Journalism Hui

in a completly un-fashion related post -Ive had a cultural Renaissance this past week, on a journey all the way to west Auckland for a journalism Hui (meeting) with my new graduate diploma in journalism class. we spent 72 hours on a marae in west Auckland listening to endless speakers who included, the head of the human rights commission, editors from the western leader, spacifx magazine, mana magazine, the Fiji times, Maori television etc. the final highlight of the day was speaker pita sharples , head of the Maori party , minister of Maori affairs and a few other things. hes hugely inspirational , and yes i have enough sense not to trust a politician outright but to be fair hes extremely honest , very down to earth, not annoyingly PC, and can laugh at himself. We were lucky In that this was probaly one of teh best times to talk to him given the uproar over the national government deciding not to make three Maori seats on the new Auckland supercity council.
he was pissed to say the least. we also got the inside scoop on another hui with all of Auckland's Maori tribes on Wednesday which will discuss the decision. politics aside pita's work with the very marae we sat in and the te reo school next door was incredible. he told us how in the 80's when he planned the marae , which was meant for all Auckland tribes to use and for school education ( groups like ourselves) he was constantly told it could work. but that he put the money up himself for buildings and teachers salaries until he finally convinced the council to support him. The complex wa sthe first of its kind in auckland - a marae for all people.