Fair offers passport to the world
World Food, Craft and Music Fair highlight of Festival of Cultures
It took Phileas Fogg 80 days to circumnavigate the world but most Palmestonians managed it in two hours on Saturday. The heat arrived for the World Food, Craft and Music Fair in Te Marae o Hine / The Square, the highlight of the three-day Festival of Cultures.
Brazil won the best stall with Papua New Guinea second and Peru third.
About 35 stalls were judged by city councillor Lorna Johnson, Vikram Govindasamy from the Manawatu Multicultural Council and Manawatu Guardian editor Judith Lacy.
Papua New Guinea couldn’t quite repeat its first place in 2023.
The stalls were judged on a range of criteria including use of colour and the country’s flag, encouragement of public participation, range of cultural items, and food display.
At the PNG stall, Isaac Toran was playing a kundu (drum).
He said kunku provide the beat for cultural dances and they are a sound of celebration.
The lizard skin on the top should be hit with your fingers, not the palm of your hand.
The wooden drum is open at the bottom. Hallowed-out seed pods attached to the drum provide sound too, providing two instruments in one.
Toran is doing a Bachelor of Information Science at Massey University.
Manila Nosa displayed a range of Nuiean handcrafts he and a friend had made including outrigger canoes, a drum, island-style cricket bats and war clubs.
They make the items to maintain a connection with Nuiean culture.
The Embassy of Peru stall promoted the South American country as the land of the superfoods: everything from blueberries and pomegranates to chia, quinoa and turmeric.
The herb cat’s claw has antiinflammatory and detoxifying properties while purple corn is one of the main ingredients in cocktail mixology, a handout said.