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Ura Tabu
There is something for everyone at Pasifika Festival and leading wahine collective Ura Tabu can’t wait to strut their stuff.
For another feast of Pacific culture, you can’t go past Pasifika Festival, which opened in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland on Saturday.
The festival has returned to Western Springs, with eight villages showcasing the diverse cultures of Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Hawai’i, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tahiti, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu.
With food, merchandise and performances galore, organisers said there was “something for everyone to enjoy.”
Ura Tabu, a Pacific dance collective, is one of the groups taking part, scheduled to perform on stage in the Samoa Village on Sunday.
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Director Charlene Tedrow said it had been a “very busy start to the year for us with a lot of events like Polyfest, which left us with only two weeks to prepare for Pasifika”.
Ura Tabu has been a highlight at the festival, having performed at the event since the early 2000s.
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The Pasifika Festival is set to return to Auckland this month.
Tedrow said they take a “holistic, cross-cultural collaborative approach to our dance practices which heavily informs our community, corporate and theatre based dance works.
“We honour our roots, mixed bloodlines and indigenous value systems, while at the same time acknowledging the ever-changing and evolving environments in which we live. E sui faiga ae tumau faavae.
“Our performances are focused on wellbeing, health, vitality, longevity, and for entertainment as well.”
Tedrow said cultural celebrations such as Pasifika provided opportunities for communities to show their support for other island groups.
While the dances were not judged competitively, she said Ura Tabu always took their performances seriously – “a lot of work goes into the rehearsals, choreography, costumes”.
Ura Tabu
Ura Tabu focuses on wellbeing, health, vitality and longevity, group director Charlene Tedrow said.
Tedrow said they also work with Hawai’ian groups “sharing their space” and nurturing that relationship as cultural dance practitioners.
”On the Samoan stage, this is a chance for us to go and see who’s up and coming, the new groups, what’s the level of creativity, and we get to showcase any new work we have.”
Pasifika Festival is usually held in Western Springs every March, but a run of cancellations has forced the event out since 2018.
Previously called ‘Taste of Pasifika’, it was cancelled in March 2022 due to Covid-19 but went ahead three months later in June.
In 2019, the festival was cancelled following the Christchurch mosque shootings and then in 2020-2021 due to the pandemic.
The Lantern Festival was cancelled last month due to the floods in Auckland.
Pasifika Festival caps off a month of cultural celebrations across Auckland: Diversity Festival, Polyfest, Soul Session and first-timer Pasifika Village Games.
Te Matatini was celebrated last month while Diwali will be marked in November.
Pasifika Festival ends on Sunday.
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