MIS students seize kapa haka glory

UNBEATABLE: Masterton Intermediate School pupils Kaea Kerr, 13 (left), and Macy Ngatuere, 13, hold the victory banner gained at the Super Arts Kapa Haka competition in Feilding. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

A Masterton Intermediate School Maori performance group have for the first time captured the victory banner at the biennial Super Arts Kapa Haka event.

MIS Maori language teacher and kapa haka tutor Megan Roberts, Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, said half of the 80 Year 7 and 8 students in the school Maori performance group - Te Kapa Haka Roopu o Te Kura Waenganui o Whakaoriori - performed an emotive repertoire of songs, haka and chants against three rival intermediate school groups at the Feilding Civic Centre on Wednesday.

Deputy principal Cam Maunder and volunteer Paora Ammunson also tutored the winning group of Year 8 students, who staged three action songs, two haka including Ko Wairarapa written by Mr Ammunson, a karanga (call), whaikorero (speech) and a waiata tawhito (chant).

Ms Roberts said the group had earned their victory and deserved the applause and praise their performances had won, especially after overcoming a last minute obstacle in the final few days before the event.

She said Mr Maunder's son Ben was born the day before the group took the stage and Mr Ammunson had been forced to take up the guitar in his place.

"I was apprehensive, a little nervous. But the kids did extremely well to be able to perform to the level they did."

The group wore outfits recalling the Victorian-era population at Papawai Marae in Greytown, with piupiu (skirts) slung across their upper bodies, hawk feathers in their hair, flashes of tartan and military strip, and incorporating their school colours of red and black.

The period costumes, traditional touches, such as the use of a putatara (conch shell trumpet), and the overall spontaneity and vitality of the group had been unbeatable, Ms Roberts said.

"All of those things contributed and our kids were having fun. The schools we came up against, especially Monrad [Intermediate School] that placed second, were amazing. But our kids had a natural enjoyment that really won the day."

At a special assembly yesterday, principal Russell Thompson was presented with the Super Arts Kapa Haka banner won by the feted group of students, who afterward performed for their schoolmates.

Mr Thompson had attended the Feilding competition and said yesterday the MIS group winning the banner was an emotional experience and "one of the proudest moments I've ever had in education".

The next Super Arts Kapa Haka event will be held at Monrad Intermediate School in Palmerston North, in late 2016.