Journal Entry

Date: 26/06/21

On Saturday of the 26^th of June, 2020, I invited one of the community members, an old man which is also called ‘Te Unimwane’ to come to the school and teach our team members, orange team the local dance which is called ‘Te Waanibwanga’. This dance is one of our ancestors’ local dances which is fun and amazing. We did this because, there will be a competition between each teams based on how to dance Te Waanibwanga during the upcoming event which is ‘Cultural Day’. The winner will be announced during the ‘Cultural Day’ and there will a prize. So, that is why my team members and I worked very hard to learn appropriate ways on how to perform this dance.

The learning started with how to sing the song of the dance and everyone pay attention to an old man and they respected him very well. What I saw in students, is the willingness that they have in practicing the song. They loved learning how to sing from this old man, what I was thinking about in that moment was maybe those kids very interested in learning cultures and traditions because it was very fun for them. After learning the song, the old man asked students to stand up because they are going to do the dance practice. Surprisingly, all of them raised up and they were captured by the old man when he did the practice. They pay attention and they did the practice by looking at the old man when he danced (see appendix 2.4a – 2.4c). This time, I felt so great and be proud that my team members learnt so much easily from this old man. Spending time in helping those students to learn this dance was a great experience for me. I was there as a helper in assisting the old man and students. I encouraged and support my team members to focus and to learn the skills on this dance. Things that students learnt from this practice is not the skill on how to sing the song of ‘Te Waanibwanga’ but also the skills and techniques on how to perform it in the most fantastic way.

However, there are some students who did not want to perform this dance so they came and did not do the practice. They just walked around the school compound and spent most of their times inside other classrooms. Because I was the only teacher, I could not leave an old man with students there because the old man really needed a teacher as an assistant in controlling the students’ behavior. Not just that but also students really needed me to be there with them to feel more secured and safe with the one who is new. I was tired of calling them when they walked around but they pretended they did not hear me. In this case, the number of teachers in doing the practice, should be more than two teachers so that each of everyone in a team will attend the learning and learn effectively. They did not want to perform this dance but I think if they get involved in learning this, they will find it very fun and they will participate in performing this dance. They just look at it from the outside but they never get in and they will never find it very amazing. Other kids who hated this dance but they get involved in practicing it and they found it very entertaining.

To conclude, celebrating the ‘Cultural Day’ is very important because it is a context of the school where students learn to value their cultures, language and traditions.  We, teachers in Kiribati should work together and help each other to promote the Cultural Day so that students can see us that we care about our culture and traditions and they will do the same thing. We should work together to find ways that could make students learn the culture and traditions.