ROEBOURNE TEACHER'S HAKA FOR DAUGHTER GRADUATION GOES VIRAL

Phillip and Louanna Smiler hail from Aotearoa. They moved to Roebourne from Japan in 2023 after an opportunity to teach at the local school became available. 

Phillip teaches high school students, and Louanna works as an EA at Roebourne High School. 

They recently flew to Utah to surprise their daughter Kaylee,, who graduated from University with a human resources degree. 

Phillip explained that Kaylee was graduating with a Master's. She was on a basketball scholarship, and the university paid for him and his wife to be present. It was a surprise.

“I rang all my Maori friends over there. And I said I'm coming, let's do something to surprise Kayleigh.” 

Phillip performed a Haka with his friends, which has been viewed over one million times on TikTok. 

Louanna Smiler is the mother of Kaylee and explained that they hid in the tunnels until it was time for the big reveal. 

“I came up beside her, and she looked at me and got a huge surprise and said, oh my goodness, and then she looked to her other side looking for her father, and he wasn't there, and she said she had thought. Oh, it's just mum. Oh, that's wonderful mum's here. But then she looked straight ahead, and they had brought the men forward from the other entrance. And Phil was right there in the middle. And that's when she just, you know, got a big and very emotional surprise, which was a wonderful surprise at the moment. She had no idea.”

Daughter Kaylee was in Perth in June 2024, playing basketball for the Willeton Tigers.