Kerikeri plans bicentennial festival to mark anniversary
Tu¯hono Kerikeri, the programme celebrating Kerikeri’s 200th anniversary, will reach its high point on March 21 with the Kororipo Heritage Park Festival Day, a family-friendly day of fun, music and kai set in Kororipo Heritage Park.
Kerikeri is the first community in New Zealand to formally celebrate its bicentennial year, with a day-long festival showcasing the best of local foods, culture, history and music.
“It was at Kororipo that powerful rangatira Hongi Hika extended an invitation to Rev Samuel Marsden to establish his Christian Mission in October 1819, an invitation that was also endorsed by Rewa, another prominent rangatira. Soon after the mission was established under the direct protection of Hongi in the shadow of his pa¯ at Kororipo,” Tu¯hono Kerikeri project events coordinator June Pitman said.
“Kororipo Pa¯ and neighbouring Rewa’s Village will serve as the perfect backdrop for hundreds of festival-goers, along with two of New Zealand’s oldest surviving buildings dating from the missionary period, Kemp House and the Stone Store.”
The day would be about celebrating the best of Kerikeri, past, present and future.
“Ma¯ori settlement of the Kororipo Basin predates the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Kerikeri as a Pa¯keha¯ settlement by centuries,” Ms Pitman said.
“The bicentennial is important, however, in that it provides an opportunity for everyone to learn more about the history of this place and their connection to it.
“The kaupapa of Tu¯hono Kerikeri is to celebrate 200 years standing together and weaving our future, a concept gifted to us by Nga¯ti Re¯hia, who are Ahi Ka¯ for the area. We all play a part in that weaving, and March 21 will provide an opportunity for locals and visitors to get together and celebrate this continuity, of which we are all a part.”
The festival would build on the awareness and enthusiasm in the community.
The entertainers would include Bay of Islands-based Troy Kingi, fusion group Blue Pearl, the Ma¯ori Sidesteps and local kapa haka groups, while artists would exhibit works with a strong Tu¯hono Kerikeri theme.
“The Kororipo Heritage Park Festival Day has been over 200 years in the making, so it will be a party not to miss.”
The Kororipo Heritage Park Festival Day is a partnership programme between Nga¯ti Re¯hia, the Far North District Council, the Bay of IslandsWhangaroa Community Board, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, the Department of Conservation, Far North Holdings and Northland Inc.