Te Wharekura o Waikare performing on stage at the Te Tai Tokerau Kapa Haka Festival. It was their first year performing since they had just been granted kura kaupapa status which goes from pre-school through to at least Year 10. Photo / Denis Orme
Te Wharekura o Waikare performing on stage at the Te Tai Tokerau Kapa Haka Festival. It was their first year performing since they had just been granted kura kaupapa status which goes from pre-school through to at least Year 10. Photo / Denis Orme
Last week 26 Northland schools descended on Ōkaihau College as part of the 49th running of the Te Tai Tokerau Kapa Haka Festival.
It is the fifth time the college has hosted the event, planning for which started in July last year. The committee met monthly then weekly tohandle all the necessary arrangements to host 1200 school kids and their carers.
Visitors travelled from their own school daily or were hosted at the local marae which various kura had organised during the two-day festival.
The festival had humble beginnings. In 1976, 11 schools attended at Ōpononi School’s invitation. The driving force behind it was deputy principal and te reo Māori teacher David Hill. He had the support of principal Mike Mulqueen and kuia and kaumātua from the Hokianga and Te Waiuhapū o Hokianga community.
The festival was established to celebrate Māoritanga. There were two rules set at the first festival – that the event should return to Ōpononi Area School every 10 years and that it should always remain non-competitive.
It means Ōpononi School will host the 50th anniversary next year and a special ceremony was held at Ōkaihau College at the conclusion of the event to hand over the mauri. Jenny Couchman, PA to Ōkaihau College principal, said the staff had been outstanding in their support of the event.
“They pitched in with holding bay duties, feeding kuia and kaumātua, ferrying people around, assisting with parking, picking up rubbish and hosting the thousands of people we had here during the day.”
Since the festival’s inception there are many schools that have closed or integrated with other schools but there are also newly registered schools that now participate.
The 49th Kapa Haka Festival held this year at Ōkaihau College. Photo / Denis Orme
Singers gather from around the bay area
The Bay of Islands Singers can trace its roots back 60 years when in 1964 a choral group began performing Easter and Christmas concerts in Kaikohe. Later Linden Duncan established a year-round community choir based at St John’s Church at Waimate North.
Today they are a mixed-voice non-auditioned community choir of between 50 and 60 singers who regularly perform to audiences from the local community, Whangārei and Auckland. The average size of the audience is around 160 to 200.
The group rehearse every Monday including public holidays and there are four Saturday daytime workshops.
Each section of the choir (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) has a section leader and there is an elected committee and president responsible for overall organisation and management.
Bay of Islands Singers rehearsing for Sound the Trumpet! Back from left to right: Marguerite Simmonds, Jeff Garnham, Kathy Heath, Fran Parsonage. Front from left Lyn Corr, Sarah Tallon, Jim Kirton, Ellen Kirton.
The choir master is John Jackets who took over as Musical Director in 2009 and the choir officially changed its name to the Bay of Islands Singers in 2012. The three assistant rehearsal conductors are Marguerite Simmonds, Rose Chapman and Sylvia Burch and the piano is played at rehearsals by John Lewis.
Around a quarter of the singers are from around the Bay of Islands from Russell and Ōpua to Waimate North up to Doubtless Bay and Whangaroa and as far afield as the Hokianga so they all travel to rehearsals and concerts.
On May 5, the Bay of Islands Singers will be performing their first concert of the year, Sound the Trumpet!
The performance features works by Mozart, Haydn, Purcell, Handel and Tavener all of which have links to royal events one way or another.
The choir for this concert will be joined by soloists Elizabeth Mandeno, Jessica Wells, Ian Tetley and Jarvis Dams with a guest orchestra and organist, Michael Bell. It will be conducted by John Jackets.
Visionary geologist remembered
As part of New Zealand Archaeology Week, Dr James Robinson will give a talk on visionary geologist Hartley Travers Ferrar. His work in Northland in the 1920s continues to inform archaeologists today.
Hartley Fararr, visionary geologist whose work in Northland in the 1920s continues to inform archaeologists today.
Robinson is Heritage New Zealand’s Northland regional archaeologist and will discuss Ferrar’s maps, which include information recorded during his time working for the New Zealand Geological Society.
It is likely that Ferrar used information supplied by local Māori to inform his maps. In many cases, they had been part of the last generation to bridge Māori knowledge of their landscape with the modern era of the early 20th Century. Ferrar carefully recorded this valuable information on his maps together with his geological discoveries.
There are a set of Ferrar’s maps dating back to the 1920s in Heritage New Zealand’s Northland office that are frequently used as a tool to identify the location of archaeological sites that may not be recorded in any other database.
The maps cover 36 survey districts spanning the Kaipara and northern Hauraki Gulf Harbours through to the Bay of Islands. As well as geological features, they also include other elements like roads, homesteads, rifle pits, whare and pā.
Prior to his work in Northland, Ferrar’s research while on Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery expedition to Antarctica in 1901-1904 also helped shape the emerging understanding of continental drift in the early 1900s.
Earlier Ferrar had married New Zealander Gladys Anderson whom he had met when the Discovery was visiting New Zealand. After his war service he joined the staff of the New Zealand Geological Survey where for the next six years he led the mapping surveys in Northland.
Dr James’s Robinson lecture on Hartley Travers Ferrar is at Kingston House, Kerikeri, on May 5 at 2pm - all welcome.
Gallery raising funds to support recovery from addictions
In a singular move the No 1 Gallery in Kohukohu is holding an exhibition of photographs to raise money to support those recovering from addictions.
The exhibition, Niniwa – Healing Future Generations Together, and the collection of images on display are by Heather Randerson. Niniwa refers to the northern head sand dunes of the Hokianga.
A photograph by Heather Randerson, that depicts the northern head sand dunes of the Hokianga.
The daily witnessing of the variations in mood of Niniwa reflect the environmental changes and is a constant reminder for the photographer of the interconnectedness of all creation.
“We continue to be shaped and influenced by our environment whether it be elemental, whakapapa, relationships or lived experience,” Randerson said.
“Through the journey of recovery and discovery of our authentic selves we can access the power within for transformational change and the opportunity for healing ourselves and future generations together.”
Randerson moved from Wellington to Omapere in 1997. This move enabled her to explore her whānau roots and to experience being a member of a vibrant community.
A photograph in the Niniwa, Healing Future Generations Together exhibition.
“In the beginning it was about capturing the natural beauty of Hokianga and the world I live with daily, the beauty within the water, the tides, the sky, the clouds, Niniwa, Arai Te Uru, the Earth, and the forest.
“Now, it has become recognising that within that, is the living presence of the tupuna, of the wairua and I no longer seek to capture it to express it, because it is simply there.”
She said Healing Future Generations Together, is a voluntary journey of discovery and recovery. She made special mention of Paul Wihongi and the Mt Zion Church Trust. The exhibition runs until May 6.
