Tongan Language Week Assembly

As mentioned in our previous post, this week has been Tongan Language Week! Today we had an amazing assembly to celebrate the culture and all those who are Tongan at our school.

We saw some incredible performances, from dancing to singing, to even sharing facts about Tonga!

Here are some photos and videos from the day.

Akanesi's Tongan Speech from Tamaki Primary on Vimeo.


Tongan Group Performance from Tamaki Primary on Vimeo.

Let us know what you think and how you celebrated Tongan Language Week!.

Tongan Language Week

This week is Tongan Language week and in Room 8 we have been making Tapa Cloths to celebrate it!

Traditionally in Tonga, Tapa cloths are made from tree bark and ink. We didn't have the time to chop trees and roll out bark so we got creative and used normal A4 paper with some tea!

We use tea to dye the paper a light brown colour and scrunched it up to give it some texture. 

Students researched Tongan Tapa cloth designs and got to work creating their patterns. 

Here are some photos from the process! 

Wiriana dyeing his paper!

Wiriana dabbing the tea-bag onto the paper

Our paper drying

Perenara drawing his design

Stephney looking up designs and creating her Tapa cloth

The finished product up on the wall!

We had lots of fun making these and it was great to see the finished product. Let us know what you think of our work.

Toki sio!