Close to 200 Nukutere College students ended this school term on a high note, reviving some traditional practices and celebrating their culture.

Held at the school compound on Wednesday and Thursday, the 28 staff assisted the students with making the umu, a traditional practice which they hope to instill in the younger generation through competition, as well as a string-band competition.

These were the final events of the 2024 Interhouse Competition, which had always been about sports until six years ago when Nukutere College staff introduced traditional games. Then last year, they changed it from traditional games to traditional activities where the school had a umu-making and a string band competition.

Nukutere College principal Delaney Yaqona explained that while the games were historically good, they wanted to do something more on a regular basis and teach life skills that the children are missing out on.

“Everybody loves to make the umu but the problem with our young kids is they don’t know how to make it and when our old people go, who’s going to make their umu? They’ll end up buying it from the shop,” Yaqona said.

“So that’s been the biggest thing for us, is getting our kids hand on making the umu, preparing it before they eat it.”

The event started on Wednesday at 12 noon where all the four school houses started digging their umu pits, collected their stones, firewood and prepared their umu.

At 5am on Thursday morning, they started putting down their umu and by 7am, it was all done. At 11am, they had the second part of the competition which was their string band competition.

All four houses performed in the string band competition in different colours followed by uncovering the umu for the judges to have the final inspection of their cooked food before they all shared the feed.

“First of all, it’s an inter-house competition which happens in all schools but for us, with the traditional part of it, we want our kids to fully engage in true Cook Islands activities,” Delaney emphasised.