The Odia Community in Auckland, which is small but certainly growing, got together to celebrate the festival of Dussehra with much excitement.
The NZ Odia Society organised the event on 15 October (Saturday) from 3 pm to 11 pm at the Mt Roskill War Memorial Hall. For the uninitiated, the NZ Odia society is a close-knit community of individuals and families in Aotearoa, who are from Odisha or closely associated with the Odia language or culture, wherein they aspire to enrich the multiculturalism of New Zealand by acting as a bridge between the state of Odisha and the people of Aotearoa.
Talking about the event, a spokesperson from the society said, “The event was very successful, with the largest attendance of any of the events organised by the organisation.
“We had attendees and participants from Odias across the country. More than100 people attended and participated in this event, with some families flying into Auckland as far as from Timaru.”
One of the key highlights of the celebration was a dance drama based on Ramayana by kids aged five to 11 years. “The kids not only brought the characters of Ramayana to life but also painted each of them in their own style. The challenges of making such young kids act were manifold, including their understanding of Ramayana and how the characters behave but also some of their location outside Auckland,” revealed the spokesperson.
Besides this, kids mesmerised the crowd with their masterpieces on their choice of musical instruments, including ukulele, tabla, flute, piano and violin, where everyone was performing for the first time on stage with a crowd of more than a hundred watching them.
The event consisted of more than 15 energetic cultural performances with solo and group dancing and singing by the adults and young ones.
When asked about the reason for holding a belated Dussehra (which was on 5 October) celebration, the spokesperson said, “The NZ Odia society consists of closely knit members where almost everyone in any city is close family friends of each other and in some cases relatives as well. Since this event was being organised after almost a year and a half of the Covid-19 break, we tried to schedule the event to accommodate most members and their families. Hence, a weekend during the latter part of the school break was chosen for the Dussehra celebration.”
The guests, too, were seen enjoying the mingling and getting together for the celebration.
Pragyan Mohanty, who originally hails from Cuttack and was one of the attendees, said, "I felt great to come together and meet the fellow members of the Odia community in NZ. I truly felt like being back in India among my family and friends. Such community events should be encouraged."