Welcoming Manaaki Village: Creating a welcoming community together
A fun and diverse Welcoming Manaaki Village was held at Claudelands Exhibition Hall last weekend. The event was organised and hosted by Hamilton City Council as part of Welcome Week, an initiative which aims to make Kirikiroa-Hamilton feel like home for everyone who chooses to live here.
Hamilton City Council Ethnic Development Advisor Jovi Abellanosa invited different organisations in the city to share their services, and culture at the Manaaki Village.
One of the groups invited was the Waikato Filipino Association (WFA), a social and cultural non-profit organisation who showed the Filipino culture during the event through traditional food and dance.
The WFA was founded primarily to preserve and promote Filipino ideals, values, culture and tradition especially song and dance among Filipinos and Filipino/Kiwi families.
Veronica Jacobson, one of the board of trustees of the association has been in New Zealand for 40 years said, “The WFA is helping new migrants and the Filipino community in Waikato.”
One of the highlights of the welcome was where the different communities shared their talent through dancing and singing. Waikato India Association showed a Bollywood dance and the Waikato Hispano Latino Cultural Trust had a song and three dance numbers, including La Bamba.
The WFA dance group showed their talent by dancing the cariñosa, a Philippine dance from the Spanish colonial era where a fan and handkerchief plays an instrumental role and where the female dancers wears the Baro and Saya (which means blouse and skirt) while male dancers wears the Barong Tagalog, both are made from pineapple fibres.
The Waikato Filipino Association showcased other two dance numbers, a folk dance dedicated to women who are studying at home while wearing beautiful ternos, an evolved baro and saya that is turned to a dress and the Kapa Malong-Malong, a folk dance from Mindanao, the southern region in the Philippines which highlights the various ways a malong, a traditional tubular garment, can be worn and used.
Keep up to date with the Hamilton City Council is giving a warm welcome to new migrants, former refugees, international students and newcomers in Kirikiriroa Hamilton during this Welcoming Week from September 1 – 10.
