Venu Menon
Wellington, March 18,2024
The Multicultural Council of Wellington ran a lively, well-attended Women’s Inclusion Workshop, coupled with a sari demo and cultural entertainment, to commemorate International Women’s Day.
There was song, dance and revelry as women drawn from the different ethnicities that make up the multicultural fabric of New Zealand converged on the Collective Community Hub in Johnsonville recently.
The workshop, which covered a range of topics, including gender equality, leadership, innovation, sports, youth, health and wellbeing, violence prevention, and road safety, was organised by the Multicultural Council of Wellington with support from the Wellington City Council and the Ministry for Women.
Guest speakers included the Philippines Ambassador Kira Chistianne D. Azucena, Ministry for Ethnic Communities spokesperson Fazleen Ismail, Wellington City Councillors Ray Chung, John Apanowicz and Tony Randle, as well as UNESCO Commissioner Vanisa Dhiru, and Wellington Indian Association President Manisha Morar, among others.
MCW President Rachel Qi invoked “the people, the people, the people” as being at the core of “Absolutely Positively Wellington,” before the MCW executive team was introduced to the gathering. They included, apart from Qi, Lonie Martin, Prem Singh, Lesley Maxwell, Mohan Mistry, and Rehan Badar.
Philippines Ambassador Azucena said her country was focused on fostering the wellbeing of the most vulnerable sections of society, which included “women, children, persons of disability, indigenous peoples, the elderly and migrants.”
She described inclusion as the foundational principle of her country and that of the community of nations at large.
Wellington Phoenix General Manager David Dome stressed the equal opportunity approach followed by the sporting club. “Everything we did for the men’s team has to be given to the women’s team,” Dome quoted the management as saying while starting the women’s programme.
Describing the growth of women’s football in New Zealand as “huge,” which partly came off the back of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Dome said women’s cricket was also growing exponentially in New Zealand. The shift in demographic was a key factor in that growth, he noted.
Tanea Heke, actor, producer and director of the New Zealand School of Drama, delivered a stirring address which opened with the words: “When you see one woman, you see one thousand.”
Those words were from a recent production presented at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts. The production was called Witi’s Wahine, which has been touring the country for the past five years.
The production was crafted by a man, but curated by a woman, Heke told the audience.
She said a good story can “inspire, enliven and create instant rapport. It can move an audience to take action. And it can change lives.” She exhorted the audience to “never underestimate the power of storytelling.” For indigenous people, “storytelling shares aural traditions with the next generations. It is a vehicle for cultural resonance and resilience.”
Fazleen Ismail of the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, who was up next, advised all to “cherish your cultural roots as you grow, as you discover yourself, and as you share your multitude of talents with Aotearoa and the world.”
She said New Zealand was “one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world.” Ethnic communities accounted for 22% of the total population last year, about 1.1 million people, Ismail informed the audience. “By ethnic communities, I mean Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Latin American, and continental European,” she explained.
Those ethnic communities represented 157 religious affiliations and spoke more than 160 languages, the assembly heard. “We [the ministry] want to help create a country where ethnic communities feel respected and valued, and proud of their culture and heritage, and whose varied contributions are recognised,” Ismail said.
Wellington City Councillor Ray Chung spoke of the importance of protecting one’s language and culture as a migrant, a lesson he learnt as a schoolboy from his father.
“It’s very important for you to remember your language,” his father had explained. “If you forget your language, then you forget your culture. And if you forget your culture, then you don’t know where you came from. It’s very important for you to always remember where you came from.”
Pushpa Wood, academic and interfaith advocate, defined inclusion as “living in your life. The more you live within your own life, the more you can project outside.”
Multicultural New Zealand President Pancha Narayanan wrapped up by highlighting the Women’s Wellbeing Framework, a programme where “women supported women.” He invoked his mother who said: “if the women are well at home, the world is well.”
It was a principle that was at the core of statecraft. “If [state] policy is centred around a woman child – from gestation all the way to age 18 [adulthood] – New Zealand will become safe. Crime will come down.”
He said “immigrants implicitly align with tangata whenua [Maori people] and tikanga [customs],” because their culture and wisdom overlapped.
The MCNZ president ended on a fitting note that summed up the spirit of the occasion. Narayanan recollected his grandmother’s belief in the Hindu concept of Adi Parashakti: “The creator of the Universe is Woman.”
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
