Congratulations Tihi Puanaki for winning the Pride of New Zealand Awards LIfetime Achievement Award last night. Really proud of your amazing contribution to Maori in Christchurch and around the country through Kapa Haka, teaching, music and your awesome whanau. Found some pics from our annual Pacific Arts Festival that we ran in Christchurch for ten years. Thanks to an introduction to Tihi, Wiremu and Te Huaki Puanaki (through Rhonda Thomson) we have been friends with this whanau since 2002, and they performed at every festival from 2002 - 2010. Their final performance with us at TEN-PACIFIC ARTS was a sad one, because as we stood hand in hand with Tihi and her whanau it was hard to believe 10 years had flown by, and we knew we would miss the event and the people. Tihi also supported our I LOVE THE ISLANDS fundraiser for Samoa. Although those events arent on any more we get to see Tihi, Wiremu and the Te Kotahitanga Kapa Haka whanau every year at Aranui Affirm Festival in December.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 07:35:38 +0000