Musica Balkanica choir - formed in Christchurch in 2004 by a group of enthusiasts to celebrate and share the rich musical heritage of the Balkan region of Eastern Europe - had a concert in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre on the October 22. The choir was led by its conductor of many years, Budimir Miljkovic and co-conductor Mihaela Hnat.
Organised by the Christchurch Indian Sports Club (CISC) – a member of the New Zealand Indian Sports Association (NZISA) – the 2-day event held over the Labour Weekend was attended by over 500 people. Apart from a social evening, the event also comprised of a morning round of golf.
Denise Wiggins, Community Development Facilitator at Waimakariri District Council, chairing the Migrants and Newcomers Group meeting at the Woodend Coomunity Centre on October 26.
Almost 150 people attended the festivities with some participation from the wider community. The highlight of the event was India - Kaleidoscope of Cultures, depicting the diversity of the country.
Dancing to Bollywood songs - from past and present, and acting out melodramatic scenes, the musical – My Big Fat Indian Wedding - a student led and directed musical rocked the South of New Zealand recently. An initiative of the Indian Students Association (ISA) of the University of Otago, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the event featured over 135 performers – the largest ever.
Organised by the Selwyn District Council (SDC) and supported by the Lincoln Rotary Club, and Christchurch Multicultural Council, CultureFest 2016 was attended by over 8,000 people on October 15
In a major development recently, the Indian community - across all city-based organisations, associations, trusts and community groups - have for the first time joined hands to pool in resources to work towards building an Indian community centre in Christchurch. To be built under the aegis of soon-to-be-registered Canterbury Indian Community Centre Trust (CICCT), the multi-purpose facility will require something in the tune of $1.2 million, fund raising for which will start soon and hopefully be completed in the next two years, informed Rajiv Gulati, one of the main initiators of the project.
60 years ago Hungarians started an uprising against the communist dictatorship forced on Hungary by the Russian troops who "liberated" Hungary in the 2nd World War. The freedom fighters failed in the revolt, but ever since Hungary gained back its independence in 1989 and announced the new republic on the anniversary day of October 23, we are free to celebrate the remembrance of the unsuccessful uprising and all the victims of fighting and the reprisals afterwards.
There are 363 Vietnamese residents in Christchurch (2013 census). The Vietnamese Society of Christchurch was formed with the main objective, that is promoting and fostering 1/ friendship understanding among society members and 2/ the culture and tradition of Vietnam. Minh Lengoc is elected to coordinate the society activities, which serve the above objective. This year the Society celebrated the Vietnmese mid-autumn festival on September 25th in Templin hall of Canterbury Horticultural Centre, Hagley park.
The event was organised by the Christchurch Fiji Association or CFCESSA, and was attended by over 300 people. Informing this was Jagat Singh, President of CFCESSA, who added, "We have been organising Diwali for the past 14 years. Earlier we used to get some funding but not any more. Now the community gets together and organises the event. Hopefully, the City Council will start helping us again. If it happens, maybe we will be able to organise the event on a much bigger scale the next year."
Calling Labour anti-migrants is desperation on part of the PM; Labour has no magic number for immigration; depends on circumstances; The Government has turned a blind eye to what private education institutes are doing; We will put the onus back on education institutes; Co-ethnic exploitation is an issue; More labour inspectors are needed; Crime can be prevented by having more frontline police officers from ethnic communities
The camaraderie that Nepali people and Kiwis share - which started in 1953 when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Sagarmatha (or Mt Everest as it is known outside Nepal) – was on full display the last weekend during the City's Dussehra celebrations.
Smile. Start a conversation. Make Canterbury feel like home. That is the aim of a campaign that was launched in the Ashburton District in September. The Start with a Smile campaign is being run by the Ashburton District Council and encourages locals to make the region feel like home for the many newcomers choosing to live and work in Mid Canterbury.
TheSouth West Baptist Church of Christchurch, which in the past has been known by many names including Lincoln Road Baptist, Lyttelton Street Baptist, Spreydon and Halswell Baptist, celebrated its 150 years of establishment over the weekend of October 14 – 16.
With Christchurch's Mayor Lianne Dalziel winning a second term with over 60,000 votes more than her nearest rival John Minto, the South Island also saw it's longest serving Mayor Tim Shadbolt of Invercargill return to office for a record eighth time.
This can be the story of these local elections. Two young Korean siblings Linda Chen and Catherine Chu - daughters of Korean immigrants who came to New Zealand almost two decades back - winning their respective community board elections is not an everyday occurrence. Linda who gathered 3391 votes won the Harewood Ward of the Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board. While Catherine came out as a victor in the Riccarton Ward of the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board with 2074 votes.
Rosibel a trained Spanish-English interpreter working with Interpreting Canterbury for the past one year moved to Christchurch six years back from her native Mexico City after marrying a Kiwi. Here she shares her initial struggle, her path to becoming a trained interpreter, and the challenges and rewards her job brings everyday.
Formed soon after the 2011 February earthquakes, the Community Language Information Network Group (CLING) has been serving the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Christchurch by communicating and disseminating information for the last half a decade.
For third year in a row, Homeland - the multimedia multicultural performance show organised by the Chinese Culture Association (CCA) in collaboration with the Canterbury Migrants Centre (CMC) has been hailed as a huge success.
The Canterbury Migrants Centre (CMC), earlier known as Christchurch Migrants Centre, has recently formally reviewed its operations, vision as well as the direction, and has restructured its modus operandi. George Clark, earlier the Chair of the Centre's Board and now the Managing trustee shared the reasons behind the changes.
