Race unity speech contest goes online
Karamu High School’s Year 13 student Ondre Hapuku-Lambert and Year 12 student Ethin Templeton triumphed in each of their individual heats, at an online version of the NZ Race Unity Speech competition’s regional section.
Both competitors advance to the national semifinals, also being held online during Youth Week, May 11-17.
The competition had eight students from Karamu High School and Napier and Hastings Girls’ High schools compete over two separate nights in heats of four online for the first time, to comply with the Covid-19 lockdown. Head boy of Karamu High School, Hapuku-Lambert, was the winner of the first heat and during his speech called everyone to “accept, respect and embrace diversity” in reference to the range of people of varying religions, languages and cultures for whom Aotearoa is home.
“We are the ones that give racism life in Aotearoa, therefore we are also the ones that hold the power to eradicate it in Aotearoa. Learning from past racial movements in NZ, I see there are three important things we need to eradicate racism in our motu (country): Education. Courage. And Unity.” Templeton took out the second night’s top award with dramatic gestures reflecting a strong message.
“A passionate speech makes a good speech, and this is a topic that I am deeply passionate about. I really do believe that racism and xenophobia is the hypocritical strand of flax woven into our kete of Kiwi culture.”
Margot Macphail, one of the co-ordinating team of the Hawke’s Bay awards, said all eight speakers brought passion, deep thinking and a strong knowledge of New Zealand history to their speeches.