Mika Haka Kids coming to Maori TV
24.09.08
Taupuhi Toki started out break dancing on a piece of lino on an Auckland street corner. Yet behind the cool B-Boy moves was a 15-year-old trying to care for his little sis and very sick mum.
"Mum's on dialysis. I didn't know my father. So I've basically been the man of the family. I try my hardest. I love my Mum."
Taupuhi Toki is just one of a group of young New Zealanders who rose above their circumstance and dared to dream.
They are the Mika Haka Kids, plucked from the bush and shopping malls, who stormed their way on to world stages, stunning international critics.
"It was a dream for me to travel but I always worried. I'd ring home all the time and tell my little sister that I'll be back soon. Just take care of Mum," says Taupuhi.
This edgy documentary for Maori Television follows the seven year journey of kids who were discovered and dragged through Mika Haka boot camp.
"Some kids couldn't walk left right let alone dance. Their language was foul. They had the attention deficit of an ant," says show creator Mika.
But they got healthy.
They got paid.
They've got a story to tell.
"If we were in the military we would be all sleeping in little beds all in a line, all wearing the same clothes you know really, it kind of got to that point but that's why we are the way we are now," says dancer Kasina Campbell.
Renee Winter was 16 and Papatoetoe was her universe when she signed up and woke up to her potential.
"We did gym training; muscle training, tai chi, yoga. Who the hell in South Auckland does yoga? We even had to mop the floors old style on our hands and knees. No-one sat down. You never sat down," says Renee.
This story is told through the fresh honesty of four rookies - Taupuhi Toki, Kasina Campbell, Mokoera Te Amo, Renee Winter - the coach, Mark James Hamilton and The Boss, Mika.
It includes on-the-road footage, captured by the kids themselves, through to their debut at the world's largest festival, Edinburgh.
"Some of them didn't even know where Scotland was until they were on the plane looking at a map," says Mark James Hamilton.
But Mika Haka Kids also reveals the reality of stepping outside the box, the price of giving Maori culture a modern tribal twist and the chasm between international acclaim and hate mail at home.
FOUR FRESH KIDS ... AND A MAORI DIVA
8.30pm October 1st, Maori Television Service
