An organiser is looking to make some changes from what she learned at Te Matatini to one of Aotearoa's largest Pacific festivals.
Torise Flay. a Sāmoan employee of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, was impressed by the environment and organisation of the kapa haka competition.
“I must say the comms around getting to the event, the information about the programme, some of the top tips for attending the festival, I mean this is really event geek stuff I thought was really accessible for us as festival attendees. I was really prepared prior to going to Te Matatini."
From the village of Safune in Savai’i, Flay has been running the Pasifika festival for the past six years.
She also has been planning events like this, around Aotearoa for the last 18 years.
Learning from Te Matatini to take into the Pasifika Festival.
Hosting the kaumātua
Flay believes there was a lot to take away from Te Matatini as she looks to implement some changes in next week's Pasifika Festival.
“It was the way our kaumātua, our kuia and our manuhiri were hosted, those are these little nuggets. I was keeping an eye on that lounge and just the visitors who were coming through and the way that they were looked after.
I took a lot of that away and I really want to see what I can do at Pasifika to bring that part of our festival up a level because I could just see the smiles on everyone's faces. We get that at our festival but being able to elevate that a bit more would be really quite special," she says.
The Christchurch mosque attacks and the Covid-19 lockdowns have disrupted the full running of the Pasifika festival.
With a full audience now able to walk through the event's gates, Flay is looking forward to Pacific cultures being celebrated again.
“We haven’t delivered a full festival at Western Springs, which is its home, since 2018, so that’s five years of us. We’ve planned, we’ve designed, we’ve developed, we’ve even packed in marquees and packed in stages and then a big stop and a big halt.
A Taste of Pasifika
"So for us, it’s around being able to really bring that mahi we have worked over the past five years to life,” Flay says.
A Taste of Pasifika is a pop-up stall started in 2022 that educates people about the large-scale festival.
Village games and soul sessions are events the Pasifika festival organizers have also created to advertise their upcoming event.
A proud South Aucklander, Flay is looking to insert ‘A Taste of Pasifika’ at the 2025 Te Matatini in Taranaki.
“We’ve got the Māori culture, which is really prominent and present here, and when we talk about our Pacific brothers and sisters it’s an opportunity where we can collaborate and bring a little taste of Pacific into Te Matatini.
"So regardless of where it’s hosted, we need to make it happen,” she says.
The Pasifika Festival will take place on March 18-19 at Western Springs in Auckland.