Pasifika Festival brings passionate celebration of culture to Hastings

Tumema Faioso organiser of the Pasifika Festival sets out chairs with committee members Judy Sali-Siaki and Setu Pio at the Hastings Sports Centre. Photo Warren Buckland

The Hastings Sports Centre will be transformed into a Pasifika wonderland tomorrow with war dances, drum beats and graceful singing.

The Hawke's Bay Pasifika Festival is celebrating the culture of the Pacific islands while bringing the community together in unity.

Organiser Mema Faioso said this was the first time they have had the event since 2015 and after leaving the Bay for university, realised how little the region did for the Pasifika community.

Ms Faioso said they had brought together their knowledge, experiences and passion to ensure they established an occasion that would encourage all generations of the Hawke's Bay Pasifika community, now and in the years to come, to value their cultural identities.

"We are a young group of organisers who saw the gap so we want to make sure our community is recognised. What better way to do this than through dance and food."

Ms Faioso said this event would just be the introduction to say hello and let people know who they were but they were hoping to turn it into something more in the future.

The festival runs from 8am until 11.30am and will include traditional singing, dancing and food from different groups.

"There will be everything from the drum beats from the Cook Islands, to the war dances from Fiji and Tonga to the graceful Samoan girls singing."

On the food front there will be pork buns, bok choy, rice and your "traditional island food" produced by a Fijian group and some Pacific youth groups.

As well as the traditional entertainment Ms Faioso had organised for a range of educational stalls to be placed throughout the centre with a vision to see their community thrive in all aspects of life, raise their socio-economic status and to see a decrease in long-term health issues.

Some of the stalls include members of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board and EIT.

For more information visit their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/events/1828983693798349.