Tamaki Taiohi: 2009

This fantastic report from Alamanda....

Well, my night was absolutely awesome!
Te Poho o Tamaki Kapa Haka group held a major fundraiser to raise money for our previous trip upnorth. This was for the re-opening of Paatu marae in Pamapuria, home of a few students in the group and Tamaki’s very own care taker Wally Noble. What an experience that trip was for us rangatahi!
Tickets were sold for thirty-dollars each to over 60 people, however a few more tickets were sold at the door and over 80 people were attending total. Wow, who would’ve thought we would have such a good turn out!
People there included teachers, parents, whanau, community members and people from other areas of Auckland attended. Thanks for the tautoko!
So, what happened that night?

The night began with a powhiri and everybody was welcomed onto the marae by the kapa haka group and Matua Wally. After a little gossip, a good cup of tea and nibbles in the wharekai, the manuhiri made their way over to the auditorium whilst our group got ready for the performance. By the time we were ready and made our way to the back of the auditorium, the hangi was being served up and waitresses were placing the desserts at the tables. We had to wait a while, the karaoke had already started since we took a little longer to get ready than expected. Plus our fabulous workers asked for us to wait while they dished their plates up so they could watch too.

Through the doors we went and onto the stage. Wow, what a view the stage looked absolutely stunning, encouraging a mean performance!
There is nothing I love more then to perform for people that love to watch. Luckily for me, I could not see whether the audience was enjoying the performance or not thanks to great lighting, and it was easy to pretend everything was fabulous!

Once the performance was over, everybody began to slowly go home for the night was cold and the beds were calling. There was still good kai in the back. I remember once I got out of my performance uniform that was me, in the back of that auditorium dishing up my plate! The performers and workers were munching down the brown sugar pudding and custard before they got into the half warm hangi. Most of the meat was gone by the time we got in there, same with the delicious brown sugar pudding! What an eats.
There was a big mess left in the auditorium. Chairs left pushed out around tables, food on the floor and used cups were left everywhere. Signs of mean night!
The night and the preparation during the day definitely had its ups and downs. But thanks to hard work from teachers, parents and students another rush job was pulled off.
It was only the performers and a few workers left jamming’ on the karaoke machine and we didn’t leave until 11pm. What a night!

A special thanks to all those teachers and parents that came in and helped prepare everything, to Janet and Uncle Wally, to Anahera’s mother for the mean as brown sugar pudding and of course to my parents Mike and Loretta. Churr!

Kia Ora Whanau!

Here are some photos from the night....