All eyes were on Tame Iti as he took the floor as the event's final speaker, recounting a radical past and how he came to live a more healthy and fulfilled lifestyle.
There are many layers to Iti, perhaps best known as a larger-than-life face of activism, who fought for Maori sovereignty and was imprisoned on firearms charges.
The lesser-known side is that of a man who built his own home, has three children, is a qualified painter and decorator, an actor, artist, radio announcer, restaurateur and social worker.
He is someone who looked up at an image of his younger self, projected on a big screen, and reflected on the health issues he put to one side for too long.
"That is my big puku. Back then I didn't realise I was diabetic, until I started doing mimi every 15 minutes. I wasn't feeling too good. I was doing things for everybody else but I wasn't feeling good. I was sleeping a lot during the day. I started coughing and spluttering. There was a time I was smoking.