Monday, 19 November 2012

Maori Culture Festival





Every November the "Turanganui Schools' Maori Culture Festival" is held.  Most kindergartens and schools have a 'Kapa Haka' group.  Kapa Haka means Maori songs and dance. 

This year, for the first time, my children's school sent a group of five and six year olds.  It was an exciting day for Thom!  He was a little nervous before the event.  Here are a couple of short videos I took.  The first one is a 'Taiaha' drill.  A Taiaha is a traditional Maori weapon.  The second video is a 'waiata'.  Waiata is the Maori word for song.








Every week I play the guitar for a school where I used to teach.  We had two performances last week at school and we are performing at the festival tomorrow and Thursday.  It has been very busy with practices.  I will see if I can get some video of our performance too! 

 
I'm sorry, no lesson today, next week I will have more time!

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing these videos! I love Haka especially that children dance. You are preserving Maori culture. It is a great thing.
    When I saw the real Haka at the theater in Maori village, I was moved a lot.
    They are proud of their way of living.
    I also like all black's Haka.
    It's a great performance ever.
    Tell Thom-kun that he was great and cool!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for this topic. I enjoyed these adorable dance's video.
    It's really interesting to learn culture from your blog. Thank you so much.
    Have a nice festival day, tomorrow! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Aiさん, I'm sure Thom enjoyed giving you a private performance!

    Thank you too Yukieさん、today will be a long day! We don't perform until about 7.00 pm. Then tomorrow morning at about 10.00 am. I will be relieved when it is over!! I posted a video of my group on the bottom on the facebook thread.

    ReplyDelete