Rotorua schools hold minute of silence for Christchurch mosque shootings

Kate Shapley, 12, wears a head scarf during the two minutes' silence at Rotorua Intermediate School. Photo / Stephen Parker

Rotorua schools joined people around the nation in two minutes silence today to "fight back against this ugliness in our country".

The silence was held one week after the Christchurch mosque shootings.

Rotorua Intermediate School performs a haka at the vigil for the Christchurch mosque shooting victims. Photo / Stephen Parker

At Rotorua Intermediate School, the pupils sat in silence before breaking into a haka.

Prefect Neve Allibone, 12, said she felt the day was important because it was a chance to mourn but also show support for Christchurch.

She told the school to contemplate the loss of life during the silence.

Prefect Luke Westrupp, 12, said the school did a whole school haka to support the cause.

"The reason our school is doing a haka is to show anger, sadness and aroha for the victims and their whānau.

"It's a traumatising event for the families involved."

Rotorua Intermediate had also participated in the Colour Your Day initiative by wearing colourful clothes to represent diversity.

Students brought a donation for the victims of the shootings and their families and raised $920.10.

Following the haka the school paraded around the hall to showcase that diversity.

Rotorua Intermediate getting ready to commemorate the Christchurch shooting victims. Photo / Zizi Sparks

Whaea Cheryl Manley said the school had 27 different cultures in it and all the colours the students wore represented that.

"Our two minutes' silence happened at the same time as the tragedy in Christchurch started unfolding. Our haka was about us doing something uniquely Aotearoa.

"We can fight back against this ugliness in our country."

#watch Rotorua Intermediate pupils have ended their two minutes silence with a haka for Christchurch

Posted by Rotorua Daily Post on Thursday, 21 March 2019

Manley said all the people in the room had one thing in common and that was living in New Zealand.

"You have your whole lives ahead of you. Unfortunately a big part of our community, thanks to last week, don't have that anymore.

"This time last week something ugly was happening in Christchurch. This time this week something beautiful is happening at Rotorua Intermediate."

Otonga Rd School also planned a minute silence and school haka to mark the occasion.

They also held a coin trail and raised $730 to send to Christchurch.

At Rotorua Lakes High School students took part in the two minutes of silence after a prayer spoken by Azhar Jalil in acknowledgement of the Christchurch tragedy.

Rotorua Lakes High School students in prayer. Photo / Supplied

This was followed by a student-led full school haka.

The children at the Treehouse on Ranolf Childcare Centre wrote messages on hearts and tied them to the front fence of the centre.

Next to the hearts was a sign saying the teachers had been talking to the children about kindness and love.

"We have also had the conversation about different cultures and although people may look different to yourself, we are all the same on the inside."

Treehouse on Ranolf students wrote messages of support. Photo / Supplied

The centre was inviting passers-by to read what kindness and love meant to children.

Teacher Stacey Brown said they had discussed the shooting with parents and decided the children were too young to talk about what happened.

"Rather than talking about what actually happened we decided to talk to them about what kindness actually is and about accepting different cultures.

"We have been saying things like 'we are all the same on the inside' and they seem to be really understanding it."