Cultural diversity set to be celebrated on Waitangi

Karen Hepi-TeKeeti, left, and Toni Hepi-TeKeeti are set to celebrate Waitangi Day.

A number of events are planned across the Bay to mark Waitangi Day on Thursday - including a dawn service in Mount Maunganui.

This will be the third year the annual event has been held at Hopukiore (Mount Drury) after being moved from the top of Mauao.

Tauranga City Council event organiser Keren Paekau said about 200 people usually attended the dawn service and the city was expecting the same this year.

Everybody comes down and sits on the bank, she said.

"This year's theme is celebrating cultural diversity, we have tried to bring that through in the programme," she said.

"Involving everyone, that is what the day is about, celebrating everybody."

The day starts at 6.30am with a karakia (blessing) by tangata whenua followed by a community service and an open forum giving participants an opportunity to have their say about Waitangi Day.

The event had been taking place since the 1970s and was initiated by Maori elders.

Historic Village Waitangi Day event organiser Natalie Hepi-TeKeeti said there was going to be "heaps of stuff for people to do" in the Historic Village on Waitangi Day.

The day was used as a positive way to remember New Zealand history but celebrate the unity of cultures within it, she said.

The day would feature live entertainment, kapa haka, ethnic food stalls, holistic and health workshops, and media and photography.

She had put together a collaboration of images, from the 1800s to today, of New Zealand history that would be played in the village on the day.

The day still impacts many of us but is also a way to remember how we have moved forward from the past, she said.

"Instead of handing out pamphlets on the day, we have presented it in a media that will run throughout the course of the day, people will be able to relate and connect to how we have evolved as people."

The event starts at 10am and finishes at 5pm.