Our Year 10 English classes are currently working on a speaking and performance unit, ‘Mana Wahine’ (strong women). This involves Speech, Spoken Word and Poetry Out Loud.

On June 17th they were lucky to be a part of a Spoken Word poetry performance, ‘How We Survive’, by two writers and performers, Carrie Rudzinski and Olivia Hall. Carrie is a poet and published author who has performed over the past 17 years in 6 countries and across the United States. She ranked 4th in the world at the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam. Olivia has a Master’s degree in Gender, and has lived and performed in New York and London. She is a published poet who has been performing poetry for eight years and came third at the 2015 New Zealand Slam Championships.

In their own words, Carrie and Olivia's poetry is, “confronting and accessible; angry and loving; powerful and needed. It reminds us that this is how we survive: together.”

The Year 10s and their teachers were treated to an emotional journey of sometimes humour and sometimes sadness (and at times a bit of both) as we navigated topics related to dreams and goals, relationships, body image, and many other issues women face today, some of which we simply should not accept. We were shown how powerful it is to have a voice and how we can use our voices effectively to make change in the world.

We hope that this opportunity will have inspired our students with the preparation and presentation of their own performances at the end of this term.