Tongan Language Week

Malo e lelei!

Tongan Language Week

For Tongan Language Week the Mighty Ducks were to make a class tapa to add to a larger Rowandale School Tapa.

We were excited to get started.  We first looked at some examples of Ngatu, Tongan Tapa cloth.

We especially liked the Fata'o Tu'i Tonga.  It looked very interesting and we needed a ruler to help make the pattern.  We also liked the Manulua.  It is meant to look like bird wings. The Hala Paini symbol was also neat.  It represents the Norfolk Pine and has pointy tree branches, plus the sun and moon are apart of the design.  Another popular choice was the Ikale Tahi.  This bird shape is like a sea eagle in flight.  Lastly, some students chose to work on the Fetu'ufuka, which is a symbol of a comet.  

Everyone worked very hard on their chosen symbol.  We used brown, black and yellow, oil pastels to colour our patterns. When we were finished creating our designs we then used brown dye over top of the pictures to make them look more like actual tapa!

Our work was put together and added to the school tapa, which was placed above the stage in the hall for our special assembly.