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Ekta NZ Inc, a Wellington based Indian community-based NGO, will be celebrating Diwali at North City, a mall in Porirua. The event will be held from 12 to 2pm on 24 and 25 Oct.
Ms Sonam Srivastava, Ekta’s project lead for the “Diwali at the Mall” event said “this is the first time that a Diwali event is being held at a mall anywhere in Wellington. And this is significant. It is a reflection how the country is becoming more accepting of the diversity that currently exists. We can celebrate and partake in each other’s festivals. We, in Ekta think that greater unity or Ekta can be achieved when we are able to have shared experiences and it is this share experience that is underlying our celebration. Besides display of dances and costumes, we are also having interactive activities such as saree tying”.
Helping Ms Srivastava to manage the program is Ms Foram Shah who also runs a restaurant in Porirua. Commenting on the choice of Porirua, Ms Shah said “we wanted to bring Diwali to where people live and congregate daily. The foot traffic to the mall in any weekend is nearly equivalent to half of Porirua’s population. It is also interesting that approximately 9% of the population of Porirua is Asian and, if one looks at the rate at which people born overseas are settling Porirua, Indians have the fastest rate. The rate of increase was over 300% at the last count”.
Ms Srivastava added “we also wanted to show our support to a local charity, Kiwi Community Assistance which is not only homegrown but is also supported by many local businesses. We take a lot of inspiration from this charity: how it grew out of a garage in 2011 and today operates from a 500 sq. meter warehouse space with 90 over volunteers.
Taking a cue from KCA, Ekta has been distributing food to the needy of Porirua since July. This is in addition to what we have been doing in Wellington since early 2019. We now run this weekly distribution at 4 sites in the greater Wellington region viz Lower Hutt, St Peter’s Church on Willis St, Courtney Place and Porirua.”
Commenting on Ekta’s involvement in Porirua, Ms Shah said “besides the food distribution we have recently supported the North Ridge Under 12 Rugby club of Porirua and we hope to continue our involvement in Porirua”.
Besides the weekly food service Ekta has been involved in several other activities. Recently it co supported the “Girmit Exhibition” in Wellington and will be doing so again with the “Whenua Ukaipo Connectedness” exhibition which will be held from 31 Oct to 4 Nov. Last year Ekta organised the “Jallianwala Bagh” Exhibition.
Ekta has also been very active during the covid period helping Indians families and students stuck here during that period and for which it was officially recognised by the Indian High Commission at the National Day event on August 15 in Wellington. Similar recognition has also been received from the South African High Commission.
Among the dignitaries who will be attending the launch will be Sir Anand Satyanand, the former Governor General, the High Commissioners of India, Malaysia, Singapore and Malaysia, the Mayor of Porirua, the Director of Office of Ethnic Communities and local Iwi elders and leaders.
This event would not have been possible without the huge support we have got from North City Management. They have been very forthcoming in embracing the diversity of the city.
Ms Srivastava said “the key to all these are funders, Nikau Foundation and Pelorus Trust. Nothing could have been done if the funders had been there. We are very grateful to them for helping us make this possible”.
For further information on the “Diwali at the Mall” please contact Ms Sonam Srivastava at: 02040181808 and Ms Jill Oakely at 0273502739 for the Whenua Ukaipo Connectedness exhibition. For information on Ekta please contact Abhishek Sharma at 027 497 4677.