Pasifika month with Auckland City Council...

Auckland Town Hall, the official venue for Auckland City Council meetings

Have been so busy this past few weeks that I haven't had the chance to blog as frequently as usual and last week I attended our first Auckland City Council Pacific Advisory Panel meeting, at the Auckland Town Hall meeting rooms, for the month with so much planned to happen for our Pasifika communities.

In fact, it's known as Pasifika month with many big events happening like the Polyfest (Polynesian dance festival) held at the Manukau Velodrome around mid month i.e. the largest in the world where high schools come together to compete in various Pasifika and other cultural dance competitions over a 4 day period i.e. 13 - 16 March with cups to be presented on the final day.

This year our eldest is competing in the Tongan section which is pretty good in developing dance skills in another culture. The most competitive are probably the Samoan, Tongan and Cook Islands sections as well as the Niuean but the Indian/Bollywood section has become quite popular too.

Pasifika is the other festival which will be very popular and held over the weekend of 23 - 24 March at Western Springs Park with many bands and cultural dances etc. featuring 10 villages where you can buy food, cultural items, clothing, paraphenalia etc. Our Pacific panel group has been invited to the opening and looking forward to this event as well.

There are also a lot of Auckland City Council and local board funding available for Pasifika arts groups to apply for and am at present going through funding applications in being an arts assessor for arts funding in the South Auckland area. It's so neat to see so many Pasifika groups and talent applying and being awarded arts funding to share their arts projects with the community as well as other ethnic groups and it's so neat for me to be a part of this in supporting our communities

Am also looking at launching a book this month as a part of my contribution to the Pasifika arts focus for later this month. So will keep you in touch with the developments and looking forward to blogging about what's happening in our Pasifika communities for Pasifika month.

Ia soifua ma ia manuia (goodbye and be blessed)...