Keen support for La Fiesta festival

It felt safe being at Womad this year, knowing that this protective bubble would enable us somehow to dance through our grief ...
This is the first column I have written since La Fiesta finished up on March 10. Our 10th annual celebration of women was a cracker, and the team at the Women's Network loved every minute of it.

As the festival co-ordinator I have the privilege of working with many wonderful people who help this event come together, as partners, presenters, and participants. This year we had visitors from around the North Island, including Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Wellington, and across the Manawatu-Whanganui district. We even had some international visitors, including folk from Germany, England, and the USA.

The festival programme continues to attract newcomers, with a number of new businesses involved this year running events for the first time.
A big thank you to all of you from me for your enthusiastic support of New Zealand's coolest little festival celebrating women. We couldn't do it without you! Look out for our Winter Wonderfest coming up in August. Invitations to participate in that will be out toward the end of April.

It certainly has been a time of challenge and change for our country over the last couple of weeks following the attacks on the mosques in Christchurch on March 15. I was travelling to Womad as it was all unfolding, and it wasn't until arriving at my accommodation late that afternoon that I learned of what had taken place. Most of us would never have imagined witnessing scenes of terror like that here in our island nation, let alone experiencing them first-hand.
The Womad team were determined to let the show go on as events around the country were reviewed. It was a decision well made.

Worldwide, the festival has had at its heart a true celebration of diversity, culture, unity and love. In many ways the three days of the event acted as a microcosm of what can be achieved when people come together with a determination to respect and understand our differences, and to express our humanity through music and movement in all its myriad forms.

It felt safe being at Womad this year, knowing that this protective bubble would enable us somehow to dance through our grief, to be together without words, and to acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead for us all to work through.
One of those challenges is addressing our appalling rates of family harm.
This is a big challenge. Not only for Whanganui, but nationwide. We continue to be world-leading in our rates of intimate partner violence, and this is something we would all rather not be renowned for, or be impacted by. It runs parallel with the wider conversation stemming from the recent events in Christchurch, along with our colonial past in which underlying issues of racism and inequity continue to inform the world views and values of privilege and power.

Tonight at City College, the Whanganui Family Violence Intervention Network invites you to attend a free public talk by activist and advocate David White.
A decade ago David lost his daughter under tragic circumstances in which her life was taken by her husband, a man whom she had recently left, and who also had a history of abusing her. Through these experiences David has written two books, Helen — The Helen Meads Tragedy and Family Violence — Lifting NZ's Dark Cloud. Understanding all the ways in which family harm play out is integral to developing strategies that actively empower our communities, and the families and whanau within them. The ultimate hope and aim is that no more lives are taken or harmed in order for widespread change to occur, and for kindness to remain.
Join us for this free public event, Whanganui City College hall at 6pm for Harm Ends, Futures Begin — building safer communities by ending family violence. For more info, email: womnet.whanganui@gmail.com.