New Zealand’s 100-strong artist delegation has been winning hearts and attracting audiences at the Festival of Pacific Arts 2016 in Guam.

The village of Sinajana, where the Aotearoa delegation is staying, also hosted a fiesta for the delegation with entertainment and local cuisine. It was one of the many opportunities, during the festival, for the delegation to share cultures, including enthusiastically received demonstrations and advice on kapa haka.

To see and hear more about the delegation there has been extensive media coverage (links below). You can also see photos and updates at NZ at Festival of Pacific Arts' Facebook and Creative NZ's Instagram page and find out more information about the delegation.

The 12th Festival of Pacific Arts runs from 22 May to 4 June 2016. The festival’s theme is: What we Own, What we Have, What we Share, United Voices of the Pacific. The Festival takes place every four years, bringing together more than 2000 artists and other cultural practitioners from 27 Pacific nations. About 100 Māori and New Zealand-based Pasifika artists represent Aotearoa. 

The Aotearoa delegation is led by the chair of the Arts Council’s Māori Committee, Darrin Haimona (Head of Delegation), Te Kahautu Maxwell (Delegation Kaumātua), along with support from Arts Council members Suzanne Ellison (Pou Āwhina) and Caren Rangi (Pou Āwhina Pasifika).

TV One, Seven Sharp

• Watch the Aotearoa delegation at the fesitval and an interview with Matt Salapu (aka Anonymouz) about moving art into the modern day whilst still honouring the past on the TVNZ website.

TV One, Te Karere

• Watch traditional Māori puppetry take centre stage at the festival on YouTube.
• Watch kapa haka champions Te Whānau a Apanui and a Chamorro cultural group exchange performance and knowledge on YouTube.
• Watch Maori street artists Charles and Janine Williams leave their mark in Guam on YouTube.
• Watch brother and sister duo showcase the art of tā moko at the Festival of Pacific Arts, on YouTube.
• Watch how months of work by Toihoukura staff and students is paying off for the New Zealand pavilion, on YouTube.
• Watch the spectacular opening of the festival, including arrival of waka, on YouTube.

Maori Television, Te Kaea 

• Watch the Kiwi contingent garnering praise and admiration at the Festival of Pacific Arts, on the Maori Television website. 
• Watch how artists from different delegations share traditions and issues through their arts, on the Maori Television website.
• Watch the Aotearoa delegation’s exhibition space being opened on the Maori Television website.
• Watch the official opening of the Festival of Pacific Arfts on the Maori Television website.
• Watch the waka flotilla arrival signaling the delegations' arrival to the festival, on the Maori Television website

Tagata Pasifika

• Watch the Aotearoa delegation arrive in Guam and an interview with soundscape artist Matt Salapu (aka Anonymouz) on YouTube

Radio NZ – Morning Report

• Hear interviews with First Lady of Guam, Christine Calvo, and award winning Samoan actor/director Nathaniel Lees on the Radio NZ website.

Radio 531PI

• Has done numerous interviews with Pasifika members of the delegation on the ground in Guam.

The COCONET 

• Watch the arrival of waka and the spectacular opening of the festival on the COCONET TV website 

Kuam News

• Watch how a gift of street art, by Charles and Janine Williams, is raising awareness of the plight of Guam’s rare ko’ko bird on the Kuam News facebook page.

Source: Creative New Zealand