There’s something about pandas and kiwi which gets the creative juices going in children.
Performing the World War I inspired Māori action song E Noho Rata/Tūheitia was the Cambridge Middle School kapa haka group including, from left: Ajay Taulanga 11, Gia Chase 12, Taimana Manuel 12 and Kahurangi Quinlan 13. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
The art on display in Cambridge Town Hall on the weekend as part of the Panda Meets Kiwi International Youth Art Exhibition was proof of that.
Young artists from China and Waipā managed to place the unlikely companions into all manner of settings.
The third annual event in Cambridge – a joint books and art exhibition – ran over three days with Consul General Chen Shijie and Waipā deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk attending the opening on Saturday.
Panda Meets Kiwi
It began with a performance by Cambridge Middle School’s kapa haka group whose three numbers included E noho ana, Anō te Pai and E Noho Tūheitia which always gets people off their feet.
The crowd of New Zealand-based Chinese and locals were no exception.
More than 2000 books from the China International Book Trade Corporation – intended to boost understanding between China and New Zealand – covered a variety of topics and were on show.
Consul General Chen Shijie and Waipā deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk, centre, check out the paintings submitted from Chinese children featuring pandas and kiwi. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
They included political theory, economy, science, affairs commentary, medical, education, traditional cultures, architecture, environmental, poems, fairy tales, artifacts, fashion, cooking, painting, modern literature, Chinese language learning and children’s books.
The books will be donated to libraries and schools, and the paintings will be given to children’s hospitals and children’s rehabilitation institutions.
Front row: Ruby McKinnion.
2nd row: Kahurangi Quinlan, Chaya Walker.
3rd row: Taimana Manuel, Lilly Bell, Loki Pooley, Willow Pikia.
4th row: Lucas Glossop-Keremete, Gia Chase, Lily Moutira, Ajay Taulanga. Photo: Supplied.
Liz Stolwyk speaks at Panda Meets Kiwi
Some of the paintings entered into the exhibition by Waipā school children on display in the Cambridge Town Hall. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Panda Meets Kiwi
