Strategic Solidarities: Cultural Festivals, Relational Encounters and Diasporic Youth Identities

Disparate Emotions as Expressions of Well-Being: Impact of Festival Participation from the Participants’ Subjective View

“…Hassanli et al [22,24], for example in their studies in Australia, concluded that immigrants' and refugees' participation in multicultural festivals has a positive impact on their well-being caused by their sense of belonging and community. This is confirmed by two other studies in New Zealand [76,77] that emphasize that festival participation not only creates happiness, joy, pride, etcetera but additionally creates a sense of identity, community, and belonging among different generations of immigrants.…”

Polyfest–Polysuccess: Collaborative critical autoethnographic reflections of Pacific cultural festivals and the success of Pacific students in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Te Ao Haka, a new Māori performing arts subject is a new assessment area for NCEA; this is a step towards Māori knowledge parity (Education Gazette, 2021) and builds on research such as that by Whitinui (2010), which concludes that the use of Kapa Haka for Māori in learning with the inclusion of language, culture and customs improves levels of student participation (interest, attendance, engagement, association and success). Fairburn-Dunlop (2014) and Wood and Homolja (2021) also came to similar conclusions for Pacific students who participated in Polyfest groups and the connections to improved learning that this afforded them.…”

“…The smaller Pacific populations such as Fiji, Tahiti, Tuvalu and Tokelau perform on this stage as well as many other groups representing cultures from all over the world. The diversity stage is a site for cultural fusion and "trans-national solidarity" with many performers from different ethnic groups joining together (Wood & Homolja, 2021).…”

“…The opportunity to share culture and to have cultural identity recognised and valued is a vital part of the festival. The performances themselves, as the climax of the Polyfest experience for the cultural groups that have entered, are always a time of immense pride, joy and satisfaction (Mackley-Crump, 2011, 2013Williams, 2022;Wood & Homolja, 2021). In addition, these opportunities can also be coupled with academic recognition for the various aspects of Polyfest that students are participating in.…”

Belonging to the nation: Negotiating narratives of national identity in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…This study joins a handful of others that have explored how young citizens in culturally diverse nations are navigating diversity, experiencing belonging and expressing their citizenship (Erdal, 2019;Erdal & Strømsø, 2021;Harju, 2018;Valentine, Sporton, & Nielsen, 2009;Visser, 2016;Wang, 2018;Wang & Collins, 2016;Witten, Kearns, Carroll, & Asiasiga, 2019;Wood & Homolja, 2021). However, while such studies have documented the complex 'ethnic boundary work' (Visser, 2016) undertaken by young ethnic minority youth in order to 'fit in' or belong to the nation, very few consider how such young people themselves might reshape the nation (Erdal & Strømsø, 2021;Thompson, 2001;Wilson, 2015).…”