14 Different Cultures on show at ASB Polyfest

14 Different Cultures on show at ASB Polyfest today

The world’s largest Maori & Pacific Island festival, the ASB Polyfest, celebrates the diverse cultures of New Zealand today with an array of performance groups hosted on the Maori and Diversity stages.

The Hapai Te Haurora Maori stage will host kapa haka all day today, while The Office of Ethnic Affairs Diversity stage will show off a wide range of cultural performances.

A record 54 groups have entered the Diversity Stage this year from a variety of cultures. There are twenty six Indian groups, five Chinese groups, five Fijian groups, three Korean groups, three Filipino groups, two Japanese groups, two Sri Lankan groups, two Middle-Eastern groups, two African groups, one Thai group, one Malaysian group, one Indo-Fijian group and one Tuavalu group

One of the judges on the Diversity Stage, Jumana Shakeer preformed at the ASB Polyfest herself in 2007, where she was encouraged to enter the Miss Indian NZ pageant by organiser, Mr Dharmesh Parikh. Jumana agreed to enter Miss India NZ in 2009, if her father, who was crowned Mr Mumbai in 1977, flew over from Indian to watch. He did, and proved a good luck charm, as she won the NZ title and now flies to Durban tomorrow (19 March) to compete in the Miss Indian Worldwide Beauty Pageant.

Before she flies to Durban, Jumana Shakeer will judge at the ASB Polyfest today to encourage students to better themselves through performing arts.

Another feature of the Diversity Stage will be performances from “Pasifik Spice” – a group of Tongan girls who wears Sari’s and dance to Bolliwood songs. They will be on stage in the breaks between the school group performances at 11:30am and 2:20pm today.

A new education initiative at the ASB Polyfest which debuts today, is the “My Culture & Me” programme for Primary and Intermediate students. This programme sees a large number of primary and intermediate schools given a taste of the ASB Polyfest. They will receive their own powhiri at 9:30am in the ASB Village, and then spend the morning in the ASB Village engaging in interactive activities with groups including The Order of St John, Surf Lifesaving, Northern Region Coastguard and a display demonstrating the GetWise primary school financial literacy programme. Students will tour around the festival stages in the afternoon, and will complete a number of activities and challenges on their festival tour.

Meanwhile, the Maori stage will be back in full wing with fourteen groups set to impress the judges with kapa haka performances from 9am – 4pm.

The 35th Anniversary of the ASB Polyfest takes place at the Manukau Sportsbowl from 17 – 20 March. Entry is $4.

ends

© Scoop Media