Te Kapa O Tukua ō Punga

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, rau rangatira mā. Tēnā koutou katoa
Ko Parihaka te maunga
Ko Hatea te awa
Ko Pehiāweri te marae
Ko Kahukuri te tangata
Ko Ngāti Hau te hapu
Ko Ngāpuhi te iwi

During the build up to our stand at Te Tai Tokerau’s Festival our practice schedule was hectic because of the amount of time we had until the performance, which was 8 weeks.

Our kapa has performed every year at Te Tai Tokerau Festival which is held at the concluding week of Term 1, and for those of you who don’t know, Te Tai Tokerau Festvial is a chance for all the hapu (sub tribes) to come together as one whaanau.

Our Kapa has also been apart of the Kings coronation that was held in the year 2012.  Although the coronation is every year we only had practising times available for 2012. 2013 hit us with a bang, starting off our year with Tai Tokerau festival and attacking Te Tai Tokerau’s Secondary Kapa Haka competition (Regionals) and placing 6th which was amazing.

Our Kapa Haka ventures to many places and attends numerous activities, Te Kapa o Tukua o Punga has been overseas to Hawai’i on “strictly” cultural exchange even.

This year, we performed at Te Tai Tokerau Festival with 40-50 performers which was held at Rodney College in Wellsford and blew the crowd away with our performance. We also look forward to performing at the kings coronation this year again.

In the Maori Department we have a “Trades Academy” this year which involves 13 students to take part in numerous activities throughout school and the wider community. We always take “Kaimahi” along on trips to help out here and there or anything that needs to be done and they can lend a hand.

By Tyson Stephens