A record number of Ngāpuhi descendants will gather on the weekend at the highly anticipated Ngāpuhi ki Tāmaki event in Tāmaki Makaurau.
This is the first time that more than a thousand people have already registered for the event, first established in 2019.
The event on Saturday is at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau, and starts at 9:30am.
Ngāpuhi ki Tāmaki director Tasha Hohaia says this is an “opportunity for our people to be confident in knowing who they are through waiata and haka”.
“There are more than 75,000 Ngāpuhi living in Auckland and this is one way to create spaces for whanaungatanga and gather Ngāpuhi,” she says.
“Ngāpuhi kōwhao rau is an overflow of talent and diversity amongst our people that spills over from the waka to the world. When we come together to share and sing and remember our own stories, it is powerful.”
Ngāpuhi is the largest tribe in Aotearoa with over 180,000 descendants worldwide.
Māhera Maihi, a Ngāpuhi ki Tāmaki director, says this event is “important for Ngāpuhi living in Tāmaki Makaurau because opportunities to connect back to iwi are part of our identity journey”.
“If you know where you come from, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go,” she says. “With talent like Pere Wihongi, Blake Ihimaera, Penetaui Kleskovic, Tianara Wihongi and Eli Smith, along with a number of other experts facilitating aspirational sessions, it will be a day to remember.”
“It is important to hold fast to our culture and our language. Let us treat our language with respect, let us lift our wairua. It is up to us to look within ourselves as Ngāpuhi,” Kleskovic says.
-NZME