07 Feb 2010
The Niu FM Postively Pasifika Festival in Waitangi Park lets Wellingtonians sample the tastes, sights and sounds of the real Pacific.
Communities from seven island nations – the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu – will take part in the festival on Saturday 13 February.The festival will open with a formal ceremony from 11am-12 noon, followed by stage entertainment until 5pm. There’ll be singing, dancing and the clothes from all the different cultures and the headline acts on the big stage will be The Yandall Sisters and Cindy from Samoa.Food that’s rarely seen outside the Pacific community will be available from 9am, along with arts and crafts that are usually only available in Pacific countries.The food will be a feast of different Pacific cooking styles, ranging from palusami, oka, poke banana and Cook Island donuts to umu – food steam-cooked with hot rocks.There’ll be treasures to discover, including tapa cloth, soaps and the exotic black pearls of the Cook Islands.The festival has attracted organisations with a close interest in Pacific countries, such as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which will display part of its Pacific collection. There’ll also be a chance to have health checks.
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