‘Our sense of identity’: What New Zealand and Georgia have in common

Source: Radio New Zealand

Marika Khabazi is a video journalist with Georgian and Russian ancestry. She moved to New Zealand as a 16-year-old in 2008 to pursue a career in the Film and TV industry.

Her documentary explores the power and similarities of the Māori haka to Georgian traditional dance.

As an immigrant, the first time I saw haka being performed, I got goosebumps. It reminded me of the traditional dance of my own home, Georgia.

Haka is a universal language to all New Zealanders. Its synchronised movement has a rare ability to display both power and vulnerability at the same time.

The traditional Georgian dance evokes the same powerful feelings haka does.

How could two countries, different in so many ways, share a similar way of expressing emotion?

I travelled home to Georgia in search of the answers.

Georgian National Ensemble “Batumi” Choreographer Miranda Bagdadishvili told me Khorumi is a traditional Adjarian dance that reveres Georgian warriors.

“Georgia being a small country has always had to defend itself from invaders.”

“A lot of our dances carry that history, reflecting both the struggles and the victories of our past.”

Matiu Hamuera has been involved in Kapa haka from a young age. They credit the bilingual school system, and their Auntie Riria who raised them, for their exposure to something they grew to love.

I showed Matiu videos of the Khorumi dance and they saw many similarities.

“I can see the warriors in this, I can see the kind of marching as a war party, which are the formations we also use in Kapa haka.”

Matiu highlighted the ability to explore both masculine and feminine sides in both traditions.

“In modern times too, we are recognizing that there is also space for our people who don’t often subscribe to either of those two binaries.”

Geo Tughushi is a Georgian performing artist living in New Zealand.

In early childhood, he made a decision to follow his passion for dance instead of the wrong crowd.

“Dancing saved me because I was growing up kind of on the street, for mental health it helps you focus a lot.”

That resonated with Matiu Hamuera.

“There have been times in my life where I’ve been feeling so low and sometimes in the darkest place of my life and the things that have helped me get out of that is Kapa haka.”

My father, Guram Suleimanovich Khabazi, started dancing in the second grade and taught Georgian dance since the early 70’s. He still lives in the Adjara region where I was born.

“There’s an ensemble here in Adjara called Bermukha, and the dancers are 80, 85, 90, even 95 years old.”

“It’s like they’re saying, I am 98, but I can still dance, I’m still full of life.”

After traveling 16,000km across the globe it became clear to me traditional dance not only unites people in joy but gives us a sense of community and grounds us in our sense of identity.

“The dances show the weight of hard work, the challenges of war, and the calm that comes with peace”, said Miranda Bagdadishvili.

“In a way, Georgian dance tells the story of both the people and the country.”

“I feel like Kapa Haka for Aotearoa is what really grounds us in our sense of identity, not just for Māori, but for all of Aotearoa,” said Matiu Hamuera.

More than that though, cultural dance celebrates all of it: the struggles, the differences, the battles, the love and the sadness.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand