Malo e lelei’
This week we have been celebrating the Tongan Language week at Tawhai Kura!
It was so lovely to see Alisi from the Ngahere Hub and Tafinga our newest Tawhai ākonga come to school today in traditional Tongan clothes.
Some of the classes have been enjoying creating some wonderful turtle artwork using patterns and layers, backgrounds, and a little bit of maths! Room’s 3, and 5 shared them in their fortnightly assembly earlier today although they haven’t quite been finished yet.
Room 7 did a colour activity with Tongan vocabulary and painting flowers from the island.
The Tapa you see in the photo that Katea-Ifuna, Alisi, and Tafinga are standing in front of was all put together from patterns coloured in by the younger Tamariki. These Pasifika designs are based on traditional tapa cloth. Tapa cloth comes from around the Pacific but can be called different things in different countries. In Tonga it is called a Ngatu.
The proverb at the top of the tapa artwork in the photo is from Samoa:
Olupe sa vao ese’ese, ae ua fuifui faaatasi.
We are different parts of the forest but are connected in one cause. We work together as we appreciate our Pacific heritage.
The Tamariki also learnt the Tongan welcome song and listened to it several times during the week!
Some of our senior ākonga also had lots of fun learning a Tongan stick game called heu.
There will be an album of photos posted later today of all the fun activities celebrating Tongan Language Week!
