Fijian pupils on an educational exchange have delivered a vibrant showcase of Pacific culture at an east Auckland school.
A group of about 100 people from Lelean Memorial School in Suva spent three days last week at their sister school, Botany Downs Secondary College (BDSC).
The Fijian group was comprised of about 75 pupils with 25 teachers and parents.
The pupils performed songs and dances at the school in Botany for about two hours on August 29 followed by another 30 minutes the next day.
Almost the entire BDSC roll as well as a large number of teachers turned out to watch the showcase staged in their courtyard at lunchtime.
“They performed a Christian hymn and their school song, they did some numbers in English, and they sang a favourite farewell song from Fiji,” says BDSC teacher Dip Achary, who taught at Lelean in the early 1990s and is one of the key people behind the visit.
The Lelean group presented a large Fijian carving to BDSC associate principal Kerrie Holmes before the local school’s First XV rugby team performed a rousing haka to thank their Fijian visitors for their performance.
Achary says in 2007 the BDSC board was ready to establish a sister school partnership in Fiji.
“They came to me, knowing I was from Fiji. I took two board members to Fiji and we had a look at a few schools.
“This [Lelean] is one of the schools I’d taught at before. I thought they could get something out of what we were trying to do to make a sister school and that we could help them out.
“In 2008 they came here and we signed an agreement and we became sister schools.”
Achary says at that time Lelean had a roll of about 1600 pupils, which is similar to BDSC’s size back then.
“Every trip we make we go to their church service and all those things and our kids love it.
“This last year we had our sixth tour of Fiji. We call our tour ‘Fiji Service Trip’.
“We do a 10-day trip and six days we spend at the school. We organise ourselves here in terms of collecting library books, old clothing, computers, and we fundraise to get painting materials and we send it before us. Half a container of stuff.
“We arrive there and we’ve got all our stuff ready to be donated to the school.
“Once we donate it we work in their library and paint a few classrooms with them and we enjoy it.”
The focus when a Lelean group visits BDSC is different, Achary says.
“Their first trip was a choir trip in 2008. This time they’ve arrived here with a choir group.
“This is the biggest group, of 100 students, teachers and parents. They’ve also come here on a rugby tour with a First XV.
“Lelean Memorial School is known as a very strong rugby-playing school in Fiji.”
Achary says the sister school relationship is about the schools learning from each other and respecting their rules and organisation when they visit.
“We learn a lot from Lelean in terms of their culture and their values and when we go there they say they learn from us.”
