RELEASE

26 June 2013

A STORE HOUSE OF FOOD-FOR-THOUGHT

Matariki says new beginnings: An ancient festival it now has new life being breathed into it as New Zealanders celebrate traditional Maori New Year in contemporary ways.

Traditionally, a time when crops were harvested, and seafood and birds collected, with plenty of food in the storehouses, Matariki was about singing, dancing and feasting.

This year Creative Hawke's Bay is celebrating Matariki with a veritable storehouse of food for thought in the form of Matariki Pecha Kucha-style!

Creative Hawke's Bay Chair Roger King believes the event is a great way to celebrate Matariki.

"Pecha Kucha is very much about acknowledging local culture and people in a really global way. We're one of 612 places around the world to host Pecha Kucha nights and by making this one about Matariki - in all its guises - we are cementing it as a uniquely New Zealand event as well," King says.

Pecha Kucha Matariki is on Tuesday 9th July at 6pm in the Greenmeadows East Community Hall, 83 Tait Drive, Taradale. Entry is $5 and a cash bar will be operating.

Pecha Kucha was first established in Tokyo in 2003. It is based on 20 images, 20 seconds each, which gives presenters - who speak on a wide range of subjects - six minutes and forty seconds to share their story.

ENDS

For general info on pecha kucha: pechakucha.org