s Taiopenga, the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Schools Kapa Haka Festival, commemorated its 40th anniversary during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2026, Local Democracy Reporting spoke with Te Ururoa Flavell, one of its original organisers.
Te Ururoa Flavell remembers how a dozen or so kapa (teams) gathered at the Tauhara College gym for the first Taiopenga in 1986.
“We started the first one in a very humble beginning in a small gym, not even a full-sized gym,” Flavell said.
“And no stage, just on the floor. It was all done in three hours maybe.”
He said the same teachers who announced each team entry were also responsible for bringing each kapa on and off the floor, then back into their classrooms.
The organising committee was made up of several te reo Māori teachers across town.
“We had an association, a very loose association,” he said. “But the idea came up that we would look towards having a festival.”
From there came the name of the event, Taiopenga Tūwharetoa, literally Tūwharetoa Festival.
A celebration instead of a competition
Flavell explained why he and his fellow teachers decided on starting a taiopenga (festival) instead of a whakataetae (competition).
“I think festival was a deliberate term because it talked about celebration rather than a competitive thing.”
Celebrating the revival of te reo Māori, while opening up the opportunity for all New Zealanders in the Taupō region to participate was important, he said.
This was because, Flavell said, race relations were different and kapa haka events were few and far between in the 1980s.
“At the time, Te Arawa, Mataatua and Tainui had their kapa haka competitions, and we would go over there,” he said.
“But there’s nothing else really that was happening.”
Te Matatini, the bi-annual national kapa haka tournament, started in 1972 but had yet to become the sold-out and televised event it is now.
And the National Primary and Secondary School tournaments wouldn’t begin until 2000.
Council contributions
Steve Giles, the Taupō District Council events and venues manager, has been involved with Taiopenga for the past 15 years.
His leads the team who work with the event organisers to make the event happen.
“Our support is [with] community rates through our facilities,” Giles said.
“That’s a 50% discount off the corporate rate to hire the facility.”
The council also assists with marketing and advertising Taiopenga as well.
His second involvement in Taiopenga is through his family.
“I’ve seen both my children progress to the Taiopenga with their school groups,” he said.
“I think for me, as a pākehā European, it’s events like Taiopenga that have brought te reo to the forefront.”
Community contributors
Frankie Taituma, a trustee of Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust, was with the Lake Taupō Charitable Trust when she was asked to assist with funding for Taiopenga.
“We were summoned by our ariki and kaumātua to go help our kura; to get in and secure them [sic] funding and stabilise the kaupapa,” Taituma said.
Funding now comes from a variety of local entities such as Kids Greening Taupō, First Union and Tūwharetoa entities such as Ngāti Tūwharetoa Mercury Development Group and the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Genesis Energy Committee.
It was during Taituma’s time that Taiopenga became a two-day event.
“We had to split it out to two days as it had 20 performances.”
At the 40th Taiopenga, some 72 kapa performed over four days at the Taupō Events Centre. Kapa from as far as Putāruru to the north, Manunui School to the south and Tarrangower Primary School to the west came to perform in Taupō.
Like Flavell, Taituma paid homage to the countless people who were involved in the cause over the years.
And they’re proud of how far Taiopenga has come since that day in a small Tauhara College gym.
