If any of you also read Ryan’s blog, you will have read that  we recently(Jan 23rd – 25th) went to a hui(conference).  This was a wonderful, magical hui  like I have never been on before (and I have been on maybe 43+ conferences in my past). I was amazed at how many people were there I think in the end we had 159 people most of those seemed to be under 25.  This group was an amazing group of people who had a lot in common and a lot of things that held them apart. There were no issues or complaints from most of the people, and it appeared that almost everyone(if not everyone had fun.

So what made this such and awesome hui compared to the others I have been at? Well I have a few ideas…

First was location, the beautiful Tapu Te Ranga Marae.

This is an absolutely wonderful and amazing place to be for any reason. If you happen to also be in a position where you are staying at the Marae then please consider yourself lucky.  Tapu Te Ranga was the first marae I have been  on and it did not disappoint me in any manner.

For my non Kiwi readers a marae is is a sacred place which serves both religious and social purposes. ” It generally consists of an area of cleared land roughly rectangular (the marae itself), bordered with stones or wooden posts perhaps with terraces (paepae) which were used in olden times for ceremonial purposes; and with a central stone ahu or a’u. In  modern  Māori society the marae is still a vital part of everyday life. The closest parallel I can bring to it from America is the reservations that my people and other indigenous tribe wer placed into. The key difference is that a marae is a place chosen by and built by the Maori  as a spiritual home and a place that they can continue to connect with the earth in ways that they cannot connect in modern society. Meanwhile the Native Americans were forced onto small parts of tiny bits of land that were (usually but not always) far from their homes, they were considered “gifts” from the government for “mistreatment”.

It was really a great place to have such an amazing hui, because when you walked onto the land you could feel the positive energy and good spirits. These both only grew as the hui continued, and over all I feel like we all left on sunday afternoon with a lot more pride than we had to begin with and a sense of purpose. It was the begining of a great force to change the world led by the next generation and man you better watch out cause they are feirce!