MC Yearbook FINAL FULL HiRes

Samoan Group
Ne’i sopo ane le manuvale
I le fogātia ona
tu’ufesiligia,
Po’o ai ea ua le silafia
Tama sasa’o o le a
fa’afiafia
Kolisi o Magele o le a
fa’afiafia
Usi mai la’ia lau silasila
Magele o le a fa’afiafia…
First and foremost, I would like to
give all the glory and honour to
our Heavenly Father for His never
ending love, support and guidance
throughout our Samoan Group’s
journey to Polyfest 2016. The
theme for this year’s Polyfest was
'Return to our natural resources -
for body and spiritual wellbeing',
“Toe fo’i i le natura o mea e maua
ai le atoaga o le tagata. Toe tepa i
tua iā Samoa anamua i lou ‘āiga, o
lou malosi’aga; o ou laufanua o lou
fa’asinomaga.”
The Samoan group started off with
trials in the auditorium where each
student was asked to showcase
a Samoan dance for at least one
minute. They were then tested on
vocals and their speed of learning
some fast sāsā moves.
We were fortunate enough to be
tutored by a group of tutors who
20 Mangere College - 2016
sacrificed their own time for the
benefit of our group: Iulia Ioane,
Ida Williams, Gardenia Va’a, Tua
Toleafoa and Musualeaigaatoa
Tapu. Working together with
our tutors were our dedicated
teachers Mr Fesulua’i, Mrs Smith
and Mrs Ah Sam. We are very
thankful for their support and
supervision leading up to Polyfest
2016.
This year we had a group of
55 students who represented
the Samoan group at Polyfest
under the leadership of Melania
Aga’imalo, Anitele’a Ah-Mann,
Mema Futi, Epifania La’avasa,
Gasolo Lemoe, Angelina Ne’emia,
Mike Pio, Danita Samuelu,
Clarence Soti and Numia To’omata.
Practices were arranged from
Monday to Friday from 3:30pm to
6:00pm, also on Saturdays from
10:00am onwards.
Our first week of practices went
smoothly. We started off learning
songs for the Ma’ulu’ulu, and
Pese o le Aso. As the weeks went
by practices became intense and
extended practices were required.
Around this time, we learnt
the rest of our items: Ulufale
(entrance), Taualuga (final song)
and Ulufafo (exit). Leaders also
organised interval and lunch time
practices for those who needed
to catch up. The sacrificing of
precious study hours and free
time was necessary to ensure the
whole group was synchronised
and ready.
We all had three hours of sleep
and then practised again from
7.00am to 5.00pm. The practices
became intense and the pressure
became more ardent. However, we
managed to encourage each other
and overcome all the challenges
we faced.
The day we had all been working
towards finally arrived and all
the nerves kicked in. We were all
nervous at performing in front
of hundreds of people, but at
the same time we were hungry
for that 1st place again. Mangere
College was the last to perform
on Friday, 19th March, 2016, and
you could feel the nervousness of
students and the anticipation even
before we performed.
'...we walked off
stage with pride and
honour knowing
that as one team,
we had delivered
an astonishing
performance.'