Cultural Festival

My sister and I were dropped off at school for the big Wednesday night performance. I waited for the class to open and I sat with my friends outside. When it finally opened, I got my clothes and put them in my bag then made bracelets, a necklace and a halo out of glowsticks. We got given 20 each and our Cultural festival teacher brought us a hat  which I chose the black one. We were wearing black clothes for the American pop dance group and we were wearing something black for the Maori group too. Which reminded me, I had to get ready for the Maori group because we were up first on stage.

I ran to my classroom where the Maori group were getting ready for the big show. We were all nervous. I slid into my black dress and my teacher helped me put my puipui on. I pulled my hair into a tight ponytail and also tucked some feathers in my hair tie. I also applied black lipstick and the girls were given ferns for onstage. We all held hands and said a karakia to help us be confident and do well then it was up to the hall. We all linked arms and walked onstage.

First, the school sang the national anthem and then the greeting song. Then all eyes were on us. Asia started the Nga Iwi E waiata then we repeated after her. After that we done the poi and the boys got to do their haka. I called out kei te poi which means ‘grab your poi’. The song was Kotahitanga and we did the routine we had practised with the poi. The boys came forward and did their haka while the girls slowly moved back. It was an amazing performance.

The rest of the groups performed in the order of Chinese, Tongan/Fijian, Scandinavian, American pop and the Samoan group. I was in the American pop group and we were dancing to the song Happy by Pharrell Williams. Our group was after the break so I got me some chips and a drink. We practised so hard and I think our performance was great. Everyone clapped and cheered for all the groups and we all had a good night. It was awesome.