"Our guest speakers have each travelled extensively around the world and pursued careers in kapa haka and hopefully they will help open similar career doors for young Wairarapa performers as well."
Taking pride of place throughout the event was Te Matatini mauri - a 26kg argillite stone said to hold the vital nature of the national Te Matatini Kapa Haka Aotearoa competition.
Mrs Kerehi said the attending students had come from secondary schools throughout the region and there were tutors scouting for prospective members of a Wairarapa group to compete in kapa haka at a regional level.
"We haven't had a secondary school team competing for a long while now, so this is really awesome to help bring that back to the region and back to life."
The Wairarapa REAP goals include the development of future leaders and tutors and to "grow futures" for students who could move in to Maori performance arts as a career, she said, and to revitalise performance tuition and competition among secondary schools in the region.
She said the annual Wairarapa REAP Kapahaka Festival was today the largest in Wairarapa and for this year the contest would be thrown open for the first time to secondary school teams.
"We want to encourage kapa haka at a secondary school level and this year we've opened up the Wairarapa REAP contest to the colleges.
"We hope that just as the competition has given our primary schools a reason to incorporate kapa haka into their curriculum, our colleges will do the same."
Mrs Kerehi said the academy will be biennial.
Sponsors for the academy included Whanau Ora Wairarapa, Masterton Arts Fund, Wairarapa Moana, Trust House, Compass Health and the Creative Communities NZ scheme through Masterton District Council.