Dancing the Haka in Old Town

Prague's Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures collaborated with the Folklore Association of the Czech Republic to bring cultural groups from Polynesia and New Zealand to perform in the capital.
The Naprstek Museum in Prague and the Folklore Association of the Czech Republic organized a meeting with indigenous people from the Cook Islands and New Zealand Aug. 29. Visitors witnessed traditional dances performed by the Whakaari Rotoura Cultural Group from Rotoura, New Zealand and the Akirata, or "New Dawn" cultural folk dance group from Avarua, capital of the Cook Islands. The natives came to the Czech Republic to take part in the ninth International Folk Custom Festival, which lit up Old Town's Ovocn? trh Aug. 28-Sept. 1.
Arriving in the Czech Republic at the beginning of August, the Polynesians toured various parts of the country, also performing in Olomouc and Karlovy Vary.

Dancing

"We are enjoying it very much. The Czech Republic is really very beautiful," said Keu Mataroa, leader of the Akirata group.
The tour guide on the Prague leg of their trip was local travel writer Miloslav Stingl, whose accounts of native life on obscure Polynesian islands have earned him national renown. The second part of his book, Ostrovy kr?sy, l?sky a lidojed? (The Islands of Beauty, Love and Cannibals), will be published this month.