This Friday’s ‘Twilight Celebration’ Cultural Festival will be an evening full of music, food and cultural performances, two of which will feature students from Sancta Maria Primary School – a junior and a senior Kapa Haka group with a total of about 60 students performing.
Both groups have been practicing with their teacher Mrs Ruki since term 2, with sometimes 2 or 3 practices a week leading up to the Festival.
The senior Kapa Haka group will be performing 6 items at the Twilight Celebration, including a poi and a haka. This group has been very successful, and will be one of the performers at the Te Kotuku Cultural Festival, a high status festival involving primary schools from all over Auckland. They are led by Year 6 students Mateo, Henaka and Frank (top row), who have mostly been doing Kapa Haka since they were 5 years old.
The junior group, meanwhile, will be performing 4 items and involves about 40 students from Years 1-3. Year 3 and 2 students Toni, Keria and Simon (bottom row) lead them, and they have been part of Kapa Haka since they started school.
Both groups of leaders say they enjoy Kapa Haka and believe that it is very rewarding – many of them have learned and experienced new things like the Maori culture and language, all while performing dances allowing them to express and immerse themselves in Aotearoa’s roots. They all agreed that Kapa Haka is a good way to experience Maori culture and is a lot of fun despite it being hard to memorise the actions and chants.
Come along to the Twilight celebration at 4:30pm this Friday to see the Kapa Haka groups in action and witness the result of their hard work.
Alanna Santoso
