Teachers love singing and those used to encouraging pre-schoolers to join them in song love singing the most.
So guitarist Pikihora Brown-Cooper had no trouble making music with students studying with Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa ki Whangarei tertiary provider for a bachelor's degree in teaching early childhood education yesterday.
She soon had them singing a chicken song, hands tucked in their armpits, they vigorously flapped as they crowed out words in Maori and chorused with loud bird noises in rooms at Toll Stadium in Whangarei.
The singing celebrated the ending of the students' first term of study, coinciding with the Maori New Year or Matariki, the Maori name for the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, which rises in mid-winter.
Traditionally, Matariki was a time to remember those who had died in the past year. But it was also a time for singing, dancing and feasting after crops had been harvested. Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa ki Whangarei honoured the feasting aspect of Matariki with a fine hangi meal for everyone at the event.