National Race Unity Speech Winner

News Release: Thursday 5 April, 2012

National Race Unity Speech Winner

"I came home crying and told my mum and dad that I didn’t want to be brown anymore. I wanted to be white, have blonde hair and blue eyes. Looking back now, I wonder why a 5 year old would say that? I am a strong believer that racism is not born, it is learned behaviour. Have we been programmed at such a young age to accept that certain ethnicities and skin colours are inferior or superior?

An extract from Queen Margaret College student, Rima Shenoy’s speech, which saw her win the national title at the Race Unity Speech Awards held in Auckland on the weekend. The award was initiated in 2001 by the New Zealand Baha’i Community to commemorate Race Relations Day, and is supported by the Human Rights Commission, the New Zealand Police and the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Rima’s speech addressed solutions to combat and stop racism, the main theme being ‘a fair go for all.' In the lead up she attended heats in Wellington, semi-finals and final in Auckland, along with over 150 students from through New Zealand and was invited to attend the Race Relations Conference.

Rima is currently a Year 13 student and Head Prefect of the College; for Rima, having the opportunity to be involved with this competition has been a milestone. “I really enjoyed the whole event, it was a great experience, very inspirational, and I've made lots of friends from the competition from around New Zealand.”

‘Mā te tuakana ka tōtika te teina, mā te teina ka tōtika te tuakana’ Loosely translated this means...‘From the older sibling, the younger one learns the right way to do things, and from the younger sibling, the older one learns to be tolerant. We can work towards increasing tolerance between the many races in a truly multicultural Aotearoa - because we are like siblings in the same home, we need to live together and give each other a fair go.

Background Information:
Queen Margaret College is a leading independent Presbyterian Girls College. It offers holistic education from Pre-School through to Year 13 and the choice of the qualification pathways of IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma and NCEA. QMC is a College with an international perspective that delivers a high-quality, globally-relevant curriculum within a family atmosphere.
www.qmc.school.nz

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