Kapa haka festival celebrates rangatahi
Inter-school event back on track after Covid-19 delays
The Waipā inter-school Te Rā Whakamana Rangatahi Kapa Haka event was held on Friday, November 11 at the Te Awamutu ASB Stadium. The festival’s name means ‘a celebration of youth’.
Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha principal Jade Tapine and his team hosted this year’s event, and said he was “proud that the community is investing in our culture, regardless of ethnicity within each of the groups - everyone is coming together and working towards what this event means to Waipā”.
Throughout the event, close to 1000 people visited the stadium at different times.
This annual festival started 17 years ago with the aim of celebrating our children and young people of all ethnicities and backgrounds through kapa haka.
Unfortunately, the event has been unable to run since 2019 due to the disruptions caused by Covid-19. However, with the lowering of the Covid19 protection levels, the festival was able to go ahead.
Young Māori artist Jaedyn Randell - the voice of Moana and Anna in the upcoming movie Frozen Reo Māori, a te reo version of the Disney movies - was one of the event’s MCs. The other MC was Zacchaeus Te Uri Karaka, a music teacher at Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha.
This year, 13 teams performed: Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha - Kura Teina, Apakura Te Kākano, Te Purapura o Kakepuku, The Barnyard,
haupō School, Pirongia School, Waipā Christian School, Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha - Kura Takawaenga, Pekapekarau School (Juniors), Pekapekarau School (Seniors), Te Awamutu Primary, Kihikihi School, Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha - Wharekura.
All of the performances throughout were moving, touching and powerful. Jade says they tried to organise an online event last year, however, it did not work out.
“This has been years in the making for our Kura to host this event. Wewere given the mauri to host in 2019 - and then it was three years of waiting for the opportunity to host.
“There is vitality, togetherness and unity, so coming together as a community was important. We really wanted to elevate the kaupapa of Te Rā Whakamana Rangatahi, as our kids in the last three years have had so much instability and impact from Covid-19, sowewanted toempower the children,” says Jade.
Jade said themomentof the day that sticks with him is when the kaumātua and the whole stadium got up to dance.
“It felt like the community came back to life.”
Kihikihi School is hosting next year’s event. A pūkāea [a long, wooden trumpet] was handed over as a symbol of the mauri.