Human Rights Commission
Te Kahui Tika Tangata
On the Bright Side: Paenga Hihiko
Paenga-whāwhā / April 2007

Kia ora. Anei te mihi ö te Kaihautu Whakawhanaunga ä Iwi, mo ngä mahi nui, mahi whakamana i te tangata i roto i ngä kaupapa Whakawhanaunga ä Iwi i Aotearoa. Here are this month’s acknowledgments from the Race Relations Commissioner for positive contributions to race relations in New Zealand.

St Catherine’s College Multicultural Club, Wellington
For performing at the unveiling of the Pacific Pou, NZ Police College, April 2007. Some 40 students from Wellington’s St Catherine’s College travelled from Kilbirnie to Porirua on 12 April to arrive at dawn for the unveiling of a carved pou representing Pacific peoples at the New Zealand Police College. The club sang beautifully in English, Maori and Samoan, and two students performed a Tongan dance, as part of the proceedings. The pou was unveiled by Associate Pacific Island Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban. It joins the Māori pou from each Police district and the diversity pou representing all New Zealand’s cultures which was unveiled in November last year.

Helen Donnelly, Newtown Library, Wellington
For Taste of Nineveh. Taste of Nineveh is a documentary about the Assyrian community in Wellington produced by Newtown librarian Helen Donnelly. Numbering just under 1,700 throughout New Zealand, the Assyrian community is relatively small, and is mainly made up of recent migrants from Iraq. Helen’s film is a mixture of interviews of young and old from the Assyrian community, and includes some ancient history of the Assyrians. The documentary is currently being shown as part of a display of historical and contemporary photographs of the Assyrian community in branches of Wellington City Libraries. For more information on the Assyrian Display and the documentary, visit the Wellington City Libraries website.

Nelson City Council
For the launch of the Nelson-Tasman Settlement Support Initiative, April 2007. Nelson City Council is one of 19 local government and community agencies throughout New Zealand that are working on improving access to information and services for migrants and refugees, an initiative that is funded by the Department of Labour through Settlement Support New Zealand. Nelson/Tasman co-ordinator Sonny Alesana organised a public launch of the new service at Whakatu Marae in Nelson on April 13, where tangata whenua gave a formal welcome to Nelson migrant groups and a wide range of organisations providing settlement services. Over two hundred people took part in the event, which was followed by a meal in the whare kai with information stalls on services available. For many it was the first visit to Whakatu Marae and the first experience of a formal Maori welcome. More information on settlement support initiatives is available here.

Mangere Mountain Education Trust: Te Whare Akoranga o te Pane o Mataoho
For education programmes about Mangere Mountain. The education centre at Mangere Mountain, a vision of the local community, runs programmes that acknowledge the historic and cultural elements of the mountain, both before and after European settlement. The programmes also focus on the spiritual significance of the mountain to Tangata Whenua, and have strong bicultural and environmental school curriculum elements. The Education Centre is available for use by any school or community group and provides for interactive and onsite learning experiences around the importance of the mountain. These explore issues such as food sources, social, cultural and spiritual values of Māori society, traditional and contemporary Māori social organisation, environmental conservation using traditional Māori and European concepts, and the importance of traditional names for landmarks. For more information, visit www.mangeremountain.co.nz .

Tony Gan
For AM: The Asian Magazine, April 2007. April saw the launch of AM:The Asian Magazine by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters. AM bills itself as “the voice of Asians in New Zealand” and is a bimonthly lifestyle magazine available on subscription or at magazine and bookstores. The magazine will include features on education, travel and tourism, food, fashion, business and health as well as regular articles from the office of the Minister of Immigration and organisations such as Asia:NZ and Tourism New Zealand. The magazine will be the voice of a large population, for as Winston Peters pointed out at the launch “The number of New Zealanders of Asian descent is rising ... rapidly, having increased by 50 percent between 2001 and 2006, to now make up nine percent of our total population”. Editor Tony Gan is also the Chairperson of the Kapiti International Friendship Group, which in March held a pot luck dinner attended by 300 people to mark Race Relations Day.Visit the AM website at: www.amag.co.nz

Close Up, TVNZ
For the debate on religion, April 2007. On Good Friday TVNZ’s Close Up programme screened a debate on religion which included a panel comprising Bishop Richard Randerson of the Anglican Church, Evangelist Christian Senior Pastor Martin Steel, Bill Cooke from the New Zealand Rationalists and Humanists Association, Rabbi Jack Engel of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, Anjum Rahman of the Islamic Women’s Council, and the Venerable Amala Wrightson, a Buddhist priest. In a 40 minute commercial free special, the panel discussed the National Statement on Religious Diversity, the relevance of Christian holy days to our society and whether the State and religions should operate independently of each other.

