Kapa o Pango meaning: the haka line by line

The Kapa o Pango meaning starts with its name: kapa ‘team, rank’ is a team or a rank, o ‘of’ is of and pango ‘black’ is black, so the All Blacks’ second haka names them “team in black”, the translation New Zealand Rugby gives. It was composed for the team by Derek Lardelli of Ngāti Porou and first performed in Dunedin on 27 August 2005, before a Test against South Africa. Its words, in New Zealand Rugby’s description, draw on the land of Aotearoa, the silver fern and the unity of those who wear the black jersey: the players declare that the land rumbles, that the team in black rumbles with it, and end on the silver fern and a last breath. Below is what each line means, word by word, with the published translations; who wrote it and why; what the gesture at the end is meant to show; and how it differs from Ka Mate.

Updated 24 October 2026 · 9 min read

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Kapa o Pango was composed by Derek Lardelli of Ngāti Porou for the All Blacks. It is a modern composition, so this page does not reprint its words; it quotes a few at a time to explain them. The full text, in Māori and in English, is on New Zealand Rugby’s Kapa o Pango page.

What the name Kapa o Pango means

Te Aka Māori Dictionary gives kapa two senses that both fit: a team, group or company of people, and a rank, row or line. The second is the one in kapa haka, people standing in rows to perform. Pango is black or dark in colour, and o means of. So Kapa o Pango ‘team in black’ is literally team of black or rank of black, and New Zealand Rugby translates it as “team in black”. The o is the same little word that runs through Māori possession, explained in Māori possessives: a and o.

How to say it: ka-pa o pa-ngo, each syllable ending in its vowel. Te Aka spells all three words without macrons, so every vowel is short. The ng in pango is one sound, as in singer, never as in finger, and the o is a short, pure vowel, not the ow of English go. The Māori pronunciation guide walks through every sound.

Kapa o Pango line by line

The table follows the haka from the leader’s call to the final breath. The middle column is what Te Aka Māori Dictionary says the key words mean. The last column summarises the English the New Zealand Herald printed beside each line in August 2005, the one published translation that pairs its English with the Māori line by line. Repeated lines are not listed twice, and the shouted calls between lines (hī, auē, hā) are discussed after the table. The sources print the words without macrons; here they are spelt as Te Aka spells them.

Words	Te Aka’s meanings	What the Herald’s 2005 translation says
Taringa whakarongo … kia rite … kia mau	taringa, ear; whakarongo, to listen, hear, obey; rite, to be ready, prepared; mau, made fast, held	Not in the Herald’s text. New Zealand Rugby’s Māori text opens with these calls of the leader, readying the team (listening ears, be ready, hold firm), and its English does not translate them.
kia whakawhenua au i ahau	whakawhenua, to hold fast, to define land, to set (of the sun and stars); it contains whenua ‘land’. Au and ahau, I, me	The speaker asks to become one with the land.
Ko Aotearoa e ngunguru nei	Aotearoa, the North Island, now used for New Zealand; ngunguru, to make a continued dull sound, growl, rumble; e … nei marks something going on now	It is our land that “rumbles”.
Ko Kapa o Pango e ngunguru nei	the same line, with the team in black in place of the land	This is what defines the team as the All Blacks.
Ka tū te ihiihi	tū, to stand, take place; ihiihi, thrill, excitement, passion, or to shudder with fear	The team’s dominance.
Ka tū te wanawana	wanawana, fear, thrill, quivering; something fearsome, formidable, awesome	Its supremacy will triumph.
ki runga ki te rangi … tū iho nei	runga, the top, above; rangi, sky; iho, downwards, towards the speaker	It will be raised up high.
Ponga rā	ponga, the silver tree fern, Cyathea dealbata, whose fronds are silver-white beneath	The silver fern.
Kapa o Pango, auē hī	team in black, with a call	The All Blacks.
Hā	hā, breath, essence, breathing	Not translated by the Herald. Lardelli calls it the breath of life: see the gesture, below.

The calls between the lines

After the land rumbles and after the team rumbles, the performers shout short calls built from hī, au, auē and hā. They carry no dictionary sentence, but both published translations give them a meaning: each time, “it’s my time, it’s my moment”. New Zealand Rugby’s English adds a third line to each, “the passion ignites” after the land and “the anticipation explodes” after the team.

Two published translations

New Zealand Rugby’s current page prints the English as a separate poem rather than line by line, and it says more than the Herald’s version. It opens with a return to a first gasp of breath and a life force going back to the earth, which reads as its rendering of the whakawhenua line; it has New Zealand “thunders” where the Herald has the land “rumbles”; and around ihiihi and wanawana it speaks of feeling the power, dominance rising and supremacy emerging, to be placed on high. Both end on “Silver fern! All Blacks!”

Detail	NZ Herald, 29 August 2005	New Zealand Rugby, allblacks.com (2026)
The opening	begins at the whakawhenua line, with “Kapa o Pango” in front of it	begins with the leader’s call (taringa whakarongo and kia rite)
The sky line	ki runga ki te rangi	ki runga i te rangi
Spelling	ihiihi, as Te Aka spells it	ihi-ihi, hyphenated
The English	set line by line beside the Māori	a separate, fuller poem, with lines that have no single Māori counterpart

Who wrote Kapa o Pango, and why

Derek Lardelli, of Ngāti Porou, composed it; New Zealand Rugby calls him a leading authority in tikanga Māori and says the haka was developed over a year in close collaboration with the team. Lardelli told the New Zealand Herald that the request came from the captain, Tana Umaga, and senior players, who wanted something that better represented them: a haka “that said who they were, where they are from”, and a legacy for future All Blacks. He said it kept traditional Māori actions and words and drew actions from a number of traditional haka.

