Minutes after stepping off stage with her two daughters and husband at her side, an exhilarated Keri Milne-Ihimaera was a picture of pride and satisfaction at a job well done.

Keri, Tumuratonga at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, performed with Te Taitokerau rōpū Te Puu Ao at Te Kahu o Te Amorangi Te Matatini 2017 on Thursday and says the most enjoyable part of her time on stage was being able to share it with her husband and two daughters, who were also in the rōpū.

“Whānau, that’s the best thing,” she says.

“To be able to perform next to my husband and my children, and to have my children involved in the tutoring is awesome. For us it’s really a whānau affair, the kapa haka is kind of a secondary thing, whānau is the main thing, that’s why we’re doing it.”

She was happy with their performance and says it felt like they performed at their best.

“We were so excited to do a good job and it feels like we’ve done that for our whānau so it’s awesome. Like all groups, you’ve put in a lot of work for this for those few minutes on stage so you might as well go hard so that’s what we did. Or that’s what I think we did. It feels good.”