Mau rākau (Māori Weaponry)
The Maori art of weapon fighting, properly called mau rakau; the taiaha is one of its weapons. Both ends of the staff are used — the point thrusts, the flat blade strikes.
Quick Facts
New ZealandCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Mau rākau (Māori Weaponry)
About Mau rākau (Māori Weaponry)
The Maori art of weapon fighting is properly called mau rakau, literally "to bear the wood"; the taiaha is one of its weapons, not the name of the art. The taiaha is a two-handed wooden staff, usually one to two metres long, carved at one end into a point with a tongue and finished at the other in a flat blade. It is not a spear: both ends are used, the point thrusting while the flat end strikes and parries. Other weapons include the short hand club patu and mere, and the long tewhatewha or pouwhenua. Training rests on footwork and balance (rakanga waewae), on guards and weapon positions (whakatu rakau) and on strikes and parries (whakarite rakau). It was taught in schools called para whakawai, where battle formations and the warrior code were passed on alongside technique. The art declined during the twentieth century and its revival began in the 1980s: Pita Sharples founded Te Whare Tu Taua o Aotearoa at Hoani Waititi marae in Auckland, and Mita Mohi opened a para whakawai on Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua. The most visible surviving form is the wero, the ceremonial challenge issued during a formal welcome. Present-day practice is narrower than the pre-European one and sits firmly within a Maori cultural frame rather than a sporting one.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.