Polyfest 2017 (Polynesian Festival)....

 Polyfest (Polynesian Festival) 2017 is on again for the 42nd year, so I'm told. I still remember the early days when only a few schools were involved back in the 1970s and my school, being one of the first multicultural schools, was also involved.

However, I didn't participate due to my father's emphasis on academic success plus that fact that we often rehearsed and performed various cultural dances at church growing up so it wasn't such a big thing for us. 

Now, I see how important this festival is for those who have been brought up in Auckland but often may only speak English at home but have Pasifika ancestry/blood ties through parents/grandparents etc. It's also neat for those who aren't of Pasifika ancestry but who would like to learn the dances, this also gives them the chance too and often you'll see different cultural mixes in the dances.

The Polyfest boasts at being the largest festival of it's kind in the world. With 5 stages of: Maori, Samoan, Cook Islands, Niuean, Tongan and a diversity stage. The festival starts with the ceremonial Maori powhiri (welcoming ceremony) opening which occurred yesterday with Auckland mayor, Phil Goff, addressing the attendees and declaring it to start for another year.

The festival takes place over 4 days and each culture has specific performance times and specific dances to perform. The competition is fierce in some instances with bragging rights and a trophy for the winning school. The other neat thing is that you can also get performing arts/dance credits which is also a plus.

But not all the stages are competitive as there is also a non-competitive section and the diversity stage where schools are able to share other dance groups such as the Indian, 

The festival takes place in the Manukau Sportsbowl and each stage is strategically placed so that people can bring along mats, lavalava etc. to sit down and view. There are also lots of Pasifika and other ethnic food stalls, educational stalls, clothing etc. doing promos and advertising for youth and families to have a look at their wares.

The sponsors are even competitive with Universities and many tertiary institutes sponsoring stages and Te Wananga o Aotearoa, my place of work, is also one of the major sponsors. So good to know that this festival is still growing from strength to strength even to the point where there is now a Maori school's festival in which kura (Maori schools) get together to perform and compete.

And so the heartbeat of the Pacific continues to be shared through song and dance, staging and rehearsing, sharing our Pasifika myths and legends for the next generations. With much more to come...