Thread by @comingupcharlie

Politics aside, here's a small thing about Jacinda Ardern I admire that I think speaks to her good character. It's about this painting in her office, which I've circled in red. (1/?)

I was there when she was given this. It was her first week in office, in 2017; she was visiting Christchurch, and I was following her around for The Press.

It was standard politician stuff, albeit in the weirdly optimistic environment of that time. She visited a high school, where girls ran up to her sobbing with happiness. She said exams were hard and received thunderous applause. Peak Jacindamania.

It was the main press stop of the trip, and it lasted a while. Most of the reporters left after Ardern's standup. As a representative of the local rag, I felt compelled to see out the whole trip and hold the new PM to account for any infractions.

The next and final stop was Ōtautahi Creative Spaces, which is an arts programme in east Christchurch for people with mental health issues, some of whom have trauma from the earthquakes. It's an incredible place.

I'm petty sure me and my Press colleague were the only reporters there? (I stand to be corrected). There was no media scrum, that's for sure. Ardern was late, so I chatted with some of the artists.

One of them, Carmen Brown, was holding a painting. She told me she had schizophrenia, and that art had gotten her through tough times. She'd dreamed of meeting the Prime Minister since she was a girl and had spent many hours working on the artwork she was holding.

Ardern walks in, apologetic about being late. The room is dead silent. I'm lurking awkwardly. Carmen gives the painting to Ardern - I can't remember what they said - but I distinctly remember Ardern's face lighting up as she looked at it.

Ardern said her office walls were bare, and this would be the first painting she'd put on display, to remind her of her visit to that programme in Phillipstown. Me, a dickhead, assumed it would be dispatched to a cavernous basement in the Beehive and never seen again.

Last year, I saw a video message from Ardern's office and was drawn to the painting in the background, behind the photo of Michael Joseph Savage: The painting I'd seen Carmen Brown give to Ardern five years earlier. It hasn't always been in that position, but it's the same one.

It's just a small thing, but given everything that happened in the years after - much of it traumatic, toxic, chaotic - I was pleased to see that painting, which meant a lot to its creator, meant something to its recipient, too.