Wakakirri 

On Tuesday the 6th of August, students from Modbury School P-6 participated in the 2024 Wakakirri festival. There was a buzz of excitement in the atmosphere as students made their way to the dressing rooms to prepare for the event.

We found out that the catch phrase of Wakakirri is 'Chookas' and that this was a 'good luck saying' in the Wakakirri world. 

Wakakirri is a national festival for Australian schools that provides a platform for students to express their thoughts, feelings, and aspirations through the art of storytelling and dance. 

Inspired by the belief that great stories can inspire change, Wakakirri is designed to promote students' engagement, and well-being in schools through the creation and performance of captivating Story-Dances.

This year’s theme was ‘Belonging’, and we decided to use our platform to showcase the wonderful community we have at Modbury School P-6, and show that no matter where you come from, you will always belong at Modbury.

We worked together to choreograph a 3 minute performance which highlighted some of the cultures represented at our school, including Aboriginal, Irish, Indian, Nepali, and Spanish cultures. This year, one of the key initiatives of the event was to demonstrate a movement towards sustainability, which we chose to reflect through our set/props and costume design. Modbury School P-6 students wore their school uniform with different accessories to represent each culture, and used the screen projections to display world flags and images of our school.

Each small group of students performed a short dance to traditional music to identify each culture. The performance culminated with students removing their black jumpers and accessories, and revealing their school shirts to represent their coming together as a community. They performed as a large group to our final song, which finished with the lyrics ‘It's not where you come from, It's where you belong, Nothing I would trade, I wouldn't have it any other way. You're surrounded, By love and you're wanted, So never feel alone, You are home with me, Right where you belong’! This song was the perfect representation of our school community.

We would like to acknowledge our staff who have worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to help our students with their performance. We would like to thank Mrs. A, Marissa, and Nicola, along with Mrs. Slater, Mrs. Curtis, and Mrs. Flavel for their time spent sourcing costumes, finding music, organising holiday rehearsals, booking buses, and travelling into the Norwood Town Hall to support our 2024 Wakakirri team. 

We would also like to recognise our wonderful students who participated in the festival. Throughout the rehearsals and the performance they showed a willingness to try, creativity, determination, perseverance, and resilience. We are incredibly proud of you all, and hope to see you in Wakakirri 2025. Well Done!