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.