How to Use haka in a Sentence

haka

noun

• Over the past month, the haka has been at the heart of this intense rivalry.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• Other nations have since sought to greet the haka with their own response — or lack of one.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• For this tigress, the elder Singh urged a haka, an old-time beat.
  — Leslie E. Tassell, Outdoor Life, 27 Aug. 2026
• After the first few numbers, the group brought volunteers onto the stage to do a haka with them.
  — Naomi Tomky, Travel + Leisure, 15 Jan. 2025
• The haka can signal celebration or protest and convey a range of messages.
  — Ronnie Li, USA Today, 13 Oct. 2025
• Australia turned their backs to the haka in 1996 — and were beaten 43-6.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• Each battalion in the New Zealand Army has its own haka, with its own words that the soldiers hiss and bellow.
  — Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
• Performances such as the haka or songs in Parliament require prior approval.
  — Ronnie Li, USA Today, 13 Oct. 2025
• Footage of the haka posted on X showed the group performing in front of a portrait of Kirk, drawing applause from a crowd of hundreds.
  — Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 14 Sep. 2025
• Regardless, both incidents are part of a complex history of the haka’s place in professional sports.
  — Greg McKenna, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Aug. 2023
• The haka is loud and impressive, but while it is meant to intimidate, today's haka seems to have the opposite effect on the Americans.
  — Eliza Strickland, Discover Magazine, 23 Mar. 2010
• Men with traditional face tattoos, girls performing a haka before a rugby game and horses grazing in a pasture are all part of a complex, isolated world.
  — Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Apr. 2025
• When New Zealand soldiers are killed overseas, their units welcome home their caskets with a haka—the ceremonial Maori dance.
  — Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
• New Zealand declined — and carried out their haka in their changing room before delivering a 45-10 thrashing.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• The haka is a ceremonial Maori chanting dance of defiance that is a cherished cultural symbol of New Zealand.
  — Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 14 Sep. 2025
• The proposal made global headlines when a video went viral of the nation’s youngest legislator tearing the bill in two and leading a haka – a ceremonial Māori dance – in parliament.
  — Todd Symons, CNN Money, 10 Apr. 2025
• Performing the haka in Parliament is not uncommon, and it is typically seen when Māori members celebrate the passage of a particular bill.
  — Julia Zhong, NBC news, 5 June 2025
• On Queen Street in Auckland, a group of protesters performed a haka, the traditional Maori ceremonial dance.
  — Billy Perrigo, Time, 1 June 2020
• New Zealand national teams are known for performing a haka, a ceremonial Maori war challenge, before matches; its men’s rugby team has been doing so for over a century.
  — Rachel Pannett, Washington Post, 20 July 2023
• The Black Ferns were welcomed to the city at the airport by local New Zealand dance group Te Waka Ora, who performed a haka at their arrival.
  — Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 18 Apr. 2026
• All eyes were forward as the players participated in a traditional haka, a ceremonial dance used in many Polynesian cultures to prepare warriors for battle.
  — Matt Murschel, orlandosentinel.com, 12 Jan. 2022
• One of the film’s key sequences — in which Mārama performs a ferocious Māori dance called the haka — was Stappard’s idea, but grew much more impactful with the help of a traditional choreographer.
  — William Earl, Variety, 26 June 2026
• The Masters’ green jacket, the haka before New Zealand rugby matches, the seventh-inning stretch in baseball—these rituals are not just trimmings but the connective tissue of sport.
  — Rick Burton, Sportico.com, 6 Oct. 2025
• The haka is a ceremonial dance with roots in the Maori history of New Zealand, and the bellowing roars and powerful moves are traditionally used to display strength and unity.
  — Lindsay Kimble, PEOPLE.com, 31 July 2021
• In the Test series itself, South Africa have also gone out of their way to show the haka respect, despite their head coach Rassie Erasmus often seeking any chance to gain an edge on the opposition.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• Two years later, when coached by New Zealander Warren Gatland, Wales learned that a haka was not technically over until any side looked away — and so began a tense 80-second stare-off between the two sides.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• New Zealand, then known as the Gal Blacks, had been granted permission from Maori elders to perform the haka, the ceremonial war dance that features chanting, stamping and facial gestures such as pukana (bulging eyes) and whetero (sticking out the tongue).
  — Peter Carline, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2025
• Twelve years later, England arranged themselves in a V-shape which outflanked the haka, their fly-half Owen Farrell appearing to wink at the All Blacks’ display — and made it through to the World Cup final with a 19-7 triumph.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• Yet no such regulation governs the people in the stands at these matches — with Irish fans typically singing the folk song Fields of Athenry during the haka in response, while England supporters opt for their rugby anthem, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
  — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
• In 2024, Parliament was briefly suspended when Māori lawmakers performed a haka opposing the Treaty Principles Bill, which sought to reinterpret the 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Māori.
  — Ronnie Li, USA Today, 13 Oct. 2025