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Kia Aroha College Otuhaka on the Tongan stage
Photo: RNZ / Mabel Muller
Students wowed the crowds with their performances and speech competitions on the different island stages: Māori, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands and the Diversity stage.
Seiuli said this year s theme of Healing the body, mind, spirit and soul with the strength of Culture was appropriate as it showed the resilience of the students and their teachers, families and friends to come together and celebrate their language and culture with the songs and speeches. Right now, our community needed this and we deserved this. We deserved having our students back out there on stage and celebrating our young people.
Samoan stage coordinator Melegalenuu Ah Sam.
Photo: RNZ / Mabel Muller
While cultural dance performances are usually the spectacle of the show, some students opt for a much smaller component of the festival.
One of the Samoan stage coordinators Melegalenu u Ah Sam said the idea of running a speech competition was initiated well over a decade ago and had been going strong since. The teachers of the Samoan language were looking at it and thought, how can we use the language, besides singing and dancing? so we decided to give it a go, she said. It s all about language. Dancing and singing [are] not complete without the language itself so we need to try and improve the oral communication these kids have.