| Pasifika Styles Workshops | 10 sessions of 2 hours each will be spread over 9 weeks. To get involved contact: The Education Team at Escape Artists, 91 Cherry Hinton Road, CB1 7BS. Phone: 01223 412 695 To view the Pasifika Styles exhibition The Exhibition opens on 5th May 2006. The Museum is located on Downing Street (between Pembroke College and Emmanuel College) in the heart of Cambridge.
The Museum is open to the public, free of charge, from 2:00 to 4:30 Tuesday through Saturday. PHONE: 44-(0)1223-333516 |
Pasifika Styles is a major exhibition celebrating Maori arts and crafts which is coming to the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology opening on 5th May 2006. The Museum displays renowned archaeological and anthropological collections from around the world. The ground-floor gallery displays collections of world prehistory and local archaeology; the first-floor gallery offers an historical and geographical display of the social anthropology collection; while on the top floor, special exhibitions reflect current research interests in the Faculty. Accompanying the exhibition will be a series of workshops for people aged 12 - 25 run by Manaia, a Maori owned company based in London who specialise in bringing the Maori arts and traditions to different communities throughout the world. Manaia are working with local theatre company, Escape Artists, to put together a fully interactive package whereby you can learn about the different aspects of Maori culture and enjoy discovering a little more about the All Black's favourite dance.
 | | Music making with Manaia |
Kateia Burrows, who runs Manaia and will be leading the workshops, also stressed the importance of the spoken word throughout the workshops; "We want to teach them our stories. Story-telling is very important to our culture, we were very much oral people who mainly relied on language and the spoken word, not so much on the written word. We told our stories through songs and dance," and it is this rich tradition of communication that they hope to pass on to the workshop participants to encourage self-confidence and creativity. In addition, there's an element of empowerment about the workshops. Like Manaia, Escape Artists share a similar agenda. Both work to address issues of social exclusion. They are a theatre group with a strong history of working with people from the social margins, and whilst the workshops are open to all, both Escape Artists and Manaia hope that those people who are traditionally excluded from society, will be given every opportunity to participate and gain something from the workshops. So, perhaps to find your voice, perhaps to get pukka with the Poi or to get happy with your Haka, you might want to get involved with the Pasifika Styles workshop... | 
