Connection with tupuna drives Polyfest winners 19 Apr 2021 14:33 PM Te Tai Tokerau Wahine
HASH(0x28c5328)
A tutor of Polyfest winning team Ngā Puna o Waiōrea says rangatahi were hungry to get on stage after a two-year break from competition performance.
Pere Wihongi says the Western Springs College roopu was lucky to come out on top given the calibre of kapa haka coming out of Auckland secondary schools.
In a last minute change to their set, Waiōrea performed a tribute to Pīwai Te Morehu Tuhua from Ngāi Tūhoe, the composer of classics such as He Hōnore, who died a fortnight ago.
Nga Puna o Waiorea Polyfest champs
waateanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from waateanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New zones for Auckland schools: There ll be some pretty angry people
rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Nga Puna o Waiorea Polyfest champs 19 Apr 2021 08:36 AM Photo: Te Tai Tokerau Wahine Facebook.
More Related Stories
Related Podcast
There will be celebrations today at Western Springs College, with Ngā Puna o Waiorea once again bringing home the top trophy from the Polyfest Māori stage.
The roopu fended off strong challenges from old rivals Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi Marae, Te Whānau o Tupuranga from Kia Aroha College and Te Kapunga from James Cook High School.
The top four schools all gained entry to the national championship.
The four-day competition at the Manukau Sports Bowl drew 8,000 performers in 49 schools, 160 cultural groups from 49 schools performing traditional speech, song and dance on six stages
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.