Navy at the Westfield Style Pasifika NZ Fashion Awards
The Navy’s Te Reo Heramana Culture Club and the Corps of Drums from the Navy Band combined to open the Westfield Style Pasifika New Zealand Fashion Awards in Auckland on Friday 4 September.
The Westfield Style Pasifika New Zealand Fashion Awards are an iconic event on the NZ fashion calendar. The awards are recognised for launching some of this country’s finest design and performance talent and showcasing New Zealand’s raw and indigenous style. The show is a mix of traditional and contemporary fashion, music and dance, featuring some of the country’s most exciting entertainers.
Stan Wolfgramm, one of the Producers of the show, told Navy Today that “Through WODR Lyle Cairns (of Navy Recruiting) we asked if Navy would represent the tangata whenua, to open the event. We at Style Pasifika saw the Navy as representative of the people of NZ and the Navy’s Maori Cultural group as representative of Maori and the people of the Pacific. We wanted the representative group to basically ‘bless’ the proceedings allowing all the different nationalities of NZ to then celebrate and contribute to today’s story of our nation.”
“We were not wanting simply another performance group—we wanted a group who serve community, who lead, who are role models and who understand ‘family’. So who better to carry the flag, open the door and bless the proceedings than the Navy?
“My first contact after Lyle was [A/CPOCSS] Miru McLean who did a marvellous job bringing the group together. He organised the writing of a new song and the choreography for the team. He was a great leader!”
CPOWTR Deborah Barton describes their performance: “Our Te Reo Heramana Culture Club and the Corps of Drums combined to open this year’s show. The spotlight came on to our Kuia, Whaea Ani Kingi with the opening karanga. She was closely followed by the Drum Corps, and as they finished the Kapahaka group took over with a medley of some of our best known waiata.
“The display was finished with a combined haka, Drum Corps and Kapahaka, with the spotlight coming down on our solo drummer. It was an awesome opportunity for the two groups to work together, and to showcase another side to our Navy.”
The show will be broadcast on TV One, 25 October.
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