Culture

New Zealand needs to attract $40 million for a fund that will enable projects targeting climate change, sustainability and covid-19 recovery in the Pacific.

But, Pacific Cooperation Foundation Project Manager David Vaeafe said it's important the Pacific way is acknowledged, and the fund has the potential to do a lot of long term good.

For many students, this year’s ASB Polyfest was their first chance to embrace their heritage on the grandest stage of them all.

With the Samoan and Tongan stages kicking off, it was natural some had butterflies.

"It feels good but I’m nervous at the same time," says a Year 7 St Peter's College Samoan student.

While for others, their competitive side was on show.

A Tongan student at Sacred Heart College says he joined the group to "make history, take home the dub and rep the culture".

It will be held at Odlins Plaza on the waterfront and feature performances by traditional and contemporary Pacific artists.

There will also be traditional pacific food, including a Pacific Island Cook-Off and a range of family-friendly activities.

The festival will be MCed by Tofiga Fepulea'i a former member of the comedy duo the Laughing Samoans.

The Wellington council says it is an opportunity for all Pacific people to celebrate and share their knowledge, values and beliefs.

The Wellington Pasifika Festival runs from 12 noon until 6pm.

A recent study found that more than 2 billion adults and children globally are overweight or obese and suffer health problems because of that -- but this is nothing new.

Tiny "golden lotus" feet -- achieved through breaking girls' toes and arches and binding them to the sole of the foot with cloth -- were thought to be a passport to a better marriage and a better way of life.

"In the conventional view, it existed to please men. They were thought to be attracted to small feet," said Laurel Bossen, co-author of the new book "Bound feet, Young hands."

But Bossen's research suggests that the custom has been massively misunderstood.

I explained that the symposium, in part, responds to those who doubt the wealth, breadth and quality of modernism in this region. She laughed, knowing all too well the criticism that Middle East art practitioners face.

As an arts writer, I've heard the uninformed allegations countless times.

"The Middle Eastern art scene is a bubble."

"Its art arena is five minutes old."

"There is no institutional interest or acquisition."

And nobody celebrates like Rio de Janeiro, where thousands of people come together to party in the streets, bars and restaurants and balls of Carnival.

Carnival 2017 starts on Friday, February 24 and ends on February 28, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday. It's the hurrah before the Christian faithful start observing Lent, a period of contemplation and reflection before the coming of Easter.

A story says that a choirmaster, in 1670, was worried about the children sitting quietly all through the long Christmas nativity service. So he gave them something to eat to keep them quiet! As he wanted to remind them of Christmas, he made them into a 'J' shape like a shepherds crook, to remind them of the shepherds that visited the baby Jesus at the first christmas. However, the earliest records of 'candy canes' comes from over 200 years later, so the story, although rather nice, probably isn't true!

RNZI reports Māori and Pacific Islanders make up nearly 70 percent of New Zealand's prison population, according to police statistics, and the force is hoping that the recently established liaison roles in districts across the country could help reduce the high number of Pacific offenders.

With the help of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has been running workshops to educate performers about how to protect their livelihoods.

The Ministry's Director of Culture, Dennis Marita, says many need to be made aware of their rights and how to benefit fairly from the tourism dollar.