Tū Te Manawa Maurea entertained the masses at Pūtaringamotu today as the second of the four Tairāwhiti groups to compete at Te Matatini 2015. Tū Te Manawa Maurea was established in 2006, from the powerhouse of kapa haka that is Waihīrere Māori Culture Club. Based in Manutūkē, a small settlement out of Gisborne, Tū Te Manawa Maurea placed third equal at the Te Matatini held in Rotorua, their highest national placing to date. This year, the group is tutored by Teina Moetara, Christine Moetara and Lorraine Brown. Their kaupapa is to actively engage with their own place, space, history, reo, and relationships with people and environment. "Tū te Manawa Maurea aspires to use art to explore potential ways to be in the world after-all, we are artists. We descend from great innovators. Innovation means leading from out of the unknown. The unknown relies on our abilities to work with difference. The difference of others grows our own understanding of ourselves."

Te Matatini 2015. Every two years, Te Matatini organises the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival, where top kapa haka teams from New Zealand and Australia compete for the honour of being crowned the best of the best. The festival started in 1972 and is now the world’s largest celebration of Māori traditional performing arts, attracting over 30,000 performers, supporters and visitors. The competition is held over four days with 45 teams split into three pools, Te Ihu, Te Haumi and Te Kei. The three teams with the highest combined marks from each pool will compete in the competition finals. The nine finalists are then judged afresh to determine the new Toa Whakaihuwaka - overall agreggate winner. Kapa haka teams are required to perform six disciplines within their performance piece - whakaeke (a choreographed entry), mōteatea (traditional chant), poi (light ball swung on the end of a rope), waiata-ā-ringa (action song), haka and whakawātea (exit). They must perfect every discipline in a polished 30 minute performance.