Every year, particularly in the weeks leading into the symposium, as it gets closer to the start it’s always a period of reflection and anticipation: starting with previous programmes and building on the discussion, revisiting specific conversations with past speakers, and anticipating the dynamic of a new convergence of speakers and other participants, ideas and discussions. I was trying to think about an image that represents this process and its sourdough, or specifically sourdough starter. It’s a living organism that, as long as it is fed, it remains active and growing. Some is taken to make bread, but each time some is also left, and this becomes the base for the next batch.

This year the title – Ako mai, Ako atu, for which I acknowledge te reo Māori kaiako Valance Smith – communicates the ‘learning and exchanges of knowledge’. Learning ‘ako’ towards the speaker ‘mai’, and towards the listener ‘atu’. It’s to talk and listen and exchange ideas, knowledges, information, practices and kaupapa to think through together, how and why we do what we do, all of us together, tātou tātou e.

Last year we began with questions around knowledge; power dynamics of education; the colonial and hegemonic legacies embedded in this; ethical responsibilities as curators and institutions; and thinking about how attention to these things might change the way we practice as curators and researchers, how it might change how we look, listen, speak, read, write.