It was first performed under Umaga before a Tri Nations Test against South Africa at Carisbrook in Dunedin, which the All Blacks won 31–27. Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, ends its short history of the All Blacks’ haka with that performance. The Springbok captain, John Smit, told the Herald that to stand and watch it for the first time “was a privilege”.

On what it is about, the sources agree. Pita Sharples, the haka expert, said the players “talked of the black jersey and the silver fern, their relationship with the land”. Bryan Williams, the former All Black wing who coached Manu Samoa, welcomed its Polynesian influences. New Zealand Rugby calls it ceremonial in nature rather than a challenge: about inner strength, personal responsibility and stepping forward in the black jersey, “a declaration of identity, a connection to whakapapa”. Lardelli put it in his own words: haka is about harnessing the physical and mental power within yourself and building unity, and “if it affects your opposition, then that is their choice.”

The gesture at the end of Kapa o Pango

Kapa o Pango ends with a movement that television viewers saw as a throat-slitting gesture. Mick Cleary wrote in The Daily Telegraph that it was “unmistakeably provocative” and that “Carisbrook is a rugby field not a back-street alley.” Lardelli has explained it twice in published sources, in different terms:

August 2005. To the New Zealand Herald he said it stood for the intensity of rugby at that level, “the cutting edge of sport”, and the consequences of defeat, not the slaughter of opponents: the players “are on the knife edge”.
July 2006. After a review, TVNZ reported his fuller account. The haka ends with hā, which he translated as the breath of life, and “the words and motions represent drawing vital energy into the heart and lungs.” The right arm searches for the hā on the left side of the body while the head turns right, also seeking it; the right hand hauls the energy into what he called the “pou-whakaora”, the heart, lungs and air passages; the eyes and tongue signal that it has been harnessed; and it is expelled with the final “Ha”.

The review came after public objections. In June 2006 the New Zealand Rugby Union asked the team not to perform Kapa o Pango while it consulted Māori and the players about whether the ending should change, Radio New Zealand reported. By July the review, which consulted kaumātua, the team and Lardelli and commissioned a Colmar Brunton poll, had concluded that the gesture means something very different within Māori culture and the tradition of haka, and called for education rather than change. In the poll 46% of New Zealanders wanted the ending left as it was, 37% wanted it removed and 17% did not know. The haka was performed before the Tri Nations Test against Australia in Christchurch on 8 July 2006, and when the Wallabies’ coach, John Connolly, criticised the gesture, the All Blacks’ coach, Graham Henry, replied that “the actions in the haka are traditional Maori actions” and that what an outsider reads into them may be quite different from what they mean.

Kapa o Pango vs Ka Mate

The All Blacks perform two haka, and they are very different texts. Ka Mate, composed by Te Rauparaha, has its own guide with the words line by line; this table sets the two side by side.

	Ka Mate	Kapa o Pango
Composer	Te Rauparaha, a chief of Ngāti Toa Rangatira	Derek Lardelli, of Ngāti Porou
When	around 1820 (New Zealand Rugby, Te Ara)	2005, over about a year
Written for	not for rugby: by Ngāti Toa’s account, Te Rauparaha’s words on escaping a war party	the All Blacks, at the request of their captain and senior players
What it is about	a man between death and life, and climbing back into the sun	the land, the team in black, the silver fern, and the breath of life
First performed in rugby	by the touring Natives team, in 1888 (Te Ara)	27 August 2005, at Carisbrook, against South Africa
Length, as New Zealand Rugby prints it	6 lines	18 lines, from the leader’s call to the final hā
In law	the Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act 2014 requires its composer to be credited in commercial use	not covered: the 2014 Act is about Ka Mate alone

When do the All Blacks perform Kapa o Pango?

There is no fixed rule. New Zealand Rugby says Kapa o Pango is performed at the team’s discretion, alongside Ka Mate, and Lardelli said in 2005 that it was composed as an alternative to Ka Mate, not a replacement. In 2006 Radio New Zealand described it as performed only before special Test matches. The captain then, Richie McCaw, put the choice in the team’s hands: “The haka is about where we come from as New Zealanders and it’s about what feels right for us. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against.” The 2006 poll found that 60% of New Zealanders thought either haka appropriate before a Test, and 25% only Ka Mate.

In 2005 some speculated that the new haka was a response to claims over Ka Mate. Ngāti Toa’s chairman at the time, Robert Solomon, dismissed that in the Herald: the All Blacks had used the iwi’s haka since he was a boy, and if they performed a new one, that was their choice. “The new haka contributed to the game. It was brilliant.”

The game itself in te reo, from whutupōro to a try, is in rugby in Māori.

Going further

Kapa o Pango is one of four haka New Zealand Rugby lists for its teams, with Ka Mate for the All Blacks, Ko Uhia Mai for the Black Ferns and Te Tīmatanga for the Māori All Blacks. Other haka have guides of their own, among them Tika Tonu, and the way names like Kapa o Pango are put together for teams, groups and businesses is in Māori team names. Most of the words above, from kapa and pango to ngunguru, ponga and ihiihi, are in our own free te reo Māori course, which teaches the grammar around them one lesson a day.