Students perform haka dance at their teacher’s funeral

Hundreds of students from a New Zealand school honoured their late teacher with an “emotional and powerful” dance.

Dawson Tahana Tamatea was a teacher at Palmerston North Boy’s High School in the North Island who passed away in his sleep last week, reports the Manawatu Standard.

Staff and students performed a haka, a traditional Maori war dance, at his funeral. The dance was posted by the school on YouTube, where it already has been watched more than 500,000 times.

The footage begins with silence as their teacher’s hearse arrives onto the school ground.

It’s soon broken by the rhythmic chanting, stomping feet and beating chests, which are customary moves of the haka dance.

Following the fierce and powerful display, the students stand aside with their heads bowed as the hearse drives by.

The traditionally war dance is used to honour special guests at ceremonies, reported the Huffington Post.

According to the school’s Facebook page, the long-time teacher taught physical education and math. He worked at the school for the past 30 years and this year, he became the Dean of Maori Student Achievement.

“It’s not about a list of roles Dawson has had, it’s about people. And it’s about the impact he had on people and it’s about the way he treated people,” the school writes on their page describing Tamatea’s contribution.

“It was a real family atmosphere and that’s what Dawson was fantastic at,” David Bovey, the head of the school, told the Manawatu Standard.

“This was a very emotional and powerful performance,” the school wrote on YouTube. “We are extremely proud of our boys’ performance and we know Mr. Tamatea would be too.”