The Green Man is in New Zealand as a tag along at whip-see (well WIPCE actually). It stands for World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education and Mrs Green Man is attending. What better excuse for a trip to NZ or Aotearoa as it is known in Maori.

Aotearoa being Maori for "land of the long white cloud" or is it "land of the wrong white crowd"; something like that anyway.

The WIPCE conference had delegates from indigenous peoples from North America, Africa, Europe (Saami from Norway) and the odd Moari and Koori. It looked most interesting although there was a notable absense of some significant indigenous groups, such as the maya from Mexico and Central America.

The conference had many interesting speakers although The Green Man did not get to see that many, not being a delegate, and it was clearly a valuable exploration of educational issues for indigenous cultures across the world however the indigenous are often amongst the poorest in a community and government funding is required for many to attend. One sad irony was that indigenous cultures most in need of education are the ones with little government support and they, of course, could not afford to attend.

Still it was a worthwhile exercise never-the-less culminating in a concert that was truely magnificent. I will post some photos later but most are on print so you will have to wait for them to be developed.

The highlight of the evening for The Green Man was the hula performed by dancers from Hawaii. If you think you have seen a traditional hula at the tourist resorts or on TV then you are quite mistaken. It is awe inspiring, the women are wild and war like. No cute little girls with flowers behind their ears in this performance.