On Sunday 30 October I travelled to Wellington to attend the LIANZA 2011 Conference – Te Ihi, Te Wehi, Te Wana: Passion, People and Power. It would be my first time at Conference and I was really looking forward to it. There were many wonderful and interesting keynote sessions, workshops, presentations and social events and I will highlight some of those I attended over the four days.
DAY ONE – Sunday 30 October
My introduction to the LIANZA conference began with the Mihi Whakatau at the Michael Fowler Centre. It was impressive to see the tikanga of this event being carefully explained to all attendees prior to its start: karanga, whaikōrero and waiata. Of course, this was particularly beneficial to the international guests who I’m sure appreciated the opportunity for a ‘learning moment’.
I was impressed by our MC, the wonderful poet and storyteller Apirana Taylor, who regaled us each morning, and throughout the day, with a wonderful selection of prose. You could feel the conference theme echoed in each reading and the paper darts were a nice touch and certainly a lovely memento for those fortunate enough to be in its flight path. A signed copy of ‘A canoe in midstream’ was too good to pass up and has been added to my personal library.
Molly Raphael’s keynote session was entitled ‘Libraries: Essential for learning, essential for life’. It was interesting to learn that in the United States the funding and management of public libraries differs vastly from state to state, and that libraries are considered a discretional service within some communities. Molly’s theme focused on the powerful and profound impact of library users to advocate for the value of a library to ensure its future, rather than the traditional library or its staff as advocates. Molly recounted an example of how a Summer Reading program contributed to the educational success of a second-chance learner and that stories like this, offering transformational change, had the most power to shift thinking.
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