Tu Tangata Poly Festival

Tu Tangata Poly Festival
MEDIA RELEASE

22 July 2017

Festival of strong Pasifika performances – tradition, leadership and excellence

The Tu Tangata Wellington Secondary Schools’ Poly festival 2007 will take place this Tuesday, 25 July at the Michael Fowler Centre, featuring 9 student led groups with close to 700 students showcasing Pasifika performance.

The festival is run by a Tu Tangata komiti made up of participating schools, students and teachers.

“We are proud of our beginnings, the Tu Tangata tradition and hard work we as schools and the Pasifika community have put into the festival not only to maintain its place, retain its roots but ensure it grows” says Tu Tangata Komiti Chair and Wellington Girls College teacher, Phoebe Tiatia, the proud host of this year’s event.

The festival is an incredibly popular event due to its reputation and this tradition. Every year the festival is a sold out event even though it has moved from the Opera House to the bigger Michael Fowler Centre.

“Capacity is always full at the venue with over 2,000 people attending. In addition to the seven slots we have available for local colleges to perform, like every year we have created another 2 slots for colleges from outside the Wellington region to build their capability and recognise loyalty to Tu Tangata when participating college numbers were small.”

“It is a great event for the Capital and for the participating schools, helping strengthen Pasifika language, culture and identity through performance and foster leadership roles for Pasifika students,” says Miss Tiatia.

The event is supported by the Tu Tangata colleges through their Principals, Boards of Trustees, and Pacific teachers. It celebrates Pacific performances and fosters Pacific Youth Leadership, as student representatives from each college are part of the organising Komiti and lead their poly groups within the schools.

The festival also includes scholarship awards for Pacific students with leadership qualities pursuing tertiary studies (first year undergraduate) from participating schools.

Participating Tu Tangata schools are; Wellington East Girls College, St Catherine’s College, Wellington Girls’ College (Host), St Mary’s College, St Patrick’s College Wellington, Rongotai College and Wellington College. The invited schools are Taita College and St Bernard’s who have been performing with Tu Tangata since 2004.

The Tu Tangata schools thank WCC, Pasifika Futures, AUT Vakatele research, Connect Global, NZQA, USO Rides and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/TuTangataPolyFestival/
ENDS.

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