30/08/2026
For years this chamber was an idea I carried through one-on-one conversations — in camps, warehouses, summits — trying to convince people there was something between Africa and Aotearoa worth building. On Tuesday, every one of those conversations stood in the same room.
The night opened with a mihi whakatau from Matua Nick of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Before anything commercial happened, we were welcomed onto the land properly. That set the tone — this chamber starts with respect.
Then the room itself: our traders, students, professionals, aunties and uncles who have been quietly running this corridor for decades without anyone keeping the record. The Consul General of India spoke. The Honorary Consul for South Africa spoke. MFAT was there. But the honoured guests were our own people.
We signed our MoU with the Auckland Business Chamber — our first institutional partnership. And we launched our first two Market Insight Reports — education and agri-food. Our numbers, our evidence, our story, told by us. Harold presented the agri-food report himself.
I told the room: we come from wealth. The continent where the human record begins, and the youngest people on earth. We did not come here empty-handed.
And then — food, drinks, laughter, joy. The kind of night where nobody wants to leave.
The feeling I want the carousel to carry: pride, warmth, belonging. Not corporate. When an auntie in Ōtara or a cousin in Nairobi scrolls past, I want her to stop, smile, and share it.
The waka is in the water 🛶 Asante sana 🙏🏿
Photography
