Big, bright and friendly Waitangi Day celebrations

John Maslin | 8th February 2010

Walking on to Patea's Memorial Park on Waitangi Day, you couldn't help but feel good.

Here was a place where friendliness shone as brightly as a February sun beating down on Saturday's annual Paepae in the Park.

It's all about fun. family and entertainment and those who organise the event in Patea punch all the right buttons.

Kids, mums and dads, aunties and uncles and grandparents crammed the small green space behind the town's well known Aotea Memorial waka.

If they tired of the entertainment coming from the temporary stage then there were plenty of stalls to hold their attention.

Food was a favourite and some whanau took the opportunity to man them to raise funds for upcoming reunions. The Rei and the Cunningham families did just that.

Spence and Harriet Rei were toiling over a barbecue hotplate, and creating chicken kebabs and sausages with production-line efficiency.

Spence didn't mind having his picture taken but said "I should have brought my teeth".

While some of the residents of Te Mahana Rest Home, directly across the street from Memorial Park, were among the audience and toe-tapping to Harvey Gibbs and the Altonators, other residents were sitting in the shade of the home's front door.

Marj Gibbs, went to Patea from Wanganui about 12 years ago and she says she loves Paepae in the Park..

"I've been at Te Mahana for a few years now and everyone loves this day," she said.

And they love it for another reason because among the food being prepared is the usual hangi.

"Most of us have ordered a hangi lunch today. Wouldn't miss it for quids," Marj said.

Patea's Paepae is organised by the Patea Committee with support from the South Taranaki District Council, Creative Communities, Tangata Whenau Fund, Commemorating Waitangi Day fund , COGs and NZ Lotteries

Its aim is not only to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi but also to increase understanding through a festival where music is the core theme.

At Ashley Park, near Waitotara, and again at Wanganui's Moutoa Gardens, the theme of celebration with family and music continued.

The Wanganui event was funded by the Ministry of Culture and organised by Jay Rerekura and the Nga Tai O Te Awa Trust and featured music, stalls along with waka rides and races.

Mr Rerekura said they had about the same numbers there as last year and he would be doing it all again next year.

"We got a nice, steady flow of people coming over from the Riverside Markets, which was a bonus. There was a good positive vibe there all day" he said.

But Mr Rerekura said some more funding would be helpful.

"We get help from the ministry, but it would be lovely if our district council could chip in like the South Taranaki council does for Patea's event."