Canterbury was put on the national map this weekend with the successful organisation of the first-ever Indian Women Expo in Christchurch. The six-hour long event, which had 47 stalls divided into nine zones, saw almost 1,000 people attending with several ministers and MPs including Amy Adams, Nicky Wagner, Parmjeet Parmar, and Ruth Dyson.
An initiative of the Canterbury Indian Women Group (CIWG)—established on March 8, the International Women Day—the Expo provided a platform to Indian women for showcasing their skills, talents, and successes in different spheres including business, art, culture, education, health and well-being.
“When we started thinking about organising such an event a few months back, we never imagined we would get such an overwhelmingly positive response from the Indian and wider community. Chances are that it might become a regular annual affair on the Christchurch's events calendar,” said Archna Tandon, founder of CIWG and the main brain behind the expo.
Informing about the goals of CIWG, she added, “Our vision is to help Indian women and their families maintain cultural values, promote health and well-being and collaborate to share knowledge and information for mutual support, capacity building and empowerment.”
Going by the idea of having something for everybody, the expo's nine different zones were beauty, cuisine, fashion, home decor, art and culture, business, education, health and information.
An obvious hit among these was the Henna Body Art. “This is my first time experiencing the beauty of heena. Though similar to tattooing, the patterns are quite different and pretty,” said Michelle Karmer, an American studying in the University of Canterbury.
Other attractions included: in the Fashion Zone, Punjabi juttis; in Home Decor, Rencontres Blings, which specialises in scented soy candles; in Art and Culture, the Lincoln University Dance Club and Bharatnatyam Group of Christchurch; in Health Zone, Pegasus Health, Art of Living, Reiki; as well as Christchurch Resettlement Services and Citizen Advice Bureau, in the Information Zone.
For those new to Christchurch, the Business Zone had many handy stalls including the Western Union for transferring money to India, Eco travels for airfares, as well as several real estate companies.
With growing importance of Indian students to New Zealand's education sector, the Ara Institute of Technology led by its International Director, Beth Knowles, was also present at the expo to provide information about its various course to potential students.
For those interested in trying out ethnic Indian wear, the city-based firm Jalsa Unique Indian Wear showcased Indian dresses in a specially choreographed fashion show. Ranjeeta Chand, the owner, noted, “We thank the CIWG's organising committee, especially Archnaji for giving us this opportunity.”
The final word belonged to Kevin Park, former President of the Korean Society of Christchurch, who attended the expo with family and friends, “The organisation of the expo, the gathering, the crowd management and the participation of businesses in the event has been wonderful. It didn't look like CIWG is a new group, or that this is the first event they have organised, at all. Such was the professionalism we experienced.”
Learn Indian languages in Christchurch
Free classes for Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Sanskrit and Punjabi
One of the most widely appreciated zones during the expo was the Education Zone, which had information about free weekend classes for those wishing to learn or brush up their language skills in Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Sanskrit, and Punjabi.
Kala Nand, who immigrated to New Zealand in 2002 from Fiji, is a primary school teacher and teaches Hindi noted, “The free classes are part of our contribution to the community and an effort to teach the younger generation our history, culture and develop a sense of belonging. Our flagship annual event is the Hindi Divas, which we are organising on September 14.”
Uma Varma, who is starting Sanskrit classes in Christchurch soon and also teaches Bharatnatyam at her dance school, Revathi Performing Arts, added, “Those wishing to learn Bharatnatyam has to have a basic understanding of the language to gauge the meaning of various hastas (dance moves). But those wishing to learn the language only can come to our free Saturday classes.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Lavanya Kasibhatla, who takes free Telugu classes in Christchurch. Kasibhatla, who also provides astrology services and writes personalised poems to be given as memorable gifts felt that the expo was a life-changing event for her, providing great exposure to potential clients.
For those interested, information was also available for free Gujarati and Punjabi classes conducted in Christchurch by Manisha Sonigra and Kuljeet Kaur respectively.