Tini Glover (Tautini Moana Karawa, 802006) describes how Māori soldiers screamed when going into battle. From an interview with Megan Hutching.
But we were all frightened. I tell you what, I never heard a haka. Somebody asked me, 'Did you haka when you went into action?' I said, 'Not haka really.' But we screamed. We screamed like devils and I think that was our inheritance coming out. The old people. As soon as we went in and saw a German, we started yelling. It's a queer scream, a high scream. We screamed at the top of our voices. And some Germans got paralysed behind their guns. I've seen them, many a time, attacking and the joker behind the gun, with that scream, it put him off. He'd got his hands up. 'Ka mate, ka mate', we had no time for that; but that scream, it seemed to help us.
Tautini (Tini) Glover , Te Aitanga a Hauiti, born 1923, interviewed by Megan Hutching, 16 August 2003, for the Second World War oral history project - Italy
From the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library Oral History Centre, OHInt-0748-02. All rights reserved. Permission of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage must be obtained before any re-use of this sound file.
Image: Tautini Glover.