After all this is recession time and cutbacks are the norm when the national economic purse jangles only coppers, so why the backlash at this time. Our continual focus on public funding to prop up Pacific events that are significant to the Pacific community has got to stop. I'm sure that the Lantern Festival would survive the withdrawal of the public coffers and would be propped up immediately by the Asian business community.The Pacific business community should be targeted to support the Pasifika Festival as should the Asian business community who have chosen to re-establish themselves in the Pacific Ocean alongside us. This is the time for PasifikAsia alliances to be drawn up and we cannot continue to rely on the government to draft the altering cultural landscape for us. We need only look at the census population figures to note that Pacific population figures are stabilising alongside a strong and growing Asian population. How long can a largely underfunded Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs survive before it becomes absorbed into the Ethnic Affairs portfolio. It's a numbers game. But the Pacific community must become smart, savvy and rethink it's future alliances. If the Pasifika Festival is to survive - stop focussing on the issues, rethink, alter, plan and modify how to recreate the future. The annual school cultural festival held in south Auckland every year has already moved in that direction. No longer the Polynesian Festival it now includes Asian and Middle Eastern dance groups. The Pasifika Festival must do the same. This is the age of PasifikAsia NOT Asia - Pacific and Pacific or Pasifika communities must forge that new identity now before we become subject to change.
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