TOMMY KAPAI: Celebrating an easy way to mark success

I know the 60s song says that The Carnival is Over. But is it?
Did it ever begin, or does the carnival here in Tauranga need a good kick-start in the carnivarse.
The subject came up again this week when I was brainstorming - as you do when it's been stormy weather - with the Captains of CarniBro, Mike and Doug Tamaki. It seems that, according to our collective korero, carnivals are all about celebrating life and we need to do it more.
I guess we need to start back at the art of celebrating and why we do or don't do it It hinges on how you handle success as to how you celebrate it and the collective celebration then becomes the core ingredient of a corker Carnival.
Maori look at success and its celebration in a different light from their European cuzzies. The thin line between being proud of an achievement and being whakahihi (show off) is at times thinner than a bank manager's wallet.
I remember standing on the sideline as the waterboy of our local Te Puna rugby team during a grand final match at Tauranga Domain.
Our rampaging prop scored an awesome try that turned the game and when he got up I could clearly see he wanted to high five the entire team and possibly give the ref a set of raised eyebrows. But instead, he choked the celebration and called for his boys to stay humble.
The magic moment of success was silenced by the sobering thought of being called whakahihi.
Success is not a crime and until we as Maori can awhi each other when we succeed we will handbrake the very catalyst of celebrations that carnivals are made of.
Every day there is cause to celebrate success. I saw it in the Omanu School 50th reunion last Saturday.
It wasn't when Winston crooned the audience with his brilliantly brocaded silver-lined speech.
It wasn't the crooning Crosby when he talked of the terrific Taurangans who stood tall in the recent floods, and they truly did. No, for me it was the Omanu tamariki that graced the stage and delivered a kapahaka performance that would have made Temuera and Sir Howard want to stand up and celebrate their success.
When I see non-Maori standing alongside their Maori cuzzies and celebrating their culture it gives me great cause for believing that we can, through our children, make it to the other side of the dumb divide that keeps us all from a cultural carnival.
My Bro Mike is streetwise and cunningly clever and it shows in the success of Tamaki Tours.
He reckons, and I agree, that Tauranga doesn't need flash iconic attractions. Instead, it needs to capitalise and carnivalise on what we already have in a city that has plenty of everything. Imagine "The KiwiFruit Carnival" the whole town turns up for.
Imagine the opening night of KiwiFruit Carnival with a "Pickers & Packers Ball" that filled Blue Chip until the packet almost burst.
Imagine the KiwiFruit Karaoke that became the launching pad for every undiscovered talent in Tauranga.
Then there's the HukaPak Haka and Hangi Hooley, The Kiwi Kids Kart Race (make sure it's not on a church Sunday) the KiwiFruit Compass Village Costumised street party and what about The Zespri Zest for life Family Fun Day.
Who knows, but its all there waiting to be plucked from a vine near you and given that we have got the best berries in the business, why not celebrate it? It all adds up to a corker carnival and we reckon that's its time to turn this time of the year in Tauranga into Carnival Time, but ssshhhh. keep it quiet because someone clever will tell us why we can't, not why we can.
And if you're looking for a dress rehearsal for carnival, then show up at the Simply Red Canteen night we are hosting this Wednesday night at The Tauranga Club.
Find out for yourselves that the carnival is most definitely not over.
It's going to be rocking red and ready, with Whalerider Stars, Racey Red Cars, Wedding Dresses fit for Tzars and living proof that women and jewellery are from Venus and men and money are from Mars.
Come along and check it out for the Canteen Kids of Tauranga.
Pai marire