Te Wiki o te Reo Māori: Combined Napier kindy performance celebrates love of language

Tamariki from Onekawa Kindergarten (right) and Tamatea Kindergarten (left) performed at a special kapa haka festival to celebrate Māori Language Week in Hawke's Bay.

The sounds of kapa haka and waiata erupting from Napier’s Pettigrew Green Arena proved that age and ethnicity don’t have to be barriers with regard to te reo Māori.

Tiny tamariki under the age of 5 from Tamatea and Onekawa Kindergartens were among those performing routines as part of a combined kapa haka festival on Monday, with schools celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori [Māori Language Week].

Both kindys are part of the Ahuriri Kāhui Ako [Community of Learning], which had been planning the kapa haka festival for a fair few months before the show.

“We have a waiata about the atua, and it acknowledges the atua and how they help and care for all the children and people in New Zealand. We also sung Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi as a collective,” Onekawa Kindergarten head teacher Lillian Church said.

Music and performing, Church said, were seen as fantastic ways for young tamariki to learn te reo.

“Learning through waiata and song is the easiest way because it’s repetition. Every day, we are singing waiata in te reo and they repeat it and learn it quite quickly, especially if it’s to tunes they know.

“We make it fun, and we dance and put actions to it as well.”

She said some of the performers in the group also came from Hawke’s Bay’s migrant community, and it was a very special experience for them.

“A number of our families are immigrants, and they came with us. A lot of them said it was the first time they had experienced any form of Māori culture.

“They said they felt quite touched - like, moved to tears to experience it and to see their children perform like that.

“It’s almost universal, because our tamariki from all over the world are picking it up and pronouncing it well, and they aren’t frightened or scared of it.”

It wasn’t just special memories of performing in te reo the group went back to kindy with either.

“They loved going for a ride on the bus,” Church laughed.

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2023. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.