A Matariki Performance (June 18 2025)
MATARIKI CELEBRATION⭐!!
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| My parents took this photo |
(names used in this blog are not their actual names)
Like most people, they would feel extremely nervous before they perform. But here's the thing. I'm not like "most people". I'm Sophia, and well, I've done this before, so I don't feel a single ounce of nervousness.
I walk into my school at around 4pm. The call time is 4pm, but the performance starts at 5. At the same time, we have a Matariki celebration to guess what, celebrate Matariki. It also starts at 5pm. Our performance is to welcome people. We are "the start".
I glance at my surroundings. There's a couple of kids, playing ball-relating activities. The air is quite frigid, but then again it's literally winter time in NZ. Making my way towards the Reading Recovery, I wonder if I was the last person who's arrived and hasn't been dressed up in kapa haka gear.
Apparently that's so, because kids in all different heights and clothes are scattered across the room.
Without any hesitation, I grab my dress and find a room to dress up in.
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This is probably one of the times where I look so... different; when I wear my kapahaka gear. I stare at the mirror, my reflection showing a Sophia wearing a red and white feather stuck on my bun, a dress, and a moko*. Not what you see everyday.
Anyway, I get out of the room and check my watch. It reads 4:30. 30 more minutes till the performance starts. 1800 seconds. Not a long time.
I love performing, but there's always this one thing that annoys me a lot. The waiting process. It is excruciating, and to be honest, I don't even know why the call time was at 4pm in the first place.
Mark calls us in for a rehearsal. Another one? We literally practiced like at 2:00pm, I think to myself. But alas, this is practically inevitable. I begrudgingly walk up to outside, the last place I wanted to be. It's a literal freezer outside.
Both genders in Kapa haka have flaws, that's for sure. The boys yell when they sing and they sound... uh, terrible. I have never wanted to be more deaf in my life when I hear them sing. For the girls, it's the opposite. They sound awesome, except that they sing too softly. How ironic is that? And the worst part is that the girls' singing is outnumbered by the amount of boys who are yell-singing. It's a problem that no one really wants to point out.
Mark strums the guitar, and we begin the rehearsal.
One more time.
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It's 5pm. The performance is gonna open with Aisha, a Maori girl, say an opening speech. Then we go through song by song. And all of that is gonna happen right about now.
Everyone hurriedly takes off their shoes and socks off so that they're barefooted, and steps into the numbingly cold concrete. It feels like I'm stepping in an ice skating rink. That's how cold it is. Peering down, I can see a thin layer of ice forming in my feet. It really is a freezer out here.
Luckily, there are mats out, so our legs won't be frozen popsicle sticks after all.
Ryan, our teacher, hands a microphone to Aisha, and she grabs it. Whatever nervousness she's experiencing right now, she's masking it really well. I would be trembling if I were her. She fidgets with moving her feet slightly, but still delivers a great and short speech. She pulled that off super well.
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| My parents also took this photo |
We remain as still statues and Mark - for the billionth time - strums the guitar, and we sing, without hesitation.
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Song by song, we go through them one at a time, like we always do at practices. It feels like one, despite the many faces that are looking at us in awe. Sure, Mark went a bit off-key with his strumming, but that was only once when he fumbled and he recovered from that quite quickly.
And then we're done. It's quite unbelievable how quick that went. The crowd that encircles us in front erupts into applause, and I'm glad that all our efforts had paid off.
I can't wait for the next one.
GLOSSARY
*Kapa haka is a group of people who sing Maori songs. It's sort of like a choir, but we have props that we use in both rehearsals and on stage, like poi (poi is the white bulb thingys on our waists) or piu piu (the dresses that the third row is using)
*moko is a tattoo in Maori culture. We used ink, so it wasn't permanent. You can find us wearing mokos under girls' chins, or on the boys' cheeks
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