By Paige Clark

At Clearview Primary our senior kapa haka group is made up of students from years 4-8. There are approximately 60 students that take part in this each week. Our main performance for the year was attending the Christchurch Primary School’s Cultural Festival held at Horncastle Arena in Term 3.

Matua Anton is our leader and he has a great sense of humour. He likes to do some serious work and then include some fun games to give us a break. Matua Anton also tutors a few other school groups around Selwyn and the wider Christchurch area. As a group, we come together on Thursdays at 12.00 and keep rehearsing until 12.50 and then we eat kai together.

This year we were fortunate enough to successfully receive a grant that allowed our group to get new uniforms. Mrs. Davidson worked really hard to get the grant accepted and helped organise the new design with the chosen company. The girls had long dresses in black with the Clearview eye at the centre. New headbands complemented the outfit. The boys had their wrap-around skirts with a sash.

Each year, we learn new routines, te Reo Māori and about important values. This year the Cultural Festival guiding whakatauki was “Ko te amorangi ki mua” which means the leader at the front and the workers behind the scenes. This was significant because we all wanted to acknowledge the hard work that goes into every performance both in front and behind the scenes. We performed on Wednesday 11 September as part of the evening show and there were some really awesome routines from many other schools from the Christchurch area.

In Term 4, the junior kapa haka group joined us for a few sessions. We taught them our routines and they followed along. We will come together and perform again for the Years 4-7 prize giving on the last week of term. If you get the opportunity to be involved in this fantastic group - definitely give it ago! Tino pai tō mahi!