Home and Away spoilers for UK viewers ahead
Tane and Nikau Parata performers Ethan Browne and Kawakawa Fox-Reo have spoken about the introduction of a Taiaha in their latest scenes.
UK fans won't have seen them just yet – they're arriving in March – but the soap's Australian following recently witnessed Tane taking his nephew Nikau on a camping trip to cheer him up in light of Ari's incarceration.
Here, the aforementioned long-handled weapon derived from Māori culture made an appearance.
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"I obviously knew what it was because I'm Māori, but I never really did Taiaha itself," Browne revealed to Stuff.
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"We did a little bit of Mau rakau (weapon-based Māori martial arts) at high school, so when the storyline came up, I had to reach out to a few friends and they helped me out."
In terms of the Home and Away decision makers, apparently, "they're all for it" when it comes to incorporating Māori material.
"They encourage any sort of cultural ideas we have. We sort of pitch it and they'll be like, 'Oh, yeah, that'll work there'. There's more coming up and we will keep it alive," the Tane actor noted.
"It's something really important to me and it just feels like I'm helping spread awareness about our culture which feels really nice."
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Fox-Reo, meanwhile, went on to voice his pride in the Māori heritage, although there's still a great deal of learning to be done.
"That's who I am and that's something I'm really proud of but I'm definitely guilty of not maintaining a certain standard that I know I'm capable of, in terms of the language and the tikanga [customary behaviours].
"I grew up spending a lot of time at the marae [a sacred place], and I'm always open to learning more, but there's never going to be a point where I'm going to be all knowing," he shared.
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.15pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR (UK), with first look screenings at 6.30pm on 5STAR. Selected classic episodes are available via Amazon Prime Video in the UK.
