Tu Tangata Festival 2011

Wellington Secondary Schools present….

Tu Tangata Festival 2011

The festival is in its 33rd year and it’s still considered the biggest, little Wellington schools Pacific festival. The quality of the performances is second to none, so even though the festival is still two months away all participating schools have begun their rigorous practice schedules.

This year there are eight local schools participating – St Catherine’s (2011 Host School), Rongotai College, St Mary’s College, Wellington East Girls’ College, Wainuiomata High School, St Patrick’s College,Taita College and Bishop Viard College.

The festival is organised and managed by a volunteer komiti which consists of one teacher and two students from each of the participating schools. Although one of the main focuses of the festival is to celebrate and embrace Pacific culture through music and dance, the major focus for the komiti is to develop and foster student leadership. The students are an integral part of the komiti and are fully involved in all decisions. Each participating school is also awarded a Leadership Award to present to one of their student leaders who have shown true leadership with their group and within their school community. The award is only given to students who are continuing their education after secondary school.

Last year there were eight leadership awards issued. Melissa Ifi, who was the Komiti recipient of the award, said “receiving the award was a real incentive to go on to tertiary study. It would have been easy just to find work, but the thought of wasting that money made me decide to stick with my decision to go to uni.”

This year the Wellington Secondary Schools Tu Tangata Festival will be held on Monday 8th August 2011 from 7pm at the Wellington Opera House.

We would like to thank all the stakeholders for their on-going support of Tu Tangata and what it stands for.

ENDS

© Scoop Media