Cultural Immersion

I’ve just finished up preps for my 4:00 talk (in 45 minutes) and wanted to recap all that’s been going on since I last wrote.  Things have been VERY busy, and while I haven’t even been here 36 hours, it feels as though I have been here a week. I am having a phenomenal time to say the least with some learning and socializing. I suppose I’ll start where I left things yesterday…

After dropping off my laptop at the hotel, I had about two hours to kill before my walking tour.  Not content to sit around, I decided to wander for a while, making my way up Queen Street (the main drag in Auckland) to Wellesley, turning east to the Auckland Museum of Art and Albert Park.  It started to drizzle a bit, but armed with an umbrella, I wended my way up the massive hills around Albert Park to Emily Place, and then back down toward the Harbour, with a conscious goal of the Countdown (the grocery that is called Woolies in Australia) I had bought groceries at two years ago (I had spent a lot of time walking Auckland with Tiffany, so had a pretty good grasp of where things were).  After picking up a few provisions, I made my way back west along the Harbour to regroup before the tour.

 

 

 

In the lobby, there was a woman who seemed to also be waiting for the tour.  We got to talking and it turned out she is a planner, historian, and architect from Salem, Oregon (just like me – not an academic, hooray!).  We chatted for a bit and then headed outside to meet our guide, an architect and professor from Auckland, and another person who was going on the tour, a PhD student from UNSW. Over the next three hours, we covered the history of the region from the first parliament house and governor-general’s residence, through more modern history.

 

 

We traversed a lot of places I had already been, but Adam, the guide, offered a wealth of information; it was a really great tour.  Once back at the hotel at 4:00, we decided to reconvene in the lobby of the hotel at 4:35 to walk over to the opening session together.

The conference opening was at the Kadimah School, a Jewish school just a 15 minute walk up Queen Street, just beyond the town hall on Greys Avenue.  Constructed in the 1960s in a decidedly Alvar Aalto redbrick phase style, it is configured around a central courtyard, and a pretty neat building.

We were among the first to arrive, and signed in, picked up conference packets, and began to munch, drink, and mingle.  As more people began to fill the lobby space I caught up with people from last year and began making new friends.  After ninety minutes or so we were given a tour of the building by one of the architects.  Some spaces were better than others, and the building has gone through some dramatic changes as needs have changed over the years.

I think what I found the most interesting about the entire experience was the fact that in the 1960s, there was a robust Jewish community in Auckland that could utilize a 750 seat sanctuary.  It seems the numbers have since dwindled, and the sanctuary has been subdivided into classrooms.

We sat down for the welcome and opening lecture on the topic (Translations) by Barry Bergdoll of Columbia and MoMA. Before the lecture, however, we were given song sheets in Maori (the indigenous language of New Zealand), in preparation for our opening event at Unitec the following morning. The Maori, the only indigenous group to sign a treaty with the British, culture is an important, revered component of New Zealand culture.

After the lecture, we struck out in the rain, breaking up into small groups to find dinner. I ended up with Ashley (not the first male Ashley I have met here – apparently here it is a guy’s name), someone I had briefly met last year who is working on his PhD at UQ, and Helen, a professor from Tasmania. We found a Mexican restaurant on a laneway and had a wonderful meal and chat.

Following dinner, we went back to the hotel and dropped our stuff before venturing out to a laneway across the street and found a rooftop patio bar for a drink. We quickly discovered that Auckland is a pretty dull city as last call occurred at 11:00. I know New Orleans spoilt me with no last call, but even cities like Atlanta have a lot more going on, even on a weeknight.

We headed back to the hotel and agreed to meet in the morning for brekkie.

In the morning, we popped over to the adjacent laneway we had gone last night and had a nice meal in an edgy little restaurant. I kept things simple with eggs on toast and a flat white.

We returned to the hotel in time to all load onto a rickety old city bus for the drive out to Unitec.

Unitec, west of downtown, sits on a large campus.  We started the morning on the south side of the campus, and found ourselves standing on a lawn, awaiting instructions on how to proceed. As I had said, we were to spend the morning being welcomed by the Maoris in the traditional Maori meeting house, a wharenui, on campus. We were instructed for the women to stand in a group in the middle and for the men to surround (a la thorns protecting a rose) on the sides. The traditional welcome ceremony is called pōwhiri.

A Maori woman with a traditional tattooed face came out on the front porch and began a song, beckoning the group to slowly make our way into the forecourt, marae ātea.  Over the course of a few minutes we made it to the front covered portion of the wharenui, stopping and starting again as instructed.  Once on the porch, we removed our shoes and entered the building.

 

 

Men sat in the front and women in the back, and the welcome ceremony began. There was a lot of speaking and singing on the part of the Maori leader, followed by introductions. When the Maori leaders were done, it was our turn to respond, and one of the representatives from the architecture faculty had prepared a long response in Maori.

The Maori leaders and other Unitec volunteers (the hosts) (who were sitting on the left side of the building) then stood and sang. After that, they sat and it was our turn to respond. The hundred or so of us then stood and responded with the Moari song that had been given to us last night.

To conclude the ceremony and fully welcome us, we all then got up and greeted each individual host, about 30 people, via hongi, the traditional greeting by touching foreheads and noses, thus breathing the same air. It was a very interesting experience, and quite time consuming as the line of 100 of us greeted each of the thirty people.

After that was done, there was a bit more talking and more singing, with a few introductions in English.

From there, we adjourned to the adjacent building for morning tea. While meeting other participants, I spoke with two PhD students from Taubman College of Architecture at Michigan. After our fill of tea, scone, and meat pies, we made our way back to the wharenui, removing our shoes and settling back in for a lesson in the meanings of the building and various carvings. It was very interesting.

After the Maori cultural lesson, we split into three groups to begin the first round of paper sessions. I went to a presentation by a contingent from Deakin University in Geelong, entitled The Roots/Routes of Australian Architecture: Elements of an Alternative Architectural History.

The first session adjourned at 1:00, and we had lunch back in the building that we had had morning tea in. At 2:00, sessions resumed, and I saw a paper entitled Translating the Gothic Tradition. St. Patrick’s Cathedral Melbourne.  It was an enjoyable paper, and after it was done, I ducked out of the session to finish prepping for my presentation, which commences after afternoon tea.

One thing that has been very interesting today, being in the Maori spaces on campus has necessitated our removal of shoes every time we enter buildings. It is funny to see all these architectural historians, dressed up to lecture, wandering around in their socks.

 

The weather has been incredibly sporadic.  One minute it is sunny, the next it is raining. Half the time it is raining and sunny at the same time.