On Friday 1 July I went to Rehua Marae for the Rangatahi Peace Symposium with some girls from my school Stella, Anahera and Billie.

Schools from all over the South Island attended this event. It started with a pōwhiri to be welcomed onto the marae.

There were lots of speakers, musicians and dancers who came and told us their life stories. People like John Minto who led the Springbok tour protests. I found this very interesting to listen to their journeys, what they enjoy and how they overcame their challenges. They really inspired me about how to be yourself and overcome challenges like they did.

We also got split into groups with different schools and got to meet new people. We got to eat hāngi all together which I really liked. Also, we played the game pukana outside together which was super fun and funny and we got to step outside of our comfort zone.

My favourite person to listen to was Henare Kaa who is a musician. I found his story very interesting and at the end, we got to sing a song with him altogether which was fun.

Overall it was a really fun experience and I really enjoyed listening to the speakers, meeting new people and especially eating the kai. There was a lot of manaakitanga and rangatiratanga shown at this event.

I would like to thank Whaea Adrienne for taking care of us for the day and transporting us there and back and Tracey, the facilitator of the event for making this all possible and inviting us”