Nelson Airport passengers will be graced with kapa haka images to celebrate the country’s largest primary school kapa haka competition being held in the city.
Te Mana Kura Tahi took its stance on Monday at Trafalgar Centre and up to 10,000 visitors were expected to pass through the airport arrival gates for the event, which concludes on Friday.
The seven kapa haka images are hung near the departure and arrival gates and have been captured by Nelson-based photographer Melissa Banks.
Her images feature performances by local kapa haka groups and represent the seven kapa haka performance sections which include waiata tira [the introduction], whakaeke [the arrival], mōteatea [unison songs], waiata-ā-ringa [action songs], poi, haka, and whakawātea [the farewell].
Melissa says her airport photos are copies of her images which are displayed on Hardy St flags and at her Nelson Provincial Museum exhibition titled Te Ara O Hine Rēhia, which remains open until 12 November.
She says she was “really happy” with the opportunity to have her images take flight at Nelson Airport for visitors to feel “welcomed and acknowledged” when they arrived for Te Mana Kura Tahi.
“It means a lot, [the images are] six years’ worth of work, and kapa haka is so important to my whānau and all of the people that I’ve covered in the exhibition,” she says.
Nelson Airport communications manager, Beth Catley, says the airport was “really excited” for the display and the idea landed after the airport supported Melissa Banks’ museum exhibition.
“Melissa’s works are beautiful, and we’re a sponsor of her exhibition at the museum so it seemed a really natural fit for us to extend that partnership with her through a display in the terminal,” she says.
“I hope [visitors] love it and find it to be a very warm welcome and a recognition of their trip to the region, and just all of the work and effort that it takes to get to this point of arriving in another town to compete in a competition.”
The images were installed on 24 October and Beth says they will remain above ground until at least late November.
