Between 24 and 26 May, staff from CLAIR Sydney attended the 2018 Sister Cities New Zealand (SCNZ) annual conference and forum discussion in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. The attendees actively participated in discussions on how to further enhance sister city ties. In addition, our staff ran a booth at the event promoting attractive travel destinations in Japan to the conference attendees.
Our Deputy Director, Mr Shigeki Yamada, made a speech on the role of CLAIR Sydney, the current situations of sister cities and sister-school exchanges between Japan and New Zealand, and then talked about exchanges through sports such as rugby. The attendees were pleased to hear that New Zealand has more sister-city relationships with Japan than any other country. After the speech, some of the conference participants came to the CLAIR booth to ask questions related to the presentation. In addition, after addressing the audience, the Mayor of Minoh City, Mr Tetsuro Kurata, conducted a Skype session where the audience was able to converse with students at school in Minoh City.The theme this year is “Connecting Globally through Technology“. In the Community and School forum, Mr Jade Stent, Deputy Principal of Tui Glen School in Lower Hutt, gave a presentation on the exchange activities through the usage of Skype between his school and a school in Minoh City. Also, two students from Tui Glen School, Miss Hazel Albert and Miss Maya Iti, gave a short speech each in Japanese, and received a big round of applause from the audience.
During the conference, we noticed that many of those involved with the organisation of this conference, such as staff from SCNZ, various councils, and volunteers assisting at the conference, are ex-JETs. We were able to feel the strong presence of the JET Programme in New Zealand.