Speech
Fulbright 60th Anniversary
May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is afternoon.[sign]
May I specifically greet you: Your Excellency William McCormick, the Ambassador of the United States to New Zealand; Barbara Johnson and Mele Wendt, Chairperson and Executive Director respectively of Fulbright New Zealand and your fellow board members and staff; Vice Chancellor of the University of Auckland, Stuart McCutcheon; alumni and friends; Distinguished Guests otherwise, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is with pleasure that my wife Susan and I are able to be with you this afternoon to celebrate 60 years of the Fulbright programme in New Zealand.
New Zealand was the fifth country to sign up to the Fulbright programme and I am advised that since 1948 more than 1,100 Americans have come to New Zealand under the programme and that more than 1,300 New Zealanders have gone to the United States.
Those people have come not only from academia, but also from business and the arts. Through their Fulbright scholarships, they have gained skills and qualifications, and made valuable contacts in their fields of endeavour In many cases they have made close and enduring friendships, and in more than a few cases, marriages!
Being a Fulbright scholar has been a life changing experience for most of them.
The writer Rachel McAlpine has recently reflected on the huge impact a Fulbright scholarship made on her father and the whole family. When he was awarded a Fulbright in 1954, her father, the Reverend David Taylor, was an Anglican minister who had worked in a number of parishes in rural Canterbury and was teaching theological students in Christchurch.
He went to a theological college in New York and there he studied the new concept of 'pastoral care'.
Rachel remembers that he came home with six dresses - one for each of his daughters - the first 'store bought' frocks they had ever had - and they all fitted!
But he also came home with much wider horizons - and soon afterwards he went to work for the World Council of Churches, in New Zealand and also in Australia.
He became dedicated to the mission of getting churches to communicate with each other and understand each other's point of view.
In this, his career path after his Fulbright experience neatly echoed the vision that Law School President and later Senator from Arkansas, J William Fulbright, had for the programme.
When he set it up in 1946, Senator Fulbright said his aim was, and I quote: "to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace."
He wanted to do this at all levels, but most importantly at the personal and individual level.
You could say that he believed the path to world peace would first be walked on by individuals who had come close enough to imagine walking in each other's shoes.
It is this level of communication, person-to-person, eye-to-eye, that is the key element in the Fulbright programme.
And therefore I believe it can be seen as a model for better understanding, not only between countries, but between all communities, including those within New Zealand.
It is one thing to be tolerant of others - and I believe New Zealanders are tolerant people. But to gain a real understanding, we must make the effort and take the time to be with each other and talk to each other.
Under the Fulbright programme Americans and New Zealanders have been doing just that, to the subsequent great benefit of our countries. Just as the number of Fulbright scholars and alumni grows ever larger, so too do the links between us; broadening and deepening the relationship between our two countries.
The Fulbright programme is, like our long-standing co-operation in Antarctica, an example of positive collaboration and friendship between New Zealand and the United States.
I won't presume to speak for the Americans on what they may have got out of hosting Kiwis and spending time here in New Zealand, but I feel certain that the experience would have been similar.
There is a Maori saying that encompasses the idea of expressing our own identities alongside those of others for the good of all:
'Ko tou reo, ko tuku reo
te tuakiri tangata
Tihei uriuri, tihei nakonako':
This roughly translates as: 'Your voice and my voice are expressions of identity; May our descendants live on and our hopes be fulfilled.'
I would therefore like to congratulate the Fulbright organisation on 60 years of dedication to the ideal of peace through communication and wish you all the best for the next 60 years.
And on that note, I will close in New Zealand's first language Maori, offering everyone here greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.