News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Race Relations Week was celebrated at Johnsonville Library through a Festival of Cultures attended by more than 60 people on Friday 19th March.

All the librarians and most of the guests and children from a local   kindergarten were dressed in their national costume.

A showcase of rich cultural performances from the different members of the community highlighted the event – a traditional Chinese Guzheng instrument, originally shipped from China, played beautiful music pieces performed by Cris and an Ethiopian Traditional Coffee Ceremony was described and interpreted by Taitu, one of the librarians.

The children loved the story telling by Veronica and the amazing paper cutting crafts by Yu. The event was also attended by Johnsonville Community Centre ESOL class & the Chinese Senior Community.

As part of Race Relations Week, Miramar and Kilbirnie libraries played host to the famous Italian puppet, Pulcinella, cousin to the English Punch. His friends, Teresina, La Morte (Death), Fred and the Black Sheep came along too.

Anna Bailey, our puppeteering librarian, gave the traditional tale a NZ twist, when Pulcinella left his darling Teresina and her delicious pizza for an ill fated trip to NZ. What with a cannibal sheep and a visit by Death it wasn’t a story for the faint hearted.

The brave students from St Pats, Holy Cross and Miramar Central and a few fearless preschoolers were a wonderful audience. They played there role to the max, yelling encouragement to Pulcinella, booing the Black Sheep and La Morte and laughing at all the silly goings on.

All in all it was a very raucous but enjoyable morning in both libraries.

On Wed 17th March Newtown Library had two Aoga Amata (Samoan preschool) groups with 30 children come and attend our Earth People fun. They were aged mostly 3-4 years old.

The kids listened to a multicultural storytime in English, Chinese and Samoan, then had a morning tea, before making Earth People with our resident artist Marg Elliot.

The Aoga Amata groups were from the Pacific Islanders’ Congregational Church and the Saint Anne’s AA.

Have a look at their results and some photos of the morning!

Miep Gies, who helped Anne Frank hide, died January 11 at the age of 100. She was the last survivor of a small group of people who helped the Jewish family hide from the Nazis during World War II. It was Miep who found Anne’s diary after the family’s hiding place was discovered and they were deported to concentration camps. She never read the diary and kept it for safe keeping and handed it to Anne’s father Otto after the war.

Ada Nally, WCL’s Multicultural Customer Specialist said on hearing of Gies’ death

I will never forget my school trip as a ten year old to the secret annex. Anne’s description of her hiding place came alive as we passed the bookcase which hid the staircase leading to Anne’s living areas. The pictures of famous Hollywood movie stars at that time are still on her bedroom wall. I have read Anne’s diary several times and still prefer to read it in Dutch.

Did you know that the most popular tourist attraction in Amsterdam is not the museum, the canals or dare I say the red light district? It is the Anne Frank museum.

The Anne Frank exhibition will tour New Zealand this year, starting at Te Papa in February. For more details: www.annefrankexhibition.co.nz

Anne Frank’s story to the world is a warning of the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination, and is an assertion of the values of freedom, equal rights and democracy. Wellington City Libraries holds several copies of the diary and other books about Anne Frank, including Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies -  click on the links to the left for details.

March 21 is Race Relations Day and Wellington City Libraries will host a festival of cultures at Johnsonville library, book displays and continue with Earth People at several libraries. For more information visit our Earth people blog in February and March. The theme this year is: “It’s About Us: Whanau”.

Each year, 21 March is observed around the world as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The theme this year is “We all sit under the same stars”. Because Race Relations Day falls on Good Friday, the official day of celebration will be Tuesday, 18 March.

What’s on offer?

There will be activities and displays on at Wellington libraries for the whole week (17 to 20 March). A full schedule of events is available on our kids’ Events page – we’ll be making earth people, putting on performances and activities and much more!