Pasifika Vibes @ MOTAT

We are collaborating with the Museums of Auckland, namely MOTAT, Auckland Museum and New Zealand Maritime Museum, to celebrate Pacific culture, rhythms and flavours with Pasifika Vibes, an event running alongside the annual Pasifika Festival in Western Springs.

Bring the whole family along for a fun weekend of artmaking, performances, delicious food and live entertainment.

We will be running screen-printing workshops led by teaching artist Lindsay Gaono that give everyone the chance to explore their creativity and investigate natural flora in pattern making. We will also be unpacking an ‘art suitcase’ featuring the work of Ani O’Neill, a New Zealand artist of Cook Island and Irish descent and using story discovery sessions to explore her artistic practice.

The team from Auckland Museum will be helping visitors to build, test and race their own mini wakas. They’ll be demonstrating how explorers migrated across the Pacific in the days before GPS. 

Maritime Museum will be encouraging people to share stories of where they and their whanau arrived from, on mini wakas to be lashed together on a big net. They’ll also be teaching traditional lashing techniques, have a display of some of the Pacific canoes from their collection with touchable materials used in Pacific canoe building, and a pōhaku stone connecting us to the voyagers in Hawaii.

MOTAT will be showcasing the story of New Zealand’s majestic Solent Flying Boats which traversed the Coral Route. The beauty of the Pacific is highlighted in MOTAT’s pictorial collection, with images from Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji and other islands. Children can spend their time happily hunting for mythical world creatures in the Curious Critters augmented reality experience while the whole family relaxes and enjoys the music and dancing. There will be performances by the Samoan Siva group and SaintZ Up Performing Arts Centre.  

Popular food truck, Pūhā & Pākehā, will be on-site serving up their unique blend of contemporary Māori street food or you could grab a woodfired pizza with a pacific twist from the team at Napoli Central. 

#agatheringpoint