Musica Balkanica choir - formed in Christchurch in 2004 by a group of enthusiasts to celebrate and share the rich musical heritage of the Balkan region of Eastern Europe - had a concert in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre on the October 22. The choir was led by its conductor of many years, Budimir Miljkovic and co-conductor Mihaela Hnat.

Almost 150 people attended the festivities with some participation from the wider community. The highlight of the event was India - Kaleidoscope of Cultures, depicting the diversity of the country. 

Dancing to Bollywood songs - from past and present, and acting out melodramatic scenes, the musical – My Big Fat Indian Wedding - a student led and directed musical rocked the South of New Zealand recently. An initiative of the Indian Students Association (ISA) of the University of Otago, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the event featured over 135 performers – the largest ever.

In a major development recently, the Indian community - across all city-based organisations, associations, trusts and community groups - have for the first time joined hands to pool in resources to work towards building an Indian community centre in Christchurch. To be built under the aegis of soon-to-be-registered Canterbury Indian Community Centre Trust (CICCT), the multi-purpose facility will require something in the tune of $1.2 million, fund raising for which will start soon and hopefully be completed in the next two years, informed Rajiv Gulati, one of the main initiators of the project.

60 years ago Hungarians started an uprising against the communist dictatorship forced on Hungary by the Russian troops who "liberated" Hungary in the 2nd World War. The freedom fighters failed in the revolt, but ever since Hungary gained back its independence in 1989 and announced the new republic on the anniversary day of October 23, we are free to celebrate the remembrance of the unsuccessful uprising and all the victims of fighting and the reprisals afterwards.

The event was organised by the Christchurch Fiji Association or CFCESSA, and was attended by over 300 people. Informing this was Jagat Singh, President of CFCESSA, who added, "We have been organising Diwali for the past 14 years. Earlier we used to get some funding but not any more. Now the community gets together and organises the event. Hopefully, the City Council will start helping us again. If it happens, maybe we will be able to organise the event on a much bigger scale the next year."

The camaraderie that Nepali people and Kiwis share - which started in 1953 when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Sagarmatha (or Mt Everest as it is known outside Nepal) – was on full display the last weekend during the City's Dussehra celebrations.

As a follow up to their July workshop, Anna Filippochkina of CLANZ (Community Languages Association of New Zealand) and Angela Bland of CANTESOL and TESOLNZ (Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages), organised a second workshop for professional development of community language teachers on September 28. The highlight of the session was a guest lecture by Una Cunningham, Associate Professor at College of Education, University of Canterbury, on "Keeping it real: authenticity, task and meaning-focused language teaching".