits it badly. Te Aka defines haka as a general term for several kinds of vigorous posture dance with rhythmically shouted words, and Te Ara, following Arapeta Awatere, lists five kinds, of which only the peruperu, performed with weapons when warriors meet the enemy, is “the true war dance”. Ka Mate’s words tell of a hunted man, a woman whose presence saved him, and the moment he stepped back into daylight; its one battle word, upane, is his image for climbing out of the pit.

Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s statement in the Act says that it is of great significance to the iwi that the haka is treated with respect, and that they seek to protect its mauri ‘life force’ from offensive and derogatory use. It names the values they uphold in its performance: ihi, the spiritual force, and wehi and wana, the emotions that come from understanding it and performing it correctly. Te Aka glosses them as power, awe and excitement. In practice:

Credit it. Name Te Rauparaha as its composer and a chief of Ngāti Toa Rangatira, as this page does, whether or not the Act strictly requires it.
Know what you are saying. The values Ngāti Toa name come from understanding the haka. Learning the story and the meaning of each line, above, is where that starts.
Do not mock it or use it to sell. Ngāti Toa’s statement names offensive and derogatory use as what the iwi guard the haka against, and NZ Geographic reports that a tea towel printed with the haka moved them to seek legal protection for it. Commercial publication without the attribution statement also breaches the Act.
Remember whose it is. In Māori thinking, the statement says, a composition is a taonga of the iwi of its composer rather than the property of one person. As NZ Geographic puts it, the mana to decide the haka’s future belongs to the descendants of Te Rauparaha and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. Taku Parai told the magazine the iwi had held hard discussions about whether to let it remain part of sports promotion or take it home, “to lead our departed ones off the marae, as only Toa can do.”

Going further

Ka Mate shares its compressed, metaphorical style with Māori proverbs, collected in whakataukī: Māori proverbs and what they mean, and the way a Māori speaker names the iwi they descend from is in how to introduce yourself with a pepeha. Every word in the main haka except upane is already in the course’s vocabulary, among them mate, ora, tēnei, tangata and rā. Our own free te reo Māori course teaches them, with the grammar of ka and nāna, one lesson a day.