Pacifica Gods Festival

Traditional dance, music and Tongan-inspired barbeque cuisine will be on hand to celebrate Pacific Islander culture in Sydney. The Pacifica Gods Festival, Casula Powerhouse’s fifth annual event, is aimed at promoting spirituality and ancestry from the past and present.

Creative director, Leo Tanoi, believes that Pacific Islander culture has been underrepresented in the Sydney community: “We represent certain aspects of traditional and contemporary culture for them. We work with a lot of diverse communities, which are all different cultural identities. We promote their cultures and look at heritage and artworks from the past and present.”

An array of traditional Islander art will be on display, as well as performances by Opera Australia community choir, Casula Voices, and a Pacific jazz collaboration called Fresh Plantation.

Tanoi says: “We have PhD students from the Conservatory of Music. They’re studying jazz and looking at the influence of traditional music and contemporary music, and we’ve been able to engage with them so that these students are able to mix with people from the Islander community who are cultured in traditional dance – they’re going to make a fusion.”

There is currently a population of around 400,000 Pacific Islanders living in Australia: “It’s something that pacific regions have been doing for millenniums, we’re not trying to convert anyone but we’re trying to promote a historical look through heritage objects.” (GF)

Oct 11-25, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 1 Powerhouse Rd, Casula, free, casulapowerhouse.com