Prime Minister of Canada, the Rt Hon, Pierre Trudeau, accompanied by Mr Vernon Winitana, picks up the challenge stick outside Arohanui-ki-te-tangata On the second day of a rushed four-day visit to New Zealand last May, the Canadian Prime Minister, the Rt Hon. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, was given a Maori welcome at Arohanui-ki-te-Tangata meeting house in Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt. Escorted onto the marae by Mr Vernon Winitana, Mr Trudeau accepted the traditional challenge and watched with great interest as members of the Mawai Hakona Maori Association performed the welcoming powhiri. Visitors and hosts then moved into the meeting house for speeches of welcome, Mawai Hakona complementing them with action song, poi, and haka. Mr Kara Puketapu spoke instead of his father, Mr Ihaia Puketapu, welcoming Mr Trudeau on behalf of the local Maori people and representatives of other tribes. He quoted the saying of one of his ancestors, ‘Welcome, stranger from a strange land: there is room for you and me together’.

Canadian Prime Minister Welcomed at Waiwhetu Mr Trudeau meets Ihaia Puketapu, kaumatua of the Waiwhetu marae