New Zealand Association of Counsellors
The NZAC conference committee in Te Tai Tokerau decided on the theme of Dialogues for conference 2011. They were also aware that it was the 7th anniversary since the first NZAC Maori Hui and the conference would be held in July at the time of Mataariki Maori New Year with the concept of the seven stars representing seven sisters.
Anneke heard all this and went away to research possible ideas to bring these themes together. Her first stop was the English dictionary to look up the meanings of the word Dialogue and to then gain some visual connection to the meaning. She also researched Mataariki as described above. Her first attempt at a visual representation produced a logo of seven women in various stances representing dialogue dancing swirling etc. But she was not happy with this. There was also some feedback that it was too female and therefore not representative of all of NZAC. She continued to work on various ideas with mixed results. There were seven figures still but it seemed too cluttered and not defined
enough.
Anneke then began looking at photos of people in dialogue and discovered a picture of the Maori male and pakeha female in a hongi. She was attracted to this because of the sharing of breath as the hongi demonstrates which is an inspiration for sharing and dialogue. She was also attracted to the theme because
of the Maori presence in Northland is distinct and needs to be honoured. She considered that that the two figures had ponytails was a point of connection and the women's pony tail balanced the tattoo on the figure of the male.
While all this was going on she felt that the stars were getting lost but with the help of publisher she found ways of creating and including the stars into the final version of her very unique and clever creation. The Conference Committee 2011 is very grateful to Anneke for the time and effort she took to create this picture for us.
Maureen Frayling
Northland
NZAC © 2009
School Guidance Counsellors Conference Palmerston North, November 2012
NZAC National Conference Napier, 23 – 26 May 2013
www.nzachui.co.nz/