SCANZ 2009 recollections

I arrived at SCANZ beginning of the second week of the residency. Initially I planned to deliver a paper on cross discipline collaboration, but my co-collaborator (a computer scientist) was unable to complete it with me. I decided to still come however to observe, listen, connect and engage with participants, which was made easy by the shared meals that took place every night at the accommodation. Not only was the food delectable (vegetarian), but so was the conversations which often continued long after the dishes were done.

Highlights of that time were (before the weekend symposium) engaging with the artists like Andrew Gryf Paterson and Brett Stalbaum and their projects (I gleefully interacted with Dominic Smith’s work and got given the onerous task of knitting a cardy!); exploring the cemetery and the graves from the Taranaki Wars with Ry and being invited to view Jacques Sirot’s video by Jacques and Sally Jane Norman of a powhiri (welcome) filmed at Tapu Te Ranga Marae in Wellington. I could not contain the tears as I watched the manuhiri (visitors) sing waiata after waiata.

At the symposium I appreciated being able to just listen and soak up the presentations rather than feeling stressed about my own. The real highlight for me though was the poroporoaki presided over by Te Huirangi Waikerepuru who patiently encouraged participants to stand and say something that summed up their own experiences. Some spoke about the food, the trip to Parihaka on Waitangi Day and impromptu session held with him earlier in the week when he spoke eloquently about the concept of tapu and noa, addressed within the contexts of self and environmental responsibility. Poroporoaki is a process of closure and the return of mana to the hosts. Te Huirangi made clear that no one was to leave until it was complete and carried out by either a man or a woman on his left of the room and followed by the opposite sex on the other side.

The gaze was turned back on the audience and shifted them/us from an individualised space to a human collective presence. It was a transformative experience. Private thoughts were made public, songs in French and Irish were sung. Participants recognised the significance of standing and speaking as an appropriate way to give meaning to their experience and leave the symposium feeling closure and satisfaction.

For me SCANZ was significant because from it emerged possibilities for future collaborations /conversations and an expansion of my thinking about climate change, environmental damage and how effective it might be to combine emergent technologies with Maori spiritual concepts of responsibility and stewardship.