Yet we call them backwards.
And if they are the walkabout people who hold the keys to long-term survival of this planet via the ability to live in the dream time, then why are we treating them so poorly?
Perhaps we need to listen to them instead of locking them up, after feeding them firewater and false promises for 300 years.
Not so long ago a respected marketing guru who was a keynote speaker at a global Ad Man conference in Copenhagen made a remarkable prophecy when addressing his audience, who are paid puteanui (big bucks) to make their punter's purchasing dreams come true.
Rolf Jensen (the keynote speaker) claimed: "We are leaving the information world and heading into the imagination world and those companies and chief executives who have the ability to dream will be the success stories of the future."
Clever fulla that Rolf I reckon, and I rang him up one day and told him so.
When I look at life through the lenses of what could be, I passionately believe we need more dreamers and visionaries who can look over the horizon and sow seeds of hope.
Not just hope for a peaceful planet but locally we need visionaries and dreamers on our councils and in our community to catch the falling stars and not put them in their pocket only to pull them out as election promises, but put them back into safe warm houses now.
Imagine if we had elected members who could take the dreams of those visionaries who have put up their hands to say "we will and we can" build a multi-purpose civic centre for all to benefit from.
Sadly, we seem on track in Tauranga to get an elephant of the white variety.
That is if we don't make it the most important issue for voters in the upcoming election to focus on.
I remember as a young fulla, sitting in class and gazing out the window daring to dream about what life could be like. Then quicker than you could say "Imagine" - being brought back to reality with a thick ear by a blinkered teacher who only knew one way of learning and that was by keeping daydreaming out of his classroom.
Gladly his hard-ass ways didn't work.
Now I have an office called the Moemoea Room or the Dream factory and one of the conditions of accepting the position I currently hold is that my title would be one of CIO - Chief Imagination Officer.
A title I chose as a career path from the keynote speaker of a conference of marketing gurus, where information overload was about to be trumped by imagination and dreaming.
Dare to dream whanau, hei ano (and also) to those of us who didn't win Lotto arohamai, its only fun coupons.
And to our civic amenities visionaries who see over the horizon, and the people of the dreamtime who have always known where theirs is, I will leave the last word to Lennon. "You may say that we are dreamers, but we are not the only ones". Imagine.
- broblack@xtra.co.nz
- Tommy Wilson is a local author and writer.
