Cultural Festival

Tuesday 1st December 2015

Last Friday we had a Cultural Festival and kids could go in a cultural group and perform. It started at 5:45 but everyone says that it was 6:00. We were having a Cultural Festival because some of the kids on camp didn’t pay and one kid kicked a hole in the wall which cost the school 500 dollars.  And they did extra activities like kayaking which cost more money.  Miss Elia was going to take it off the list of camp things to do, but our teacher said put it back on the list.  I wasn’t in any group because I didn’t go on camp.  But my brother Levi was in a group, he was in the Niuean group and the Sasa which is the Samoan group. Before the show, my mum had to get a singlet for my brother because when he did his dance, he was going to have to do it with no shirt on.

But when she did get it, he didn’t wear it because before he must of forgot because the teacher said, “The whole group has to wear singlet or no one can wear a singlet.”. After we got the singlet, our cousins and Aunt had just arrived to come with us and watched Levi dance. It was my cousin Toni-Lee and my other cousin Dylan. They came with there mum Aunty Mata. They came in our car but me my mom, nana and little brother were already in the car. So we were all squashed up, I don’t know why they couldn’t use their car because that's the one they came on.

When we got there were loads of people outside and even more inside the hall where we all went to watch the kids perform. When we sat down I hoped that a big guy won’t sit in front of me so that he won’t block my view the show. My cousin Dylan was on the right side of me and my other cousin Toni-Lee was on the other side of me on my left side. After we sat down it took awhile for the show to start and more and more people started coming and sitting down. After a while, the show started and the first act was the Kapahaka kids doing their thing.

First they did the Maori haka. After the haka they sung a song. I thought that their song sounded great. After them was Room 4 doing their act. They did another song but they did not sing it. It was on a tape they just danced to the song with their poipoi. But I think that they were supposed to sing but got scared in the middle of the act. Next after them was these two boys showing us some Karate moves. Their names were Alex and Richie. Richie was the little one and Alex was the bigger one. My friend Justin told me that had a six pack. I think that he could give me a huge hiding if we was my age and height.

Fourth was the Samoan girls. I can’t remember much about the samoan girls so I’m just going to skip to the next one. Later Room 5 did their act to tell us about recycling. Each of them had prop from the song. The song sounded like a baby song, but still I liked it because it was catchy. The song I think it was called Save the World. After that was my old teachers group Sound Of Glenbrae by Mr.Nath. It was so boring, they did the exact same beat for ages, then changed it and did that same beat for ages and changed back and did the same beat from in the beginning for ages. I couldn’t wait until it was over. But my mum said “That’s in Mr.Naths culture to do the same beat for ages”.

Next was the Tongan Boys dance. They were good as and heaps of their families were coming up on stage and giving them money. Too bad the teacher was going to take it off them backstage to pay for their camp. James, a year 8 in my class, looked happy as and so did the boys dancing  with him but he just looked the happiest.  Next was the Cook Island group. I thought that there was going to be a whole group but instead it started off with Ma’ara. Then later Honey and Aliayana came out on stage and did the hula with her. In the middle my cousin's asked me if I wanted play a game called Smashy Road on their IPad. It’s just like this game called Crossy Road except this time your the car and you're running away from the cops.

Next up was the one my brother Levi was in. It was the Niuean group. The first act they did was alright. But the song they did after was even better. After the song the song only the boys did the Niuean haka. After that was the Bollywood group and I didn’t pay much attention to this. I was playing Smashy Road. Later was the Tongan girls dance but they weren’t ready yet so the teacher that was taking all the money away from the kids, Mrs.Ripata said “ The Tongan Girls are not quite ready so we are going to have a little competition”. She told all the Maori,Tongan,Niuean,Samoan and other people from other cultures to come on stage and see who is the best dancer. there were heaps of people going on stage and my cousin Toni-Lee (who is a girl and he brother is a boy) wanted to go up on stage and dance so she did. She was on the Samoan side. After the the Tongan Girls were ready to dance. They stopped the contest and started the show up again and introduced the next act.

In that act all the girls had oil on their skin, they looked really shiny. During their dance, I think the crowd gave them the most money. More than the rest of the acts. People started hopping up on stage and giving them money, lots of money. After them was the Samoan Sasa group. All of the people in the Samoan Sasa were in blue. But I don’t remember much about that act. The last act was called the Tau’olunga. But this one only had Alisi a year 8 girl in my class. She was probably the person who got the most money out of all the acts.

After that my uncle took my cousin's and aunty back to my house. And we stayed behind and cleaned up the hall after it was all over. Soon we got tired of waiting and we started walking back to our house. But my little brother had gone missing we thought. But when we got home he was already there. And he had taken my friend Fraser’s scooter home with him. When we asked him where he was, he said that he had walked home by himself on Fraser’s scooter. When we saw the scoter, we took it back straight away because it was not Fraser’s it was his older brother’s scoter. And we did not want him to get trouble. Soon my cousins all went home and we went to sleep not long after.

By Jayden.F