Hundreds of students are gearing up for the Cook Islands’ biggest school Culture Festival, which takes place every two years and will be held this year on April 9 and 10, at the National Auditorium.

Six schools will be performing on the first night and five on the second night.

For over 20 years, schools around Rarotonga have participated in this cultural event to give students the opportunity to experience, learn and showcase their culture through cultural performances such as the kapa rima, ura pau, ute and pe’e.

Maara T Scheel, who has been teaching for 24 years, is teaching Cook Islands Maori to Year 3 to 4 students at Apii Nikao. This is her fifth year at the school.

As the head of culture and Cook Islands Maori in her school, Scheel shared her understanding and significance of this event to the people of the Cook Islands.

“This function is very important to us, the people of the Cook Islands, because this is our culture and our traditional ways,” Scheel said.

“The big idea of teaching our kids the country’s tradition is to ensure that our ancestral culture will remain with our kids so they could continue our ways in the future, carrying on our history.”

The school committees gathered together to plan and organise the function before sending out a notice to the schools of Rarotonga.

Apii Nikao started their planning for this event last week. The school students are both excited and eager to showcase their performances on the second night of the event through kapa rima, pe’e and ura pau.

Scheel said that the Ministry of Cultural Development had organised for the schools to only have a participant limit of 60. She shared that this was an unfortunate rule, as many students were interested in participating

Apii Nikao will have their lower grade students showcase a short show of traditional dancing. The intermediate students will perform a pe’e and kapa rima, and the senior students will perform an ura pau for the night.

Scheel also explained the reason behind the festival taking place every two years so that the schools could have time to prepare for such an important event.

According to her, preparing or organising for such a big function isn’t easy. She said that planning, costume-making and timing for practices is a struggle because it interferes with the children’s learning.

To avoid any interference, Apii Nikao has neatly planned their festival preparation, holding practices during lunch breaks from 12.30pm to 2pm.

On the day of the festival, money donations will be collected on both nights, as is customary at any function with performances. These donations will be given to the schools to help with supplying school resources or other needs.

The event will also give senior students, especially from Tereora College, Nukutere College and Titikaveka College, with a perfect opportunity to prepare for the 60^th Te Maeva Nui festival, the biggest event of the year.

Scheel is grateful for the opportunity to share her knowledge of Cook Islands culture. She acknowledged Vodafone Cook Islands, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Cultural Development and the Cook Islands Government for their support through sponsoring and organising this event.

The event will feature food vendors selling local delicacies and beverages.

Tickets for the event will start selling this week at the schools. For adults, tickets will be $10 and for children $5.