SlavFest 2024 Festival Is Ready To Dance!

Festival Artist feature: Tarara Folklore Ensemble (Auckland) Performing at SlavFest at 12:55pm and 2:10pm, Saturday 13 April at Te Whaea National School of Dance in Newtown

What a treat! The Tarara Folklore Ensemble is coming to Wellington to dance at SlavFest! Tarara Folk Ensemble is the senior 'kolo' group of the Dalmatian Cultural Society in Auckland, one of the oldest and largest cultural societies in New Zealand, established in 1930 by some of the first immigrants from Dalmatia. Since those early times, there have been subsequent waves of immigrants to New Zealand, and Tarara is named for those original pioneers.

Kolo is the collective term for the traditional dances from the region. It translates as ‘circle’, because many of the dances are performed in a simple circle. Members of the Ensemble are aged from late teenage to their 30s, and they perform a variety of choreographies from all over the region. They are from a variety of backgrounds – Bosnian, Croatian (including the ‘Dallies’ – NZ-born Dalmatians), Macedonian, Serbian, Slovenian, as well as Hungarian, and those with no Slavic heritage at all.

Tarara members respect each other’s heritage and history, and dance together, as brothers and sisters, and as New Zealanders – because it’s fun, because it brings them together, and because it gives them a sense of something very special shared.

On the gumfields of Northland, and elsewhere in the North Island, the early Dalmatian gumdiggers were often identified as “dirty Austrians”, having emigrated from what was at the time the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They and the Māori shared many traits – a love of family, of music, of togetherness – as well as being looked down on by the authorities of the time.

The group’s name – Tarara – is one given to the Dalmatian settlers by the Māori, in the early part of last century. Tarara is a term of great respect and affection, and Dalmation people are very well regarded in this country, even being honoured with the status of Māori tribe, as ‘Ngāti Tarara’. The name Tarara refers to the fast and musical way that the pioneers’ language sounded to the Māori – ‘ta-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra.” Maori thought Dalmation people spoke very quickly – and they were right!

With so many of the immigrants arriving as single men, it was natural that they and the local Māori women married and had children. Together, they created the Tarara – a well-respected, hardworking – and goodlooking! – group of people who are part of the fabric of this country, particularly Northland. The term came to refer to all people of descent from our region.

Hence the name of the folklore ensemble, ‘Tarara’. The Tarara Folklore Ensemble will perform dances twice during the SlavFest festival of Slavid and Eastern European cultures, on Saturday 13 April at Te Whaea National School of Dance, Newtown, Wellington.

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