Sunday 2 November
Dr Diane Mara was introduced by Penny Carnaby, Librarian and CEO of the National Library of New Zealand. Penny pointed out that we are currently in the middle of a once in a generation change in the way we are thinking about the delivery of services.
Dr Mara started her talk with a video of women singing and showed photos of past presidents of Pacifica, which is an organisation dedicated to fostering communication, information sharing and learning among Pacific Islands women. She is current president of Pacifica.
I didn’t know this: Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world. 60% of Pasifika people actually live in New Zealand.
Diane shared her father’s story – he was born in Tahiti and served in WW2. During the war he went to the UK where he met and married Diane’s mother. The family moved to NZ when Diane’s mother needed medical treatment.
Diane’s father was active in Tahitian cultural groups, singing and playing guitar/ukelele and sharing his love of music with his family. She played recordings of his music, to which she danced.
She showed his identity papers – he was a NZ resident but not a citizen and needed to show particular documents to be allowed in and out of the country.
There are many hidden histories and stories about the contributions to NZ of Pacific islands people, and research about Pacific Islanders remains difficult to access.
At the end of her talk, Dr Mara played more Tahitian music and invited the audience to dance – and amazingly most people did. I was too busy fumbling with my eeepc and trying to get my camera out to do much. I did manage to get some pictures, though, like this one, which includes the National Librarian grooving along onstage…
My notes are pretty sparse – for more information/reflection on this keynote speech, go take a look at Kathryn’s and Deborah’s blogs.