Hui Fono Celebrates Creating Innovative Traditions

Media Release

January 31 2017

Tenth Annual Māori and Pasifika Hui Fono Celebrates Creating Innovative Traditions

The annual Adult and Community Education (ACE) Hui Fono will celebrate its ten - year milestone next month, February 22-24, when over 100 Māori and Pasifika community education practitioners come together at Te Wharewaka in Wellington. Participants will mark the milestone by acknowledging the efforts of Hui Fono pioneers who had a vision to raise the profile of community learning in Māori and Pasifika communities, and provide professional development for practitioners within Aotearoa.

This year’s Hui Fono theme, Creating Innovative Traditions, will provide an opportunity to explore the values and fundamental nature of Māori and Pasifika knowledges, realities and existence which can be harnessed to inform educational innovations in the future.

Keynote speakers include Professor Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa) from the University of Otago who has designed a new approach to learning law that brings into the classroom Māori experiences of the law, Māori relationships with land, and Māori challenges for change. Professor Ruru is the 2016 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award, and a Sustained Excellence Award in the Kaupapa Māori category, at the National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards run by Ako Aotearoa.

Massey University graduate, visual communication design student Jasper Luki will share his passion for supporting the youth of Pacific communities and their education. Jasper draws on his Pacific heritage, values and beliefs to create an interactive experience that helps make education more accessible for Pacific learners, communities and educators.

Workshops will showcase the work of KIWA, world leading production house for experiential digital books, and award winning professional architectural and interior design studio Ākau which provides disengaged young people with a no cost opportunity to learn, using a hands-on approach to design real projects.

A research report commissioned by ACE Aotearoa on the impact of the Hui Fono, will be launched to mark the tenth anniversary of the event. The report shows a growing number of Māori and Pasifika are involved in a community and voluntary capacity across sectors nationwide. Another key finding is that as a result of the Hui Fono, local and regional relationships have been strengthened leading to improved opportunities for engagement in learning.

For information and registrations http://www.aceaotearoa.org.nz/events/m%C4%81ori-and-pasifika-adult-and-community-education-hui-fono-2017

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