A haka like no other awaits Mya in Rotorua

Saturday afternoon's NRL All Stars clash won't be the first time Mya Hill-Moana has led a pre-match haka, but the jersey she will be wearing and the location of the game mean it will be by far the most special.

A proud descendant of Waikato and Tainui, who like several of her fellow Māori All Stars hails from Huntly, 130 kilometres up the road from Rotorua, the clash against the Indigenous is effectively a home game for Hill-Moana.

Because of that, before a whistle is even blown or a ball kicked in anger, the 20-year-old Roosters prop will have to confront one of the more nerve-racking experiences of her young career when she leads her side's haka in the first ever NRL Harvey Norman All Stars match to be played in New Zealand. 

"There is pressure because you are the first voice and you don’t want to muck it up," Hill-Moana told pan66.com. 

Doing it on home soil, everyone is watching you, all your whānau, you get really, really nervous because you don’t want to disappoint them.

Mya Hill-Moana

"But through this I get to represent my culture and my whānau and everyone who has connections to Waikato and Tainui."

A fluent Te Reo Māori speaker who was educated at full immersion school Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga, Hill-Moana, who will earn her third All Stars appearance in Rotorua, has quickly become a leader in the Māori squad despite being one of the youngest players.  

That has included taking on a role which has included helping her teammates, some of whom have spent their entire lives in Australia, learn the language and cultural customs. 

"In my first year in 2021 I helped a lot of the girls with the pronunciation, their pepeha (personal introduction) and to learn some tikanga (Māori customary practices)," she said.  

"I think it is really, really cool and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of that for them and I really liked doing it.

"At training the first thing we do is our pepeha, and the goal is to do it without reading the piece of paper. Most of the girls can do that now, stand up confidently and say who they are, where they are from, in Māori."

On Saturday, Hill-Moana will be one of just four players in the 2023 Māori squad who remain from last year's side which lost 18-8 at CommBank Stadium in Sydney.