Welcome to the Cultural Area Homepage of Auckland Grammar School. The school offers a range of involvement in cultural activities including Maori and Pacific Island Cultural Groups, School Productions, numerous music performance groups, debating and public speaking.

Kapa Haka Group Perform at Assembly - March 2012

Pacifica Group Perform at Assembly - March 2012

AGS/EGGS School Show 'Oliver' - May 2011 

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Oliver! on a splendid season!

The season ended with superb performances from both casts on the final two nights. It was a performance abounding in colour, energy, passion, and verve! Well done and thank you to all staff who helped to make the show memorable and successful. Thanks also must go to all parents who have supported their sons through a tiring yet rewarding season. Our students are incredibly fortunate to have you.
 

Photos from rehearsals:

Patrick Cho (Mr Bumble) and Ophelia Wass (Widow Corney)

Patrick Cho (Mr Bumble) and Ophelia Wass (Widow Corney)

Olivier Laugeray-Cleaver (Mr Brownlow) and Siobhan Grace (Nancy)

The India Tour - Dec 2009-Jan 2010

My Experience by Richard Lowe (7A 2009)

There are many ways I could write a reflection on our sensational trip; probably many ways much more funny, interesting and engaging!
But I guess for my own sake I want to focus on discovering and expressing what affect it had on me.

As a group we unanimously acknowledged that when we told people (unless a best friend or eager aunty) how our trip was, the account would need to be pretty condensed. My thirty second version has evolved into something like this:

" It was so awesome for everyone ay! Just the most fun, adventure and life learning you could fit in a month. We went right across the country; Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata; obviously doing all the touristy things like the Taj Mahal and all the royal forts and palaces. But I guess the part I felt so lucky about was all the charity stuff we got involved in. We worked at Mother Teresa's hospital for the sick and dying for a month which was pretty ~ illustrative facial expression ~ . Plus the teacher in charge of the tour got us connected with these voluntary organizations which played sports with street/slum kids and that was sooo cool. We got to go to their homes, eat proper Indian with them! On the floor! With our hands! So yeah, there were some pretty special experiences like that. But ummmm, just so glad I went ay! "

That's all true, and there are a hundred fantastic anecdotes I could tell but what it doesn't answer, and what I really want to know is, how have those 28 days impacted me?

Something that particularly interested me about this trip was its exposure to sickness, suffering and pain. Rather naively, I thought I was going to learn heaps about these things and gain some magical wisdom/understanding on the mystery dying.
In the end, I began to grasp that death is standard, almost routine.
Everyone's heart stops beating one way or another. What is special is life! You can do so little about dying, but you can do so much in living.

We saw countless people throughout the country with next to no material wealth but they were incredibly at peace. And even though I’ve heard a million times "you don't need money to be happy", only India genuinely convinced me. I think the truth is; as long as you have a reasonable level of health and physical/mental wellbeing, you have the potential to be deeply happy.
I feel vitalized to "live life to the full” and more than ever, I feel a commitment as well as a desire to help everyone I can have a joyous and worthwhile existence. Whether that's giving part of my income to Oxfam, mentoring youth in Auckland, counselling an old friend, or just trying to exude an all round positivity! You get the idea.

Two quotes have been buzzing round my mind since I’ve been back in NZ and will be for a while.
"Charity begins at home"
"The unexamined life is not worth living"
Make what you like of them but I particularly want to elaborate on the significance of the second one for me.
On the tour we became very familiar with the process of reflection and this is something I feel is crucially important now. I want to make sure I take time to examine my life, think about where I’ve been, how I got there, who I met and where I’m going. In India it helped me to know myself better and have control of my life, so I hope to continue.
Also, in that month away I started to appreciate further and further the need to have an open mind. There's so much we don't know, plus we are often presumptuous in what we think we know. If we fail to examine and challenge the accepted beliefs/ opinions from time to time, there is a danger of being unjust in our attitudes and judgments.

It's not that I was oblivious to the things I’ve mentioned before I went away, it's just nowadays they are remarkably strong and clear in my mind. I have more confidence in my way of thinking and more zeal in my path forward.

For the trip and the opportunity to experience what I experienced, I'm ever grateful.
For the 6 billion people presented with the awesome gift of life, I now realize that we are responsible for each other.

Head Prefect 2009, Sam Burridge, with some new friends.