Bhangra in blue

Counties Manukau Police staff made history in the most energetic way last month when they took to the stage to perform a bhangra dance routine in front of 2000 people.

The group performed at the Vodafone Event Centre, Manukau, to mark Visakhi, a Sikh and Hindu harvest festival and celebration of the founding of the Sikh religion.

Group founder Constable Mandeep Kaur says it is thought to be the first time a uniformed police group anywhere has performed the high-energy Punjabi dance – and it brought the audience to its feet.

Also dancing were Sergeant Gurpreet Arora, Constables Tineke Laing, Jagmohan Singh, Jagteshwar Singh, Stainder Singh and Gurjot Dhhiman, photography section assistant Premjeet Kaur and her daughter Diljani. Out injured but present in spirit was Constable Deepak Kalra.

Mandeep says the audience particularly appreciated the participation of Tineke, the one non-Indian member, acclaiming her ‘Gorri Punjaban’, or ‘White Punjabi’.

After the performance, Counties Manukau West Area Commander Inspector Jason Hewett addressed the audience. “That was very precious for us,” says Mandeep.

Jason says he was proud to support the group, whose “awesome” performance would boost recruitment and trust and confidence among the area’s booming South Asian communities. 

“One reason New Zealand Police is truly great is that we really get the fact that if we want to police well we have to really represent the communities we police,” says Jason.

He says the activities of the bhangra group showed officers genuinely modelling the core Police value of valuing diversity.

Mandeep says the group is looking for recruits of all ethnicities and aims one day to combine bhangra with kapa haka.

• This is one of the stories featured in the May issue of Ten One - click here for more.