A night of many cultures - By Naanise

It was Thursday night, and the students in the Maori group were getting ready for Cultural Festival by wearing the traditional Maori clothes, the girls wore  black skirts and black tops with a piupiu around their waist and the boys wore black shorts and no shirt but they did wear the piupiu.

The Cultural Festival started off with me doing the Karanga for the National Anthem and the rest of the school singing the Pasifica song to welcome and thank the people for attending this special occasion. After the Maori group finish doing the haka, the poi and the haere mai etc, the chinese group started. The girls in the Chinese group wore a red dress and the boys wore black shorts and tops with a vest.

The Chinese group ended and it was time for the Samoan group, the Samoan group had alot of supporters in the audience. The girls in the Samoan group wore pule tasi’s and the boys wore a lavalava with banana leaves around their neck. After the Samoan group it was halftime.

During halftime I was putting my costume on because right after it was the Tongan group. Halftime was up and I was on my way to the stage with Frankie and the rest of the Tongan group, we got up on stage and already had people screaming and supporting us, my brothers were supporting me by making funny faces at me and trying to copy the Tau'olunga (dance) I was doing.  While Frankie and I were doing our Tau’olunga (dance) alot of people came up on stage and put money on us. After us it was the Tongan boys’ turn. They did a dance to the song ‘Toli Lou Siale’  and the girls did a dance to the song ‘Tamaiki ‘O Loto Neiafu’. The boys of the Tongan group wore a skirt (kinda) called manafao with a white singlet and a kahoa (necklace). The girls in the Tongan group wore the tapa.

After the Tongan group was the Filipino group. They girls wore a flowery skirt.  After the Filipino group ended it was the Hip Hop group the boys and the girls in the Hip Hop group all wore the same clothes but different coloured suspenders. After all the Cultural groups finished, Miss Bullot  announced the winner of the hamper and that was Mrs Oldham.