So this is the big day we’ve been building towards. It feels like a long time ago that Peter started speaking about this back in a classroom in Brighton, and even longer for him as this was supposed to happen 3 years ago if there hadn’t been a couple of small distractions… I was slightly apprehensive already as somehow we had lost 1 of the 4 camera batteries and were running low on memory card space, so I was worried about problems we might encounter. We left on time with the aim of arriving by 10 but at this point, I don’t think any of us expected everything to go according the plan! We had to pick up most of the performers from all the schools we had visited yesterday, so this took a long time and we didn’t arrive until after lunch! We set up the cameras and the show began.

Some of the performances we had seen in the rehearsal yesterday had been a little rough around the edges, but they all went very well today and it was great to see the passion through which they expressed these issues. It was tough seeing the first hand knowledge these children had with modern day slavery, but I felt grateful that they wanted to share them with us. The conversation on abortion is still clearly very contentious here, as when it was raised some of the community members walked out. I didn’t agree with all the opinions raised today but I can appreciate that breaking the taboo is important to getting a discussion going.

Today really felt like the hottest day and I baked in the mid-afternoon sun, but it was for a cause and I was focused on getting the footage. Once the chief and various other project members had spoken, we had a great filling lunch that we had all become accustomed to by this point and sat in the shade discussing our feelings on the exhibition.

We got the bus back to the university and had one last meal there, this time with the Rongo students. We said our goodbyes and thanked each other for the experiences. I’ve learnt a lot from conversations with them and really enjoyed collaborating.