New Zealand Defence Force
Te Ope Kaatua O Aotearoa
28 July 2005
Te Reo For Afghani President
Lance Corporal Sas Winikerei lays the rakau tapu for President Karzai.
New Zealand Defence Force personnel had the opportunity to introduce Te Reo and Maori culture to a different audience
during Maori Language week when the Afghani President visited Bamyan, Afghanistan on Wednesday 27 July.
President Hamid Karzai and Vice President Mohammad Abdul Karim Khalili were greeted by Lance Corporal Sas Winikerei, who
proffered the rakau tapu (peace offering) as part of the wero.
President Karzai and Staff Sergeant Zak Davis share a hongi.
President Karzai said, 'It is a tremendous pleasure to see your native welcome and to know that you, in New Zealand,
keep your traditions alive and display it, even thousands of thousands of miles away. That's really the way to represent
a people and to keep a nation alive forever...this is what I will be telling the people of Afghanistan.'
The President then met members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team and received a brief on recent work.
ENDS