Media release 21 January 2014

Ngapuhi Festival 2014 Wananga Series “Enriching the cultural life and understanding of Ngapuhi”

The Ngapuhi Festival 2014 Wananga Series on 25 and 26 January will focus on Ngapuhi – yesterday, today and tomorrow – and will also include lectures from visiting indigenous artists.

The Festival Wananga Series programme has been developed by Ngapuhi leader Hone Sadler, senior lecturer in Maori Studies at Auckland University.

Said Mr Sadler: “The Ngapuhi Festival Wananga Series is a highlight for many Ngapuhi attending the Festival. It is an opportunity to learn more about the Ngapuhi nation – our history, where we are today as a people, including the challenges we face … and the future we face post-settlement.”

“The aim of the Ngapuhi Festival Wananga Series is to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of Ngapuhi. It is in this spirit that we invite Ngapuhi experts in their field to advance our thinking and debate on significant historical, contemporary and future challenges for our people.

” As at past Festivals, leading Ngapuhi will be delivering lectures, including Mere Mangu, Kipa Munro, Hema Broad, Alva Pomare and Winnie Leach. A feature will be the Sunday morning panel on “Taitamariki relationships”, given by Dr Leland Ruwhiu, Terry Dobbs and Moana Eruera.

The theme of this year’s Ngapuhi Festival is “bringing the world to Ngapuhi”. This theme is carried through to the Wananga Series, with addresses from three of the visiting artists taking part in the Festival’s Toi Ngapuhi exhibition.

These lectures are: • “Voices of the Ancestors”, by Lillian Pitt, a Native American artist from the Pacific Northwest • “Reawakening Wyandot Lifeways”, by Richard Zane Smith, of the Wyandot nation of Kansas • “Retaining traditional knowledge”, by Luke Barrowcliff from the Batchulla tribe, Fraser Island, Australia.

Entry to the Wananga Series lectures is free. They are held each of the two days of the Festival – from 10am to 2pm – in the Northland College main hall, Kaikohe. The series is sponsored by Huria Anders Limited.

ENDS

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