Kia ora e te whānau

We were recently invited to perform at the Matariki Festival that one of the students at Lincoln High School was organising. At first we weren't sure whether we would be able to perform as we hadn't properly been able to do kapa haka for all of term 1 and we had lots of new tamariki joining us from the junior rōpū (group) and elsewhere in our kura. However, we decided that as we hadn't had many chances to perform publicly over the last couple of years that we would give it a go! We did our best with what the tamariki had learnt last year and the new tamariki learnt what they could in about 4 weeks. Our tamariki worked incredibly hard to remember and learn 5 waiata, haka and poi and we stood to perform at the festival on Tuesday 21st June. Their performance was mīharo (amazing), I was so proud of them and they should be so proud of themselves!

One of the best things about the festival was that there were lots of different rōpū for us to watch including rōpū from the high school. By watching these tuākana (older children) perform they will be able to apply some of the things that they saw to their own performances. We hope to have more public performances over the coming year and I know the tamariki are looking forward to learning some new waiata and haka. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou for all your support this year. Mānawatia a Matariki!