Hutt Valley’s Viet Hub NZ shares food, festivals and joy

December 3, 2025

In just 18 months, Viet Hub NZ – a small but remarkably energetic group of Vietnamese people in Wellington’s Hutt Valley – have put their homeland’s vibrant culture on the local map.

They started in 2024 with a Vietnamese language library and book exchange. A weekly community radio show followed and this year alone, they’ve run two festivals, staged a musical and run thirty-three hugely popular cooking workshops.

Viet Hub whānau have formed bonds of friendship and understanding in host communities throughout the greater Wellington region. They’ve strengthened their own community by creating new opportunities to support each other as they build their lives in Aotearoa.

Three individuals from Viet Hub NZ sit at a table in a radio studio during their first trial broadcast with Hutt City FM 106.7. Microphones, headphones, and audio equipment are visible on the desk, and a large window provides natural light in the background.
Long Pham Nguyễn, Amilia Tran & Vinh Nguyễn of Viet Hub NZ attending the first radio trial with Hutt City FM 106.7

Small beginnings, big potential

It all started when Vinh Nguyễn, a data analyst at home on maternity leave, posted online that she had ten Vietnamese language books to give away.

Dynamic E Tū Whānau kaimahi, Thi Phan, responded suggesting Vinh create a book exchange at the Pōmare Taita Community Centre. There it would be accessible to all members of the region’s 2000 strong Vietnamese community.

When the two women met kanohi ki te kanohi, that idea – and a whole lot of others – really took off.

What began with just a handful of books has now grown into a bilingual initiative offering family reading sessions, cultural storytelling and online language classes for children who rarely speak Vietnamese at home. There are now more than 100 Vietnamese language books available at the Pōmare Taita Community Centre, the ChangeMakers Resettlement Forum in Wellington and a community member’s home in Christchurch.

Viet Hub NZ also has a weekly Vietnamese language radio show on Hutt CityFM. Hosted by Long Pham Nguyễn and Phuong (Amelia) Mai Tran it features music, news and cultural stories alongside interviews with Vietnamese migrants, wellbeing messages and community updates.

Viet Hub Cuisine, the great connector

Viet Hub Cuisine is facilitated by Yung Nguyễn in collaboration with local chefs and community groups across Wellington CBD, Porirua and Lower Hutt. These free monthly workshops are open to everyone and blend healthy seasonal Vietnamese recipes with local produce.

They’re particularly popular with Vietnamese whānau who say that the classes make them feel “more connected,” and “part of something.”

“We chop and stir, taste and laugh together.These workshops are a reminder of what community-led learning looks like: people coming together, sharing stories, lending a hand and leaving with full hearts and containers,” says Vinh.

Participants gather around a kitchen counter during a Vietnamese cooking workshop organised by Viet Hub NZ, learning how to make traditional mooncakes. Ingredients, mixing bowls, and trays are arranged on the counter.
Yung Nguyễn teaches participants at cooking class how to make mooncakes.
Three young Vietnamese people chat while cooking at a Viet Hub NZ organised cooking class. They look happy and appear to be following a recipe. On the table in front of them are eggs, sliced green vegetables and empty bowls.
The first cooking workshop at Youth Hub, Wellington. Participants learnt how to cook Bo Bia, an iconic Vietnamese street-food dish.

Festivals, music and storytelling

After taking part in the 2025 Wellington Lunar New Year, or Tết, Festival, Viet Hub NZ held its own Tết Festival in collaboration with the Hutt City Council. Locals responded so strongly to the sap, or bamboo, dancing, Vietnamese cooking demonstrations, cultural workshops and the colourful performances of traditional music and dance that the Council decided to make it an annual event.

A child steps between two sets of bamboo poles on grass while three seated young women hold and move the poles, teaching the child the traditional Vietnamese bamboo dance called múa sạp. This cultural activity is often performed during festivals such as Lunar New Year. People are sitting on tiered stone steps in the background watching the activity.
Viet Hub NZ volunteers helping participants to play nhay sap, the traditional bamboo dance).
Two people dressed up as colourful Vietnamese cultural characters are depicted at a street festival for Lunar New Year.
Two characters at Lunar New Year.
Four Viet Hub NZ performers standing outdoors holding two vibrant lion dance costumes with orange and red fur and large decorative heads, during a Vietnamese street festival. A stage with speakers and a mural is visible in the background.
Viet Hub NZ Lion Dance team led by Danny Le opened the Christmas Festival at Te Mako Centre, Naenae.
Three Viet Hub NZ performers in bright yellow lion costumes with white and multicolored lion heads dance in an outdoor courtyard during the Vietnamese Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn) Festival in Wellington. A large crowd of seated and standing spectators watches in the background, with trees, buildings, and a food truck visible under clear daylight.
A lion dance at Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn) Festival.

That success was followed in the Hutt Valley in July 2025 with Tết Trung Thu, a traditional Vietnamese Children’s Festival, featuring cultural games, crafts and bilingual storytelling.

In late November in Petone, a twenty-five strong team of musicians and storytellers performed ‘Echoes of Home’, a homegrown musical about the emotional journey migrants take, “from the laughter of childhood to the quiet ache of distance and the enduring warmth of return”. It was a moving experience for many in the multicultural audience. Another performance is planned next year in Porirua.

Building the future for Viet Hub NZ

Vinh says proudly that Viet Hub NZ is a truly grassroots, community-led organisation created by the community, for the community.

Alongside youth programmes, wellbeing support and plans to become a registered non-profit in early 2025, Viet Hub NZ is building a future where cultural pride and community-led action go hand in hand.

“From day one, we have lived by our C.O.R.E values – Collaboration, Opportunity, Respect and Empowerment. These aren’t just words. They shape every programme, conversation and decision we make and guide the way our community steps forward to lead.

Parents, students, elders, and community members step forward because they care.”

In this photo, eight young Vietnamese children, many wearing cultural dress, joyfully performing a song to celebrate the Mid-autumn Festival 2024 at Te Mako Centre, Naenae. Four young girls are seated and appear to be clapping each others' hands while the boys dance in a circle behind them.
Viet Hub NZ children’s dance group performing a song to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival 2024 at Te Mako Centre, Naenae.

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