The Thrills Of Performance (Fiafia night Kapa-Haka Group)

My feet were plastered to the ground hesitating to move forward onto the stage. But it was show time and I proceeded along. I took a huge breath before placing one foot onto the black hard surface called the stage. I was the first person to walk onto the stage and the first person to be greeted by a roaring cheer of my name. "Tena ra kotou nga iwi ote motu nei" started off Whaea Sophie. And along after her voice came the melody of the whole Kapa-Haka group. We sounded amazing, and for sure looked astounding.

The girls Haka started off, and the stage was now full of energy. I was certainly putting all my hard effort into it, as I was one of the kaea's. Straining my fists to form the actions to the Haka, I glared out to the crowd to have a good look at how many estimated people were watching. Most likely over 800 people were out in the crowd, and that's even discluding the schools children that were sitting up in the front.

"Aue hi, aue ha, aue hi" the girls Haka was over, and and I was completely, and utterly out of breath. Now it was the boys turn to astound the crowd. They were so good that I felt like even crying from where I was standing. And I don't usual give away free tears. To even prove how passionate they looked, you could see that they had scratch marks against their chest. As it was one of the actions, to look as if your scraping your hands against your chest.

As soon as the boys haka finished, we then had to sing a song to welcome onto the stage the Junior Kapa-Haka group. From hence forth they performed their own thing that they had been practising for the past 6-7 weeks also. After the All Blacks haka that was performed by everyone on the stage, it was the end of our turn. Well not just quite.

Up stood Lorenz from the crowd. He was doing a haka. A haka to thank us for our hard work and effort and passion we had put into our performance. Then out of nowhere Chantee Lee and another girl ran and joined in with him. It was so awesome to see something like that get performed right in front of your eyes. Something that would rarely happen to you. After he had finished it was now time to look forward to our Niuean performance. But also to embrace the fact that our group had just finished performing. Performing something that we had practised for plenty of weeks. And pulled it off with ease. (Well not really)

The children were led off of the stage first, then the seniors. I took a step onto the grass and started to jump up and down with excitement. "We did it" I turned around and said to Mele.
"You looked awesome" she said to me.
"Haha. Did you do a massive pukana like I told you too" I said to her.
"The biggest one ever" she replied back to me with a huge smile.

We then headed off back to the Library, everyone excited, and happy. But then I think again. Now Brooklyn and I would now have to run back and forth with doing our hair, costume, and especially hair for the Niuean Group performance. Things were now heating up a bit with the atmosphere and all.

Remembrance Poppy (ANZAC)

(In the photo above, it reads of a poem called 'In Flanders Fields' written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae)

Everyone seems to be wearing these red poppy's everywhere I turn. 'Why' I ask myself. I think it through and then remember that this coming Thursday is Australian and New Zealand Army Corps also known as (ANZAC) Day itself. A day to remember and embrace the brave soldiers that fought at Gallipoli through World War I.

At first I wondered why people wore the red poppy's. But as I came to know and research upon the very subject, I found out that people seemed to wear these very specific flowers because in the time of the war, there was only mud as surface in the Flanders Fields. But the only plant that seemed to want to grow over the time of the war were poppy's. They surrounded the dead bodies in the field, which seemed to be very strange but an acute mystery. Which therefore the red poppy has become a symbol that has been used since 1920 to commemorate who have died in war.

Tomorrow there will be a dawn service down at the Auckland Museum. I may not attend but I do so pay my respects from where ever I may be at the time. And I do hope everyone else would do the same too!