Kura students to fit Waitangi Day kapa haka into Mexican experience (+ video)

Te Kura O Te Koutu Kura Kaupapa Maori students are off to Mexico - where one of their first tasks will be performing kapa haka for Waitangi Day.

Tania Smith, school parent and destinos support, said the school took its senior students on the trip every three years. On January 28 three teachers and 21 students would be jetting off, the fourth time the school had made the trip.

She said the students went for 12 weeks to live in Oaxaca.

"The students will be billeted individually with Mexican families to ensure immersion in Spanish and Mexican daily life. This allows the students to learn a lot about themselves and the opportunities that are available to them in the wider, global world.

"We start every visit to Mexico helping the New Zealand Embassy to celebrate Waitangi Day as part of their programme to promote New Zealand's companies and products."

There the students performed kapa haka, she said.

The trip costs each student $12,000, but thanks to three years' fundraising the remaining cost has been brought down to $3500.

The students go via Los Angeles - where they make a quick trip to Disneyland - to Mexico where they study Spanish at an international institute.

"There is a sharing of culture. From Year 1 they learn Spanish here and so the trip is about improving on the Spanish that they have started to learn. That just gives them some fluency in the language. When they get there they immerse themselves within the language."

She said the fundraising for the trip had been a great help.

"We have pretty much been able to fundraise enough for the trip, there will always be a parent cost but that's been brought down significantly.

"By going away the children learn how to be independent of their families and how to step out of their boundaries. It's all about gaining independence and a sense of self-worth. It helps with them be able to extend themselves from staying within the niche of their families."

Year 11 student Anaru Blair-Smith, 16, speaks Maori, Spanish and English and can't wait for next month's trip.

"We will be studying and strengthening our Spanish as well as sharing Maori with the students over there," he said.

"Because we are going to an international institute we will get to see how other people from other places learn Spanish and how their language is affected by Spanish."