Cedric Horner, Shana Khan, Kathryn Paton and Awad Hagos, Victoria University of Wellington
For a report on Supporting Refugee Background Students to Achieve their Goals. A research partnership project with the ChangeMakers Refugee Forum, ESOL Assessment and Access Services and Victoria University students with a refugee background has been completed by Cedric Horner, Shana Khan and Kathryn Paton, three graduate students from the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, with the assistance of Awad Hagos. The report identifies a comprehensive list of recommendations for the university that would improve the cultural responsiveness of the institution and the effectiveness of the existing support services. It suggests a number of initiatives that the participating students identified would help them to be successful. This is the first such study carried out in a tertiary institution on NZ. An electronic copy of the report can be obtained from Sara Kindon sara.kindon[at]vuw.ac.nz or Judi McCallum esol.specialist[at]xtra.co.nz

The Wellington Regional Jewish Trust
For the opening of the Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre, April 2007. The Centre was opened at the Jewish Community Centre in Webb St on Sunday 15 April by the Governor General, Hon Anand Satyanand. The opening was preceded by a ceremony to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, and was attended by several hundred people including government and local government representatives and leaders of other faiths. The aim of the Centre is to collect and record the stories of holocaust survivors who fled Hitler’s Europe and came to Wellington and made new lives here, and to tell these stories in ways which will inspire following generations, both Jewish and of other faiths, to combat intolerance wherever it occurs and to respect the dignity of the lives of every man, woman and child. The material collected will be digitised and available on the internet as well, and school groups will be invited to visit the centre. For further information, contact info[at]holocaustcentre.org.nz.

Ministry of Women’s Affairs
For Mana Wahine Week, April 2007. This year’s Mana Wahine Week was held from April 23 to 29, with the Ministry joining forces with Te Puni Kōkiri, Toi Māori and Greenstone Pictures to celebrate Māori women in New Zealand as leaders, creators and innovators. A highlight of the week was the ‘Ask your Auntie’ special panel discussion, featuring Aunty Ella Henry, Aunty Mabel Wharekawa-Burt, and Aunty Aroha Hathaway from the popular Māori TV show ‘Ask your Auntie’ who were joined by guest panelist Jacqui Te Kani, General Manager of the Māori Women's Welfare League. As part of the Week, Maori women artists were featured at the inaugural Māori Market in Wellington on April 28-29, exhibiting works of art from New Zealand’s top galleries, as well as the five major Māori art schools and work by contemporary art graduates. The Market also included a programme of artists at work, seminars, guest speakers, performances by musicians and storytellers, carving, weaving and fashion displays.

New Zealand Herald
For coverage of the 2006 census results on cultural diversity and identity, April 2007. When Statistics New Zealand published its Quickstats report on cultural diversity and identity on April 19 the NZ Herald recognised the importance of the statistics for how we see ourselves as New Zealanders. The following day its front page was transformed into a full page poster-like format under the banner ‘The Sum of Us’, with the basic new data on ethnicity accompanied by photos of diverse New Zealanders and the New Zealand flag. Two more full pages of ‘The Inside Story’ contained articles on changes in our religious and ethnic make-up by Martin Johnston and Errol Klong. This was undoubtedly the most prominent and accessible coverage of the report anywhere in the country. The Quickstats report is available here.

If you would like to nominate a person or an organisation for acknowledgment please email positive.contribution[at]hrc.co.nz with the details.
For information about race relations visit the Human Rights Commission website www.hrc.co.nz .
If you have received this email from a friend or colleague and would like to be added to the distribution list please email positive.contribution[at]hrc.co.nz with Subscribe in the subject line.

On The Bright Side is part of the Human Rights Commission’s contribution to the NZ Diversity Action Programme. For further details visit www.hrc.co.nz/diversity

ENDS

© Scoop Media