A Varied Programme

A poetry-reading, also held in Mahinarangi, included readings of their own poetry by Hone Tuwhare, who writes in English, and Rangi Harrison, who writes in Maori. Dr Douglas Sinclair read translations of some of the traditional songs and histories in his extensive collection.

Two concerts were run in conjunction with the Festival. One featured the well-known singers Hannah Tatana, Kiri Te Kanawa, Diana Winterburn and Michael McGifford together with the Hamilton String Players, and the other presented popular music by the Howard Morrison Quartet and local Waikato talent.

The Festival was in all ways an outstanding success. Organised with efficiency and enthusiasm, and almost entirely on a voluntary basis, it presented to an appreciative audience an impressive selection of Maori talent, providing a vantage point from which to view the achievements both of the past and the present. It gave also a glimpse of the future; for no-one who attended it could doubt the size of the contribution which young people such as these will increasingly make to the developing culture of their country.

This small girl was fascinated by this sculpture by Para Matchitt.