THERE’s not expected to be so much sitting around at the Kāwhia kai fest’s replacement event on Waitangi Weekend next year. FILE PHOTO
A NEW Waitangi event is being planned to take the place of the Kāwhia Kai Fest which was cancelled last month. The plan is to set up what will become an annual Waitangi Day “Move Your Tinana Kāwhia Festival” family picnic event, with the focus on music and movement, rangatahi and families doing things together. Stalls will sell products that support fitness health and wellbeing and kai that reflects healthy options, but the focus is not on food it is on movement, organiser Nin Duggan said.
EXPERIENCED Ninn is the project manager of GOFit That’s Us expo in Te Awamutu with a similar purpose. It is very successful and in its fifth year, she said. She also recently project managed the Xtreme Hip Hop Central Aoteroa Tour which hosted the creator Phillip Weeden from the US in four venues across New Zealand. This week registration forms were going out for stallholders and grants applications were getting sorted before deadline. “In terms of the event itself, we’ve been overwhelmed simply because we have had so many inquiries. It’s been 100% support.” There have been questions about entertainment, and live music. “It’s not a concert, not a kai festival. It’s getting a small community up and active using the facilities that already exist,” Nin said. “It is about movement and choices.” The problem with well-being issues was they were linked to availability and affordability. Being a small, isolated community, Kāwhia needed to celebrate that what they were doing was okay, Nin said. “The larger society influences what exercise looks like, it isn’t necessarily what it looks like in Kāwhia.”
LOGISTICS The Move Your Tinana Kāwhia Festival was notifying the community, creating a planning team of members from or around Kāwhia, logistics and applications, including creating a facebook page. Next will be formalising the planned events and securing grants, sponsorships and support, she said, and the creation of an event management team using the community for various roles for the day eg: local churches, schools, marae, social groups, and anyone passionate about building people to be the best they can.
EVENTS Some suggested events include: The Kāwhia Black Sands Marathon (walk or run) from Aotea to the harbour. The Kāwhia Bomb-Off, jumping off the wharf. “Let’s take ownership and create a bombing capital of New Zealand – our kids do it every day, they will love it.” Kids to adults swimming races from the pier to the shore, sandcastle building, basketball shoot outs based on age groups are another idea. Xtreme hip hop Step, Zumba interactive, chalk paths creating hop scotch, obstacle walks, table tennis mini comp in the hall, haka/poi skills for strength building are just some of the other ideas being put forward. The festival is planned for Saturday February 4 from 9am to 4pm at the Omimiti Reserve, Kāwhia. Stall holders are expected to include vendors offering rongoa Māori, mirimiri massage, veggie growers, ice cream, coffee, BBQ, hangi, beauty treatments, active wear and more. “While money is helpful to get a project off the ground, as long as there is minimal cost, the budget is zero,” she said. “I’m concentrating on getting some support behind me.” This week she was going to be getting into the thick of the proposed activities, from measuring the marathon course, to the health and safety check of the basketball hoop. “The purpose is to introduce Kāwhia to music and movement that they know and love, and it’s okay to move in ways that suit them and that the activities we do put there on the day are intended to be long term, not a one-dayer.”
