Entire school performs powerful haka for teacher's funeral

Students at a school in New Zealand have performed an emotional haka at the funeral service of a teacher who died last week.

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Students performing a haka for Dawson Tamatea's funeral service. (YouTube)

Raw emotion was on display as students at a New Zealand high school performed a Maori haka at the funeral of an admired and long-serving teacher.

Dawson Tamatea died last Monday at the age of 55 after working at Palmerston North Boys’ High school for almost 30 years.

The school's entire student body turned out to perform a haka as a hearse carrying Mr Dawson's body was driven onto the grounds.

Video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube by the school this week and has been viewed more than 900,000 times.

"We are extremely proud of our boys' performance and we know that Mr Tamatea would be too," the school wrote underneath the clip.

The video has generated hundreds of comments, with many praising the boys for honouring their teacher.

"Can instantly tell that Mr Tamatea was a great teacher," one wrote. "Such Respect from the students is demonstrative of that."

"An awesome tribute to your fallen teacher....a very inspirational Haka," wrote another.

Watch the full clip below:

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