There was so much hard work leading up to Hui a Iwi 2015, which was held in the Dunedin City Town Hall. It all turned to excitement at the launch on the evening of Friday 20 November.
Here our local coordinator, Kitty Brown reflects, “I was thrilled with the response to Hui-ā-Iwi from our Ngāi Tahu whānau who travelled to Ōtepoti as our treasured manuhiri and from our own Otago community who came in their hundreds to share and celebrate our Ngāi Tahutanga.
Dunedin city came alive with Ngāi Tahu culture. We enjoyed the opening of the much anticipated Hākui: Women of Kāi Tahu exhibition at the Otago Museum and Areta Wilkinson and Mark Adams exhibition Archives Te Wāhi Pounamu at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. And then Hui-ā-Iwi to top it all off.
The public art teamed with beautiful flags and banner displays helped us to make a fleeting but colourful mark and we were proud to celebrate a heritage, much older than even the “heritage city” herself.
My favourite parts compete and shift according to the situation but I loved the Saturday night concert and
Te Atakura was another highlight. Best of all it was lots of fun. The whanaungatanga was outstanding.
I wish to convey my thanks to all my partners, allies, challengers, helpers and heroes. Kei te whakamoemiti e hoa mā.”
While Kitty is too whakamā to take any credit for the success of the Hui-ā-iwi, Ōtākou takes this opportunity to acknowledge the wonderful job that Kitty did and what a great resource she is to coordinate events such as this.
Like Kitty, we also acknowledge the enormous effort of the steering komiti, which was made up of representatives from: Puketeraki, Moeraki, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu as well as Ōtākou. Then there were the team leaders and a huge pool of volunteers, participants and organisations – too numerous to mention but these included: Shotover Jet and the Dunedin Centre team who contributed over the three days to make Hui-ā-Iwi such a superb event. Kā mihi nunui ki a koutou katoa mō ā koutou mahi. Thank you all so much for your mahi. Ka rawe.
Statue of Robbie Burns, ‘Who made my clothes?’ – Senorita Awesumo.
Shotover Jet rides thrilled whānau as they travelled on the Taieri River.