This initiative was requested to seek inclusively to get our Pasifika children to learn to know their roots and the outcome has been amazing what started out to be 6 kids aged 7 years to 14 years has now welcomed 55 kids aged 4 years to 16 years and is very diverse and is open to Everyone from all ethnicities. This has connected our Tuakau Community and also has members in our surrounding areas so we are truly thankful. This is an awesome way to bring our Tuakau community together.
Yes, we don't have a lot in our local community and we had to go outside of Waikato to get our children to learn their culture in Otara, Mangere, or as far as Ranui. This is the reason why we reached out to several dance groups and Tofilau Esther Tofilau the founder of Le Aute who lives in East Tamaki came out and saw that there is a great need to encourage the children and youth to engage in storytelling through dance and being creative and we are thankful that she has united the diverse cultural backgrounds in Tuakau and the kids have been learning ways to express their voices using creative and positive ways to express themselves wholeheartedly in dancing which is very physical. Our main barrier is the cost of our venue which we kindly got paid by the local church as their young youth are involved and keeps them off the streets. We are trying to fundraise for our uniforms and are hoping to get enough to get some island drums and props to help with our performances and teach the group the purpose of each item. This is open to both boys and girls and when the program started it only had 1 boy and we hope to get more boys join soon.
We only started in March and in the last 6 months, we have had 2 live performances and have been able to apply for donations to help us with costs. We have also been out and about talking to local families to tell them that there is a Free program run by the Le Aute Samoa Dance Academy where children get to learn new skills and are able to work together to teach one another. The program is FREE and open to everyone and All are Welcome. Le Aute has parents who actually join in to encourage their children and the boys have increased due to this - parent participation.
The community is embracing this program as it is a Free and safe environment in which the children are able to learn different cultures, the majority of the children are Maori and it is great to see the diversity in the Tuakau community and this is also an on-flow from what they learn from school through to sharing their skills in the 1.5hr every Wednesday night from 6 pm to 7.30 pm. We also get parents who actively join in and it is good to see this happening as they too get active with their children dancing together. There's no cost so it's a Free activity that they can bring their children and participate in. Some of the moves really show their stamina in being able to be active with their kids and it is a fun time to know that with dance it is also exercising too. It is also amazing to see our community come together to support the Le Aute Samoan Dance Academy as they might walk past and hear voices and singing so they come in and watch practices.
This initiative has been only 6 months and every week it is simply growing. It started with 6 girls and now has a membership list of 55 members from 4 years old through to 16 years old. It started with 5 girls and 1 boy and now we have 48 girls and 7 boys so we are growing in numbers and that is a great achievement on its own as they said dancing is too girly in the beginning but the boy's numbers have increased with them bring a friend or family member so we are hoping to continue to grow in the future. We have had positive feedback about the program and we know the more live performances the group will do the more exposure to parents who drive into Auckland to take their children when they can come to Tuakau instead.
