On Thursday 26th March nine wahine met at Pomare Taita Community House for the first regular gathering of our Hutt Multicultural Women’s Group. The objective of these gatherings is to provide a regular space where women from ethnic communities can come together to share experiences, develop friendships, learn new skills and gain new knowledge. The gatherings are held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 7.30pm at Pomare Taita Community House, and refreshments are provided.  

For our first session Michelle and Helen from Wellington Chinese Women’s Association prepared a presentation on Chinese culture, with a focus on Chinese New Year. The workshop was fun, interactive and insightful, as attendees shared and compared how their own ethnic community celebrates the dawning of a New Year. 

Michelle told the Chinese legend of Nian, a monster who preyed on villages once a year. The villagers discovered that Nian was scared of the colour red and loud noises such as firecrackers, and so these have become central features of Chinese New Year celebrations. We played a game where we tried to use chopsticks to pick up some sweets, this was a new skill for some of the attendees but one which they quickly picked up.  

Next we had a go at writing Chinese characters, while Michelle explained how characters are read and the four different tones which are used to pronounce characters when speaking Mandarin. We finished with fan painting, a Chinese intangible cultural heritage art where lacquer is added to a bucket of water and a fan is slowly lowered into and twisted around in the water. 

Our first gathering was marked by whanaungatanga (connection between people), laughs and learning, and we’re looking forward to our next session on 9th April, where our Life Member Anita Mansell will lead us in a session about Filipino cooking and storytelling.  

This article is contributed by HMC Secretariat.