According to the 2013 census, there are about 6 thousand people in New Zealand who make up the Russian-speaking community. These are mainly Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhstanis and Belarusians, who mainly live in the business capital and in the largest city in the country – Auckland. Many also live in Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga and other cities in the country. The Russian-speaking community is growing every year, and after that, more Russian-speaking communities and cultural events appear. Many useful social groups have emerged about Russians and for Russians in New Zealand.
For those who want to be able to communicate in Russian, for those who do not want to lose touch with their homeland or need support and additional information from compatriots, there is an opportunity to join Russian New Zealand groups on Facebook. Below we have compiled for you a selection of the most interesting and active communities, public organizations and cultural events in Russian-speaking New Zealand.
Festival “Russian days”
Auckland and Wellington are successfully hosting Russian Days cultural festivals. In 2018, the first festival took place in the city of Tauranga. If you really want to plunge into traditional Russian culture, then this festival is for you. There is everything here: Russian folk dances from clubs and dance groups, a Russian choir performance, Russian traditional food, classes with children from Russian schools, contests for knowledge of interesting facts about Russia, and so on.
In 2019, we attended the Auckland festival and filmed a great review
Kiwi Education Meetings
Several times a year we try to arrange meetings for friends and Kiwi Education students not only in Auckland but also in the regions (we recently had our first meeting in Wellington). Such warm events gather a large number of people of different ages, from different cities of Russia and beyond. The main purpose of the events is to communicate and exchange experiences of moving to New Zealand.
On our YouTube channel, you can watch a video report on how we held the Kiwi Education picnic in 2018
Facebook groups
Communication between Russian-speaking immigrants in New Zealand is very developed on social networks. We have compiled a list of useful Russian-speaking groups for you.
This group is for communication. Employees of our company, our current and future clients share useful information in the group about working, studying, immigration and life in New Zealand. Also, advertisements for rental housing and open job vacancies appear quite often.
We introduce you to all the Russian-language events taking place in different cities of New Zealand.
We help our project
Russian NZ project
Other projects
- A group of those who live in Christchurch
- A group of those who live in Dunedin
- Russian club group in Wellington
- Ukrainian community group
- A group of Russian speaking mothers in New Zealand
Other interesting links
- Our Harbor — Russian-New Zealand information publication.
- Russian Youth Cultural Center, organized under the direction of Honored Artists of Russia – Galina and Vadim Ledogorov. The centre has a children’s theatre “Fantasy” and a literary drama studio.
- Russian Cultural Center in Christchurch.
We hope this article is helpful to you!
