• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

North East Connected

Hopping Across The North East From Hub To Hub

The Pacific Islands Festival is an annual gathering held by Pacific Islanders now living in the UK, across Europe and beyond.

The festival celebrated many of the indigenous cultures which would have been observed by Captain Cook himself on his voyages around the Pacific.

This year the festival was held at the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum (CCBM) by a variety of talented and informed performers.

Local Maori performing group Aloha2Aroha have travelled across Europe to attend the festival over the past few years, and this year they jumped at the opportunity to bring the festival home to the North East.

Saturday’s free event featured of host of opportunities for visitors to meet and learn more about a whole variety of songs and cultures from across the Pacific. They learnt the traditional Hawaiian Hula dance, learnt more about traditional crafts and enjoyed listening to traditional music from all over the Pacific.

USA-based Tongan group Pacific Breeze whose lead singer Kasete was keen to visit the museum and to be one of the first Tongan performers to perform at the Birthplace of Captain Cook himself.

Other countries represented at the event included Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Molokai Island, an Island in the Hawaiian Archipelago.

Captain Cook Birthplace Museum Education Officer Jenny Phillips said: “This was a wonderful opportunity not only to put the Birthplace of Captain Cook on the map, but to understand more about some of the vibrant cultures encountered by Cook on our own doorstep.”

By admin