Our Culture

Today Wednesday 11th of March 2015 we, room 9 and 10 of Glenbrae School had Pitia and Leah (Caroline was out somewhere so Leah took over) visited us for MADD ( Music-Arts-Drama-Dynamics) messenger workshop. The topic we talked about by being proud of our culture and just being ourselves.

We were split into groups of our ethnicity like Tongans, Samoans, Cook Islanders, Maoris,Niueans, and Africans. I was in the Tongan group, because i’m a tongan. We sat in a circle and Leah came around and gave us a piece of paper and a pen. We had to answer questions like, What culture are you, What's your greeting and other things that important to our culture. When we answered the questions Pitia came and asked all of the groups if we could practice an item to show everyone that represents our culture. We practiced singing a song called Ta Koe Sola.

Then Pitia and Leah called all groups to come forward to the front of the hall.

We sat in a semicircle, first Petia called up south africa, Samuel was the only African so he stood up. When Samuel stood up and read his piece of paper I was very proud of him, because he had the courage to stand up and speak in front of everyone.  Then Petia called up the Niuean. They talked to us about their country and all sorts of gestures and traditional celebrations they do. Then the Niuean boys, Bono, Joseph and Justin did a very cool item which represented their island. Up next was Samoa, they said their part and did the siva tau, a Samoan item, then the cook Islands came up, They talked to us about some traditions about cook island, then, it was Tonga tapus turn. As we were walking up I felt a bit nervous, we walked up stood there and Alisi talked about our celebrations, and traditions that we have. We sang our song Ta koe sola and we were done. Next came the Tangata whenua/Maoris, they showed us what a hongi is and a pukana, which were all part of their culture.

We were finished, Petia talked to us about the meaning of that activity. When we're doing that activity I felt very proud about who I stood for, and what my culture is, I felt very confident about who I was and what culture I am in.  I was also very happy that I learnt about other cultures and what their traditions are. Then Petia did a chalk art for us and he drew Hulk. While he was drawing, a song named “don’t  forget your roots” came on, The song was very meaningful, because the lyrics told me not to forget where I come from and who I am.

When we were finished we went back to class. We really had lot of fun and we learnt about not only our culture but also the culture of others.