Matariki Cultural Foundation

A growing exchange between Aotearoa and Cymru

TRAC Wales: Danny Kilbride (Director)

TRAC encourages participation in the music, song and dance traditions of Wales – across the country, in both languages and by people of all ages and abilities

In March 2019 Danny Kilbride visited Aotearoa to create the first footprint of a cultural exchange between our nations. His journey took him to WOMADNZ in Taranaki.  He came North to Tai Tokerau to participate in the first Indigi Jam Fest in Whangarei. Then to Tamaki (Auckland) to play music at Waiheke Island with the foundations directors George Te Aroha Kahi and Posenai Mavaega.

The second footprint was created by Hinurewa te Hau long with Emere Wano (Festival Director of WOMADNZ) and her husband Wharehoka Wano.

It is here at Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, Llanrwst that two cultures continued  sharing different ideas, traditions, and knowledge. What we learned was, though we are different, as a celtic nation they too suffered colonisation - the tradition of music keeps there cultural activism and language alive today. 

Trac Wales Team - Danny Kilbride (Director), Rhian Jones, Blanche Rowan

Trac Wales Team - Danny Kilbride (Director), Rhian Jones, Blanche Rowan

AGORA celebrates Llanrwst's historic bids for independence. In 1276 Llyelyn ap Gruffudd proclaimed that the free Borough of Llanrwst was autonomous of the diocese of St Asaph. In 1947, Llanrwst town council made a submission to the United Nations for a seat on the security council, statinig that Llanrwst was an independent state within Wales. The bid was unsuccessful but the hunger for independence withiin society persists. The projects egalitarian foundation is represented in its very fabric. The space is a temporary independent space in which to imagine possibilities an visions of the future; creating an agora, a gathering place for the assembly of active citizens. They invited the people of Conwy to donate their discarded wooden doors which have built there own AGORA. From Left: Emere Wano, Rhian Jones (back). On right: Marc Rees (Lead Creative), Hinurewa te Hau (back)

AGORA celebrates Llanrwst's historic bids for independence. In 1276 Llyelyn ap Gruffudd proclaimed that the free Borough of Llanrwst was autonomous of the diocese of St Asaph. In 1947, Llanrwst town council made a submission to the United Nations for a seat on the security council, statinig that Llanrwst was an independent state within Wales. The bid was unsuccessful but the hunger for independence withiin society persists. The projects egalitarian foundation is represented in its very fabric. The space is a temporary independent space in which to imagine possibilities an visions of the future; creating an agora, a gathering place for the assembly of active citizens. They invited the people of Conwy to donate their discarded wooden doors which have built there own AGORA. From Left: Emere Wano, Rhian Jones (back). On right: Marc Rees (Lead Creative), Hinurewa te Hau (back)