In the morning we had an aspiring leadership workshop and in the afternoon an academic seminar geared towards the creative process with our History and English enthusiast in mind.

The events centred around Soutar, a regarded historian. His accolades include writing “Ngā tama toa- The price of Citizenship: C Company 28” a non-fiction text based on the experiences of the 28th Māori Battalion. He has also been appointed as an officer to the New Zealand Order of Merit, holds a PhD in History, and is a Fellow in Māori History at the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. His most recent achievement is a novel called “Kāwai: For Such a Time as This”. The book explores the lives of pre-colonial Māori, depicting this time in vivid realism. It is the first fictional novel to explore pre-colonial New Zealand and was New Zealand’s best-selling novel of 2022.

Both groups enjoyed the experience and especially the Q&A session at the end of each session. This was an enjoyable and valuable experience to our Boys, who got to interview a leader of notable cultural significance.