On Friday 26 February Amo Leriko travelled from Auckland, where he is the Artistic Director for the company Polynesian Entertainers Ltd, to spend the day with our Pasifika students.

Amo brought with him his enthusiasm and knowledge along with five drums – four from the Island and a set of Bongos. He spent the first three hours taking 5 different students each period and teaching the parts of each drum, the roles each drum has to play within the group and for each group he taught them a different set of rhythms. The three groups then returned in period four to practice in front of each other. In period five the three groups performed to students from the Year 10 Music, Art and Pasifika classes.

It was a great experience for each student as they had to focus hard to remember each rhythm and the order they were played without any written reminders. For some of our Pasifika students this was the first time they had had the opportunity to play this type of drum. It is hoped that we will be able to have Amo back later in the year to teach a group of from the Pasifika class so they can add the drumming into their performances especially for next year’s Natural Pasifika Competition.