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Ngati Tuwharetoa Taipenga School Kapa Haka Festival
The kapa haka festival run by our local iwi is an event where school and early childhood groups come together to perform over three days. It is such a special event for the children to be involved in, enabling them to connect with their local iwi and community.
We practiced at the centre and loved to hear reports of children singing the waiata they were learning at home. As well as our daily practices at the centre, a couple of days before the festival we had a whanau evening where we invited families to bring their own fish and chips or other dinner to the centre. After eating, the children had a rehearsal performance in front of their families to practice singing in front of an audience.
On our performance day, there was lots of excitement as children dressed in their costumes ready for the bus ride to the event centre. What a wonderful job they did on stage, spreading out and singing all of our waiata, finishing with a favourite, E Rere Taku Poi, before waving to everyone who had come to see them. Ka pai, tamariki! We loved all the support from families, getting their children to the centre on time for the bus and coming to watch our performance.