Cultural day of music, dance, food

Western Bay residents of all different cultures shared their food, dress and traditions at the Tauranga Regional Multicultural Council Festival.

Held on Saturday at the Historic Village at 17th Ave, the festival celebrated Race Relations Day, on March 21, and gave locals the chance to learn about other cultures and embrace traditions that were important to migrants.

Taking part in the festival was Mount Maunganui woman Magdalena James, who runs a Polish language school in Tauranga.

She and her children dressed in traditional clothing and danced a national Polish dance known as the krakowiak, a lively folk dance.

"As a music teacher myself, I thought dancing would be a great way to do it.

"We danced it in our national clothing, which I managed to borrow from the Wellington Polish community."

Mrs James said everyone enjoyed performing and her youngest girl Julia, 3, had asked when they would do it again.

"She was running around giggling afterwards. Julia even loved practicing, she would ask me all the time."

Mrs James said that she started a Polish language school as she had found her children weren't speaking the language and were communicating in English.

"I wanted to encourage my children to speak Polish so I thought if I brought in more children it would encourage them."

She thought the idea for the multicultural festival was a great one and said she would go along again, especially as it helped her children learn about their culture.

The festival included a parade where people dressed in traditional costume.

Visitors also experienced dances from all over the world, listened to different types of music and sampled a variety of authentic ethnic foods.

Arts and crafts were also set up throughout the village and service providers had stalls offering useful information for newcomers to the city.