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Regional | Entertainment

Ngāti Awa Festival looks to the future

It has been a successful event at the two-day inaugural Ngāti Awa Festival.

It has taken 10 months to organise the event which includes a kapa haka competition, a true highlight of Ngāti Awa’s identity.

But as descendants from all across the country celebrate and acknowledge their tribal identity, they also have plans to capitalise on their autonomy to ensure a better future.

One of the topic’s to be raised at the Ngāti Awa Te Toki Festival, is that the Whakatāne Marina Society plans to build a seafront development that includes a marina with a retirement village and residential development near one of the iwi's old cemetery site called Ōpihi Whanaunga Kore.

In the meantime, the adult competition is set to take stage tomorrow with the inclusion of 15 Ngāti Awa hapū teams.