Migrant Community Showcase: Persia

Celebrating Aotearoa as a home and meeting place for many, we are excited to host a Persian cultural showcase with music and movement, in collaboration with Lady Khadija Trust.

The Bārbad Ensemble will fill the foyer of Heather Straka's Isolation Hotel with sounds from traditional and modern instruments – guitar meets setar in a coming together of cultures and histories.

This will be followed by a Zurkhaneh performance with time for questions and answers from the audience.

You can learn more about some of the performers and contributors by watching the Immigrant Journeys documentary in the gallery.

This event is free but places are limited so please register on the Museum website if you're attending. Please note attendees need to comply with the Museum's public health conditions of entry.

This event will be staged so that we can safely meet the requirements of the COVID-19 Red Traffic Light Setting. Numbers are limited to meet physical distancing requirements. If we need to cancel the event for any reason, updates will be posted on the Museum website and emailed to anyone who has signed up.

About the Performers

Bārbad Ensemble is a Persian traditional-modern music group. They mix traditional Persian instruments such as Setar, Rabab, Oud, and Daf with modern western Western guitar to create interesting songs. This group was established almost a year ago and performed in a number of events and shows.

Canterbury Zurkhaneh was founded a year ago as a Persian traditional gym club. Also known as Persian Yoga, Zurkhaneh is a martial arts strength conditioning system used by knights and warriors from a bygone era and by contemporary and current Olympic and World champion wrestlers.

Recognized by UNESCO as the world's oldest running form of such training, Zurkhaneh is a complete integrated form of exercise that uses tools like the Sang (Shield), Shena (Push-up Board), Meel (Persian Mace Club), and Kabbadeh (Steel Bow) to provide increased resistance and neurological input during circular multi-planar movements to deliver a fluid, incredibly demanding, yet simple and approachable practice that will make you stronger and more pain-free than ever before.

Migrant Community Showcase

This series of free public events, produced in collaboration with Lady Khadijah Trust, celebrates some of the vibrant migrant communities that make up Ōtautahi Christchurch in Heather Straka’s Isolation Hotel.