When you know where you are
This morning I had a lump in my throat, slightly shaky legs and a real sense of where I was, as the Powhiri (po-fee-ry) welcomed me and 1200 other educators to the main hall of the ULearn07 conference. This dance and song is, for my untrained ears, a relative of the haka we see at rugby matches.
It's a challenge and welcome, to remind you of where you are and make sure you're here to do good. If ever there's a way to keep your keynote in line, and make sure that respect for all that is (very) right in the New Zealand system is duly paid, Powhiri is it. Once you've made your intentions known, noses are rubbed and friendships formed.
I was busy being awe struck by our school student welcome party to take more than one pic, so here's a YouTubed version which gets across the main idea.
Been to Queenstown :-)
Who picked up the ?feather?
Posted by: chris | October 03, 2007 at 10:55 AM