Windmill turns on for Dutch Day Out
Landmarks over NZ to light up for first week in celebration of the Netherlands
Foxton’s iconic windmill will glow red, white and blue this week as the town is handpicked to kick off the inaugural Big Dutch Day Out. The windmill was in good company. Sky Tower and Spark Arena in Auckland, Michael Fowler Centre and the Oriental Bay Fountain, the Christchurch Art Gallery and Canterbury Museum, and the Palmerston North clock tower will be alight, too.
The New Zealand landmarks will light up to mark Dutch Week celebrations. It would also act as an expression of support for the Netherlands, which is suffering heavy casualties due to another Covid-19 wave.
The Dutch Embassy arranged the unique gesture, as part of the firstever national Dutch Week, and a major celebration is planned for tomorrow in Foxton.
A new mural will be unveiled at Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom by Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister of Ethnic Communities, Dutch Ambassador Mira Woldberg and Mayor of Horowhenua Bernie Wanden.
The unveiling of the mural will act as the official start of Dutch Week and Big Dutch Day Out.
Te Awahou Riverside Cultural Park marketing manager Arjan van de Boon said it was a chance for people of Dutch heritage to celebrate their culture.
He said at one stage, one in 20 New Zealanders was of Dutch heritage. Now the number of one in 40.
“Foxton is the right place to kick off all the festivities,” he said.
The aim of a week of activities is to highlight and celebrate the culture, language, arts, food and heritage of the Dutch immigrant, now an integral part of the diverse fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Everybody knows a Dutchman,” he said.
“We were known as the invisible
immigrants. We just got on with it and we were told to integrate, so we did, apart from our funny accents,” he said.
Boon said Dutch Week was a chance to celebrate their culture.
“We have St Patrick’s Day, Chinese New Year, Polyfest, Diwali ... this is the first ever Dutch celebration in New Zealand,” he said.
The grey side wall of the community centre on Wharf St has been painted with a 40m mural this week.
It was the work of Amsterdam artist Jan van der Ploeg, who had done more than 500 similar works around the world, although the Foxton mural was his largest.
But as van der Ploeg was unable to travel due to Covid-19 restrictions, Tauranga artist Dan du Bern was on the brush and taking instruction from van der Ploeg by telephone. They called each other daily. Boon said the $15,000 mural was “stunning” and the design called on input from tangata whenua and the Dutch community, with six months of discussion, and the mural was symbolic as it told the story of Dutch immigrants
“It has a striking design that incorporates Dutch and Ma¯ori colours,
as well as Kiwi black. The wave elements point to the local awa and the river landscape loved by Ma¯ori and Dutch alike, in the direction of the Tasman Sea — behind the sand dunes, only a few kilometres away,” he said.