Heart and soul were poured into this morning’s House Haka competition at the Boys’ School. With the entire school gathered into the Sports Centre, and then divided into the four House groupings, they only had a few minutes each on the floor to impress the visiting judges - Matua Maurice Nelson, Te Reo teacher at the College, was joined by College students, Rawiri Martin and Jade Stewart. Year 10 student, Rawiri was instrumental in preparing the new College Haka and Year 12, Jade has been selected as one of next year’s Te Amokura prefects.

With Chalmers led by Luka Matata, Wishart by Oliver Hardie, Cargill by Erza Patrick and Hamilton by James Hiddleston, each House took it in turns to present the Boys’ School Haka, Tu Tangata’. It talks about the mana and pride that we have in our school. Our haka ties in with our five school values and speaks about the importance of looking out and caring for one another. The Boys’ School Haka was developed in 2010 to symbolise our School and the ‘Miro Miro’ concept of the older one looking after the younger one. Senior School teacher, Mr Kurt Dorset, helped devise the words with Mr Hemi Dale MEd, PGDipArts, BA, DipTchg, a Senior Maori Lecturer at Auckland University. 

Judging criteria was based on actions, pronunciation, synchronicity, facial expressions, leadership and the overall impact of the performance. With marks from each of the judges tallied, Chalmers was declared the winner. The whole school of over 600 boys then took to the floor to perform the haka in unison, led by Marco Alpe – what an amazing sight and sound as the boys gave it their all! Matua Nelson, Rawiri and Jade then rose to their feet and performed the new College Haka in response!

We thank the College visitors for spending time with our boys, this was truly appreciated. Well done Chalmers!

Click here to view the gallery. 

Share this