Taranaki Puanga Festival 2023 – Tikorangi School

The 19th annual Taranaki Puanga Festival  Waitara 2023

The event started in 2004 aiming to create a Taranaki narrative that connects uri to the maunga, that draws uri from all over the country back to their turangawaewae. It was meant to be an event where they could connect as a whole iwi every year through kapahaka.

Event spokesperson Raymond Kaiki reflects on the event’s first year, “Way back then, they would open at about 10 o’clock and by midday they were finished. So, the competition went from talking and creating Taranaki narratives to our understanding of who we were and our relationship to the maunga, to the various iwi and awa in the district at the time.”

This year’s event will be hosted at the Waitara War Memorial Hall, in north Taranaki. In its first year there was only three performance groups but this year there are 55, with many local primary and secondary school groups, and also senior and club teams supporting the event.

9:35                                                                                                             13/11/23