Hoani Waititi Marae was the birth place of Te Rōpū Manutaki, a haka group that was formed by Dr Pita Sharples in 1968 as the founding tutor and leader. Now they have found a new lease of life under the tutelage of long-serving performer, Te Hira Paenga. Te Rōpū Manutaki are now in their fourth generation of performers, where the world and the language has changed, so their style of performance has changed too. Paenga told Te Kāea, "We've been active for 47 years. The children in the group at the time of its inception now have children themselves. We're now into our fourth generation of performers and the world and the language has changed, so performance has changed too."

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.