Teen boys’ school haka steals hearts of millions as footage goes viral

A school haka performance by a group of teenage boys has gone viral, gaining millions of views from across the world.

The performance inside the school gymnasium was posted by TikTok user @papa.and.pepe at the end of January, and has since inspired people from all over to learn about Māori culture.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Haka performed at school.

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“Back to kura for 2023,” the video’s caption reads.

The “beautiful” footage shows a large group of schoolboys all in a row passionately performing the haka, as the chants are heard echoing around the gymnasium.

The video takes place at a wharekura, a secondary immersion school which teaches Māori principles, uses Māori language and incorporates Māori customary practices into the way it operates, according to the online dictionary Te Aka.

The haka, as stated by Te Aka, is a “posture dance “ that features “vigorous dances with actions and rhythmically shouted words”.

There are various types of hakas, including haka pōhiri, a welcome dance performed for visitors; a pōtēteke, in which the performers recite their haka while upside down and the haka taparahi, a posture dance performed without weapons.

The video has since gained more than 55 million views, 6.9 million likes and 38,400 comments.

In the comments, TikTok users expressed how they were in complete awe of the young boys’ passion.

“Love to see the younger generations embracing their culture with so much love and proudness,” one person said.

“This is so beautiful,” another added.

“I get goosebumps every time I see videos of people doing the Haka dance,” a third piped in.

In another follow-up video which gained more than two million views, an all-female haka was posted to the account with the caption Wāhine Toa — meaning “warrior women”.