'Mauria te taki - Take up the Challenge'

The power of kapa haka to entertain and make people smile is alive and well in South and Mid-Canterbury schools.

On Friday 17 August I accompanied a small group of students from our Kapa Haka group and the SPEC class to watch the annual FLAVA festival. Many schools from Ashburton, Waimate and South Canterbury were represented and competitors ranged in age from new entrants to senior secondary. The annual competition showcases Visual and Performing Arts and Kapa Haka.

The performances we saw were the Primary Schools non-competitive and competitive Kapa Haka. It was so good to see such a strong interest in Kapa Haka and the huge pool of talent we have in our district. The quality of both competitive and non-competitive performances was very high and the audience support given to those schools who were first time performers was awesome. I was really impressed with the fluency of te reo spoken as leaders presented their group mihimihi. The volume and enthusiasm in both waiata, chant, poi and haka was dynamic and the costumes were stunning. Our students enjoyed the day watching performances from their old schools and would love to see Roncalli Kapa Haka develop to the point that we will be on stage in the future. Unfortunately we were unable to stay long enough to see the Performing Arts and Secondary Kapa Haka sections, but who knows, next year we might see Roncalli entered! Kapa Haka is held in the chapel every Monday during period 2.