Community event for all
The region’s diversity will be celebrated in an inaugural community event.
Having received more funding than expected from Ethnic Communities, Aoraki Migrant Centre members said they were ‘‘excited’’ to have the opportunity to make their first Race Relations Day celebration even bigger than hoped.
‘‘We were looking at doing a meal that people would pay to come along to see cultural performances but then we got funding from Ethnic Communities just before Christmas and thought let’s make it bigger,’’ project manager for the event Mandy Wills said.
The event will be held a couple of weeks before the official Race Relations Day on March 21, and will include international food stalls, information stalls, back-to-back performances and a host of cultural activities including lanternmaking, henna-painting, origami and lolly lei-making. The food and much of the entertainment will be provided by the town’s cultural societies, Wills said.
Migrant support manager Katy Houstoun said the event was a way of showing people the diversity that exists in Timaru, and wider South Canterbury. ‘‘We are not a huge city but we are getting more diverse so it’s just a way of celebrating that and bringing our whole community together.
‘‘That’s why we called it Community instead of Race Relations Day, because we want everyone to be involved.’’
Wills agreed that they didn’t want people to think the event was about those new to Timaru, but for everyone.
‘‘I don’t think people realise how our population has changed and how it’s evolving,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s great that refugees are coming here and it’s great that people are interested in that but we actually want people to understand that we have culturally diverse groups in our community right now, working well and happily in our community.’’
According to the 2013 census, about 95 per cent of Timaru’s population identified as European, or a New Zealander, and by 2018 this had dropped to about 86 per cent.
Houstoun and Wills said it was ‘‘lucky’’ there was such a welcoming community in Timaru and they often get calls from people asking how they can help newcomers, from donating household items to renting their property to those in most need.
Police will take part in the event, performing the Bollywood dance they performed at Diwali celebrations last year, and playing Lego racers, as will St John, which will be teaching its ‘‘Three Steps to Life’’ first-aid programme free of charge.
‘‘It about mixing in a nonthreatening way so that if people need them they can call upon them and they don’t feel scared, we want to promote those relationships,’’ Wills said.
She said the three-step first-aid approach – which includes calling 111, starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and using an automated external defibrillator (AED) – will give people the confidence to take steps immediately in an emergency.
Community Extravaganza will take place at the Southern Trust Events Centre on March 7 from 10.30am until 2pm.
‘‘We are getting more diverse so it’s just a way of celebrating that.’’ Katy Houstoun