While schools in Rarotonga showcase their cultural heritage, the small but mighty schools of Omoka and Tetautua in Penrhyn/Tongareva, 1400 kilometres away, are making history.

According to principal, Apii Napa, for the first time in their history, these Penrhyn schools have come together to celebrate Tongareva’s “rich” culture of traditional and contemporary dance, presenting singing, chant, and drumming performances to their community.

“Our culture festival on Thursday was an awesome success, delivered and supported by all the teachers and the communities of Omoka and Tetautua,” says Napa.

Culture is one of the disciplines apart from academics and sports that the teachers deliver in Penrhyn schools.

Napa says the teachers were keen to plan for and experience a culture festival like the schools on Rarotonga.

The culture festival was based on this year’s Te Maeva Nui them of “Te au ava Rongonui o taku Matakeinanga/henua”.

Omoka and Tetautua schools chose each of Tongareva’s three main channels to focus their performances on.

Tetautua School represented the channel (canal) situated in Tetautua itself named “Takuha”.

Omoka School was split into two districts to represent the two channels in the area.

The Ohire Hou district students represented “Taruia” – the main channel where the boats enter and leave the island, and the Ohire Tumu students represented “Sekerangi” – a channel to the north of the island.

Each team selected two items from the following list of – pese (chant), kapa rima (action song), ura pa’u (drum dance), ute or a string band performance.

Tetautua School’s Takuha team chose to perform a combination of traditional and contemporary items, including a march-in, a kapa rima, and finishing off with a rock-n-roll number, supported by the Pa Metua of the Tetautua community.

Omoka School’s Taruia group produced a kapa rima, closing off with an ura pa’u.

The Sekerangi group presented a “pese” chant and an ura pa’u as a finale for the cultural event.

Napa would like to say “meitaki poria” and acknowledge the Bank of the Cook Islands (BCI), their Member of Parliament Sarakura Tapaitau, and kind and supportive families who contributed cash prizes to the total of $3000 that will be distributed to each school account.

“I’d also like to acknowledge my hard-working teachers who had to work with each community to pull off this awesome culture festival programme for all of Tongareva.”

To end the wonderful day’s event, the entire island of Tongareva went home with a raurau kai that held a piece of the roast chicken leg quarter, traditional Tongareva umu bread, and the infamous rice.