There will be a Pacific Island village at the Moore Park Beach Arts Festival on 17-18 August 2019 to showcase islander communities and share culture.
Ol Meri Wantok Bundaberg is creating a Pacific Island Model Village experience at the Moore Park Beach Arts Festival to showcase Pacific Islander communities in Bundaberg and district.
Many local multicultural groups are participating in the Island Village including Ol Meri Wantok Bundaberg, Bundaberg Indigenous Playgroup, Bundaberg South Sea Islander Group, Kapahaka Group, Kiribati Group, and Bundaberg Fijian.
Ol Meri Wantok Bundaberg spokesperson Linah Mountford says visitors will be able to walk through the village and experience life in the Pacific Islands.
She said that entertainers and dancers from the Pacific Islands will be visiting Bundaberg to perform at the Moore Park Beach Arts Festival and meet visitors at the Island Model Village.
“We are very excited to welcome dancers from overseas at the Festival,” Mrs Mountford said.
Entertainment, demonstrations and displays from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, New Zealand and Australia will be held over the weekend in August.
Visitors can expect to see
- Dancing performances
- Entertainment
- Island dress costumes
- Tribal face painting
- Learn to weave (mat weaving and billum making)
- Island Cooking
- Language and storytelling
An interactive market place will also be on-site with displays of island artefacts including:
- Fans, Billums, Baskets, Mats
- Costumes
- Kava Bowls
- Asaro Mud Mask
- Bows and Arrows
- Drums and Kundu
The Village is part of the Moore Park Beach Arts Festival Market Days being held on 17-18 August 2019.
The Village will be open 10am to 4pm on Saturday and 10am to 3pm on Sunday.
The Pacific Island Model Village is supported by the Department of Local Government, Racing and Multicultural Affairs through the 2018-19 Celebrating Multicultural Queensland Program.
Ol Meri Wantok Bundaberg
Ol Meri Wantok Bundaberg is a budding social enterprise established by a group of Papua New Guinea women living in the Bundaberg Region.
The group's objective is to connect ladies from different Pacific Island Nations to promote Island arts and craft (selling and or displays), sharing cultures, traditions and their skills with each other in Bundaberg as well as ladies out in the Pacific Islands.
Ol Meri Wantok group believe that in doing so, this helps contribute towards the wellbeing of all involved. This enables embracing families, building friendship and sharing cultures.
The phrase/line ‘Ol Meri Wantok' is from Papua New Guinea which means “all female friends”.
Wantok means “people sharing same language, common interest and or social bond” and in this case Ol Meri Wantok- Bundaberg building friendship and sharing cultures.
Thanx, I enjoyed your news very much. I did not know about it until I read abcnews.com. My husband and I will definitely be going to Moore Park Beach Festival, of which I had no knowledge til I read it here! Well done team, a wealth of information.
Comments are closed.