August is a significant month for Filipinos all over the world as we celebrate Filipino Language Month (Buwan ng Wika). In line with this, Banyuhay Aotearoa, a charitable trust dedicated to building a strong Filipino community in New Zealand, is holding an online video contest for Sabayang Pagbigkas or speech choir for the second year running.

Sabayang Pagbigkas is the recitation of a poem performed in unison by a group of people or choir. The poem comes to life through the tone, strength or power of the performance which may also be enhanced with the use of costumes and props, and the addition of choreography.

We are writing to extend an invitation to Rolleston College to field in an entry for this year’s Sabayang Pagbigkas Contest in the PAARALAN o BARKADA category (SCHOOL or FRIENDS category). This is a country-wide competition, and the winner will take home $1,000 in cash and the title of Sabayang Pagbigkas Grand Champion in Aotearoa New Zealand. By joining this activity, your students also get a chance to gain more knowledge and mastery of, and develop a better appreciation for the Filipino language. The competition is not only limited to your students who have Filipino heritage; the participation of non-Filipinos is highly encouraged!

To give you a preview of what video entries may look like, you can view the winning entry (St Claudine Thevenet School) from our inaugural Sabayang Pagbigkas contest last year.

We are now accepting expressions of interest. If you think this is something your students would be interested to participate in, either to represent the school or as a personal project with their friends, they can register online.

Video entry submissions will be accepted until Wednesday 31 July 2024, to allow us to showcase all the video entries for the whole month of August. The grand champions will be announced on Saturday 31 August 2024.

You can view the full details, rules and mechanics on our website.