Diwali celebrations bring colour, culture and a political jab to Auckland

Bright costumes, Bollywood beats and the smell of Indian food filled Auckland's city centre during the annual Diwali Festival, but one performance had a slightly sharper edge.

Garagewalas, a group of former Mount Roskill Grammar students, performed a Bollywood-themed dance in front of tens of thousands of festivalgoers on the second day of the BNZ Auckland Diwali Festival.

The local dance group used satire to take aim at election promises, the cost of living, rising petrol prices and the racism faced by Indian New Zealanders over the past year.

It even brought Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki into the act - in cardboard form.

Founder and team leader Rahul Chopra said the performance was about more than physical dance moves, using humour and storytelling to reflect issues the community had been dealing with.

"I think a performance is not just about doing some dance moves, but it's about storytelling, relating to the audience and expressing what we've been going through," he said.

The group, which began 20 years ago during their high school days, used the performance to reflect the experiences of New Zealanders like himself.

"All we get every three years is just certain taglines, but nothing happens," he said.

Chopra said the racism faced by the Indian community had increased tenfold over the past year.

"I've never seen something like this in my 25 years in this country," he said.

Alongside references to the two main political parties, a cardboard cut-out of the Destiny Church leader also made an appearance.

"It was a funny punch back to say that this guy's not right and we belong here, and we don't need to pick between being a Kiwi and being an Indian," Chopra said.

Tens of thousands of people from across Auckland and beyond came to the city centre over the weekend to celebrate the annual festival.

Known as the "festival of lights", Diwali is celebrated by millions of people around the world and symbolises the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil, although its significance and traditions vary across religious communities.

The festival, which began in 2002, has grown into one of New Zealand's largest annual cultural celebrations, showcasing traditional and contemporary Indian music, dance, food and crafts.

This year's programme included performances across three stages, theatre, exhibitions, art installations, light projections, yoga classes, Bollywood films and family activities.

Arnav Taode, the festival's event manager, said he wanted to showcase the diversity and authenticity of India's different regions to Auckland audiences.

"The idea of Indian classical music performed in a concert-style environment has always been the best way I've experienced it, so we've done it that way," he said.

"We also have the Indian art exhibition and partnered with Forum Films to bring the Indian cinema showcase. Along with all the other things, I think this year's selection of food vendors and our programming have been done keeping in mind the authenticity of the different regions of India."

Taode said the festival was not new, but there had been improvements to its programme over the years.

Behind the scenes, hundreds of volunteers also help bring the two-day celebration together, with Aucklanders signing up each year to support the organisers.

Yoyo Fan was among them.

"I'm a volunteer and I love Indian culture," she said. "It's my first time."

Originally from Taiwan, Fan is a student in Auckland and said she was surprised by the scale of the festival.

"I would volunteer again at the Diwali Festival," she said.

Gurpreet Vir Singh travelled from Queenstown to Auckland specifically for the celebrations.

He has volunteered at the festival twice before, making this his third stint.

"I love volunteering," he said.

"This is one of the best places to do it, and the team is really nice and supportive. Plus, you get to work with people from different parts of the world."

This year also saw the festival's largest number of performers, with about 3000 people involved across the two days.

Viraf Todywalla's group was among them.

Todywalla and 50 others from the Zoroastrian community took to the stage on Saturday to share the story of their community with festivalgoers.

The Zoroastrian community in India, widely known as Parsees, is an influential ethno-religious minority descended from Persian refugees who fled the Arab-Islamic conquests beginning in the seventh century.

"Our community is very small, so the awareness is not there," Todywalla said. "This dance drama was an opportunity to tell everyone that the Zoroastrian community is here in New Zealand."

For Wellington dancer Kirsti Rawstron, the festival was an opportunity to perform Odissi solo for the first time.

Odissi is an Indian classical dance form originating from the eastern coastal state of Odisha.

Rawstron said she had stumbled into Indian dance after "accidentally" joining a Bollywood dance troupe.

"Odissi really spoke to me," she said.

Unable to find a teacher in Wellington, Rawstron has been learning online from an Auckland-based instructor.

She said unlearning some of her ballet training had been one of the biggest challenges in learning Indian classical dance, but she wanted to continue pursuing the art for as long as it took.

For Usha Raman, the festival has been a familiar fixture for three decades.

Raman has become a regular presence at the celebrations with her henna designs, using a plant-based dye made from the crushed leaves of the Lawsonia inermis shrub.

Also known as mehndi, the practice dates back thousands of years and is a symbol of joy, often used in everyday life and at celebrations such as births and weddings.

Raman said her journey began at the Festival of India, a precursor to the modern-day Diwali celebrations in Auckland.

"I came to the Festival of India and saw all things Indian except henna, so I went home, took my baby daughter's table and started doing henna. I still do it 30 years later," she said.

Today, Raman runs her henna business full-time with her husband and travels around the world sharing the art.

Food was another major drawcard, with visitors greeted by dozens of stalls offering dishes from different parts of India.

Among the newcomers this year was Tripura Hills, serving food inspired by the northeastern Indian state of Tripura.

"We're selling Indo-Chinese food," Bhumika Zala said.

"There's a mixed culture of Indian and Chinese in the northeastern part of India, and we're bringing some of the street food from our part of the world."

Zala, who is originally from Tripura, has lived in New Zealand for the past 10 years.

She said the northeastern Indian community was relatively small in New Zealand, but she wanted to introduce more people to its cuisine.

Kush Khetani was also among the food vendors, serving dishes from the eastern part of Gujarat.

"We're from the eastern side of Gujarat, and all the items we're selling here are traditionally made from Gujarat," he said.

"The intention is to try and take that cuisine out to local New Zealanders and give them a bit of a taste of it."

The stall was also selling freshly made jalebi, one of the crowd favourites.

The two-day festival ended with fireworks and a light projection show, but the Diwali celebrations are far from over.

An expanded Indian Cinema Showcase is screening Indian films at Auckland cinemas throughout the month.

The showcase will conclude with Ramayana: The Rise of a Legend, a highly anticipated adaptation of the Hindu epic.

Pritesh Raniga, director of Forum Films, said the showcase offered another way for people to celebrate Diwali and experience Indian culture.

Ramayana tells the story of Prince Rama, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, whose wife Sita is kidnapped by the demon king Ravana, prompting Rama to set out to rescue her.

The story is closely linked to Diwali, which is widely associated with Rama's return to his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating Ravana, symbolising the triumph of good over evil and the return of light after darkness.

"Ramayana is one of the most expensive and highly awaited movies of the year, and it was the right movie to finish this year's Diwali Festival and the cinema showcase," Raniga said.