Unitec Hosts Polyfest Leaders’ Conference

Unitec Hosts Polyfest Leaders’ Conference as Preparations Get Underway for This Year’s Festival

Auckland, 21 January 2020 -- Unitec Institute of Technology will kick off preparations for this year’s ASB Polyfest by hosting the Polyfest Leaders’ Conference at its Mt Albert campus this week.

Around 150 secondary school students, leaders, teachers and support teams from across the schools represented at Polyfest will gather at Unitec for the two-day Polyfest Leaders’ Conference on Wednesday and Thursday this week. The programme will include leadership and creative workshops, along with cultural master classes, and is intended to provide students with additional tools that can be applied to Polyfest preparations, as well as home and school life.

Unitec will host the Diversity Stage at this year’s ASB Polyfest for the second year running, working in conjunction with the Diversity Stage Coordinators and Stage Host School Aorere College.

Polyfest is the largest Māori and Pacific Islands Festival in the world, and features traditional music, dance and speech from more than 12,000 Auckland secondary school students on six different stages: Cook Islands, Maori, Niue, Samoan, Tongan and Diversity. The event, which is in its 45th year this year, is billed as a celebration of youth performance and a showcase of New Zealand’s diverse cultures.

Andrea Thumath, Director of Unitec Pathways College (UPC) and Students Under-25 Success, said,

“We’re delighted to be partnering with the ASB Polyfest again, and in particular to have guardianship of the Diversity Stage. We look forward to welcoming students and teachers to Unitec this week to help them prepare for Polyfest, and to celebrate the diversity of communities we have here in Auckland.”

ASB Polyfest will be held from 18-21 March at the Manukau Sports Bowl.

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