The Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Kapa Haka Super 12s competition was held in Auckland today, but this year a new rule saw secondary schools and adult teams go head-to-head on stage. Papakura High School's ‘Kahurangi ki Uta’ took to the stage for the first time.
Kahurangi ki Uta from Papakura High School is preparing to take the Super 12 stage for the very first time.
Moananoa Rountree, "It's exciting. It's different especially for our school because we don't really get many opportunities like this."
The students chose suicide as the theme for their contemporary performance; dedicated to former student Sione Nau who passed away in 2014.
Moananoa says, "Because he was a cheeky boy we're trying to show the audience the positive things that we remember him for and try show the negative things that happened but try not overpower the happiness."
It was a topic the group's tutor commended them for taking on.
Tutor Leroy Paul says, "Whakamomori is massive within our community. Not only in our community but amongst our taiohi as well. I just felt it was important that we bring that to light and show the importance of whanau and friends and that everyone is special, everyone is kind, everyone is smart and everyone is important."
Robert Downes says, "We just feed off each others energy, just try be confident in ourselves, and yeah just feed off each others positive energy."
The team took to the stage, the crowd cheered and obviously liked what they saw.