Well, the conference is delighting me on quite an unexpected level. We’ve been exposed to a startling level of emotionally-charged stuff that has really made being at the conference a wonderful experience.

It started last night with a formal Maori welcome, conducted in Maori and in a University building modelled on the traditional Maori communal space. The area was also shaped like a canoe. This was significant because the Maori Studies department at the University of Otago is called Te Temu, which is Te Reo (Maori Language) for mooring post. The significance for the conference was that we had all come from afar in our canoes (sure, some were airplane-shaped) and we could tie up here and be welcome to learn from the University while we were here. The welcoming ceremony included exchanges in Maori and songs of welcome. We were then fed in a mezzanine area designed specifically for welcoming visitors and locals and sharing food together. The evening concluded with a presentation of South Pacific and Maori dances (including the Hake and Poi dances), which were wonderful (as Maori performance so often is).

The whole event was quite moving, not only because of its intrinsic beauty, but because of the genuine sense of being welcomed. I am jealous of the Maori heritage that it has such rituals that are so obviously moving. I have felt how the Hake and similar ‘warning’ dances can chill the heart of new people. Last night was a lovely illustration of how the songs and dance of the Maori can embrace new people too.

A pleasant but otherwise unremarkable dinner followed where I got to meet some more of the conference participants.

This morning, the conference started with a plenary session by Professor Kai’ai, the Dean of Te Temu, who had directed (from the background) the welcoming ceremony the night before. She has a passion and enthusiasm for spreading the Indigenous culture, as well as a deep involvement in developing the school and promoting local and regional community involvement in all aspects of Maori culture. She also seems to manage a substantial academic agenda and a large family. I thanked her after her presentation because “it is rare to be in the presence of a force of nature!” She is truly an impressive woman making an amazing contribution to her culture and society.

The next phase of the conference was a workshop at which I was one of the presenters. This was interesting because of the other papers and the after-presentation discussion. I was told by a couple of the attendees that my paper was interesting, but I suspect the major interest was the unique circumstances of ADFA. Regardless, it was quite painless.

After lunch we had another plenary session which was delivered by a very clever instructor on matters of real significance to me (how to make assessment a learning experience for students). Some real ‘keepers’ from this presentation. I particularly liked how he described people reading their PowerPoint presentation as “PowerPoint Kareoke”.

The afternoon workshop session was also fun because of the passions of some of the presenters, particularly a music (piano) teacher who had some wonderful ideas about “whole person” teaching. We were then herded off in buses to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery to be serendaded by a string trio. The Dunedin Mayor welcomed us with a lucid and interesting speech and then he sang a welcome song! And he could sing really well! Then, the music teacher I mentioned earlier performed two beautiful Schubert piano pieces for us.

The emotional content of these various activities and performances was really touching. Most conferences have some sense of welcome and heartfelt greetings from the location and often local dignitaries, but the NZ version has been substantially different. Not only are they genuinely pleased about we visitors being here, but their means of expressing it goes beyond simply saying so. I don’t think I’ve been sung to so many times in such a short period in ages. And it’s all quite ‘professional’ and talented. (Did I mention that the Mayor was a 68-ish Chinese man, who sang with a pretty fair tenor voice?!)

So, although there was real value in the conference in itself for me, the bit I enjoyed most was that the Uni of Otago, and Dunedin more broadly, reached out and welcomed me more ‘intimately’ than any but my family do (and my family do not sing). What a great experience!

And this when the weather is freezing cold (although the promised snow did not appear). So, although the place is (perhaps) not too hospitable, the people are.