December 11, 2017
Christmas at the Pa outstanding success
Te Puea Memorial Marae chair Hurimoana Dennis would like to see Christmas at the Pa become an annual event.
More than 1000 people turned out on Saturday for the free concert and family evening featuring entertainers like Rob Ruha, Maisey Rika and Troy Kingi as well as a visit from Santa.
They included many of the whanau the marae has found homes for since it decided to open its doors to the homeless.
Mr Dennis says it generated a great whanau spirit.
"So we had Indian whanau there, Pakeha whanau, everybody turned up. We were blessed with a good day, but it was just us entertaining ourselves and doing it very well, and those guys can sing, really proud to be Maori, just outstanding, very natural, no 12-piece orchestra, just them and their guitars and off they go," he says.
He's looking forward to working with the new Governemnt on system solutions to homelessness.
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