Tagata atu motu.

Last week, the Governor General Sir Paul Reeves launched a book at the Pacific Islands Educational Resource Centre in Auckland that's believed to be quite unique. It's a play about the early missionaries in Tonga and especially about one particularly culturally insensitive missionary in the 1820s and 30s.
The play was written by a long time New Zealand teacher who spent time in Western Samoa and Tonga and consequently married a Tongan. It is believed to be the first play ever written about life in Tonga and provided many insights into their customs, and how they clashed with the rites imposed by the Christian religion.

In his opening address Sir Paul paid tribute to the author Harrison Bray.

One of the speakers who paid much tribute to the play and it's usefulness to multicultural education and race relations in New Zealand was a former pupil and close friend of the author was Mr Garfield Johnson known to many educationists for the Johnson report.

The author Harrison Bray later spoke in length about the play to reporter Peter Kingston.

Duration: 24mins.