Reo Rua bilingual unit students at Bay of Islands College are heading to Europe next month on a cultural exchange which will take them to Italy, France and Spain. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Reo Rua bilingual unit students at Bay of Islands College are heading to Europe next month on a cultural exchange which will take them to Italy, France and Spain. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Students from Bay of Islands College are heading to Europe next month to experience the continent's culture and history while sharing their own culture at airports, on a cruise ship and even at Disneyland Paris.
The 32 students from the Kawakawa school's Reo Rua bilingual unit and 12 adults will leave on September 27 and return on October 12.
They will spend most of their time in Italy with visits to France and Spain and a seven-day Mediterranean cruise.
Stops include Rome, Florence, Venice, the Roman ruins at Pompeii, Barcelona, Cannes, Monaco and the island of Majorca.
Along the way, the Year 9-13 students will perform haka, action songs and poi. Some performances — such as those on the ship and at Disneyland — have been pre-arranged while others will be spontaneous.
Student Jade Norman, 16, said the bilingual unit travelled overseas every two years with students and whānau voting for the destination.
''We've all heard amazing things about these countries ... I'm really excited to experience what it's like over in Europe, to taste the food and perform for them. It'll be cool.''
She also wanted to experience life in countries where English was very much a second language.
Aaliah Drelaud (left), Tulagi Bainimarama, Karlos Croft, teacher Edith Painting-Davis and Jade Norman are part of a group from Bay of Islands College heading to Europe next month.
Jade, who is in Year 12, said she had been on a previous exchange to Canada and found locals were fascinated by Māori culture.
New Zealanders were familiar with kapa haka but it was an eye-opener for the Canadians, she said.
''People were really interested. It gave us confidence to perform even more,'' she said.
Aaliah Drelaud, also 16, said her only overseas trip so far was to Australia, and she was looking forward to learning about European cultures and seeing the attractions.
''I'm excited as,'' she said.
Travelling with the group will be 23-year-old academic mentor and kapa haka group guitarist Chayse Bennett-Simeon, who was keen to ''experience the food culture in Italy, the ambiance, the artworks, and the music scene''.
The group raised money by catering at birthdays, running a stall at Waitangi Day and marshalling at sports events, but students still had to raise about $4000 themselves.
Some were sponsored by their iwi and hapū while others worked. Jade, for example, cleaned cars at Bay of Islands Hospital for a year.
The unit's head of Māori, Edith Painting-Davis, said many students assumed Pākehā and European were the same thing because they didn't realise there was a huge range of cultures within Europe.
Apart from broadening the students' horizons, the goal of the trip was to act as ambassadors for Māori culture and ''put Māori on the map globally''.
