This year Katikati College and Te Puke High School combined to compete against other secondary schools for Pasifika By Nature which was held in Hamilton. Student Zoya Tikena reports.

Together as a family we shared laughter, joy and most importantly, trust and honesty.

Saturday 5th of May is a day to remember. It was blessed to be a part of an ethnic group participating and performing alongside different indigenous cultures, learning different ethnic dances and sharing the languages around in our prayers as we dedicated ourselves to our ancestors who stood here before us, as we carry on their legacy.

It was an honour to have shared the best award with Te Puke High School for Maori Culture. Thank you to Te Puke High School for recommending and sharing such a beautiful soulful and worship waiata with Katikati College; it was an amazing experience.

Thank you to all our year 13 Leaders,  Alisi, Atu, Milika, Lesli, Fotu and Owen and big thanks to our adults who took time out to make our costumes for this event and for helping out with disciplining us. Even though it was challenging, in the end it was worth it. We all had met new friends and shared our talent between each other. Thank you to the teachers Mrs Pekipaki and Whaea Helen who stood behind us and supported us with our practices and costumes. Thank you Mrs Cameron for coming in during your holiday to help sew our costumes. Thank you Mrs Murphy for always driving us. You’re the best! Thank you to the parents who supported us and to our tutor Kalisi Tu’uholoaki for teaching us our lakalaka and always giving us a good growling when we weren’t working hard enough. If not for you guys we would not have achieved what we did. Big thanks to our great God for bringing us all together and for allowing us to be blessed with such a memorable performance at Pasifika by Nature this year.