A ‘champion for diversity’
Since growing up in the largely European Marlborough of the 1960s, Margaret Western has seen the region welcome nearly 50 different ethnicities. She has always been welcome in their homes too.
From helping establish the Marlborough Multicultural Centre, to supporting a newcomer through the birth of her child, she says it’s been a ‘‘privilege to walk alongside’’ migrants in their journey to resettlement.
She is ‘‘humbled and honoured’’ to receive a 2020 Queen’s Service Medal for services to migrant communities, which coincides with her leaving the centre for a new role at New Zealand Red Cross.
Having extended her role to support newcomers – she’s not a fan of the word ‘‘migrant’’ – through the challenging Covid-19 lockdown, Western said it was with ‘‘mixed feelings’’ she left her role in May. She believed she was nominated for the Queen’s Service Medal by one of the many she had supported over the years, and wanted to share the award with them.
Raised in Picton, Western knew very few international migrants but came from a family that recognised the value of community support.
‘‘My parents were involved in community organisations and just giving back to the community that they lived in. I guess that was born in me.’’
During 22 years at the Marlborough District Council her roles included working as liaison officer for the Department of Internal Affairs and organising
New Zealand citizenship ceremonies. ‘‘It probably sparked an interest [in multiculturalism], but I have always been a champion for unity and diversity and promoting the richness of diversity,’’ she said.
Through her key role in guiding the Ministry of Social Development’s Settling in Marlborough report, the Marlborough Multicultural Centre was born in January 2007. While heavily involved from the beginning, Western took over the management role officially in 2014.
She’s had a few workplaces in her lifetime – in a legal firm, council, and even a local bar to supplement her income while she raised her family. But Western found her great love at the Multicultural Centre, supporting new arrivals to the community.
‘‘For me, it’s about people,’’ she said.
‘‘My husband and I brought our family up to appreciate the richness of diversity and the benefits of travel, and we paid the price for that with precious grandchildren born far away.
‘‘My own family have lived offshore ... so to be able to support a settlement pathway for newcomers has been personally very rewarding.
‘‘And to learn a bit of some of the cultures of the faces of the people that live in Marlborough.’’
A six-week snapshot earlier this year of the Multicultural Centre showed it had 186 contacts, of newcomers that came from 37 ethnicities.
Western’s role has been around providing support, advocacy and a social network for new arrivals. But at times it has been much more than that, and she’s found herself in some ‘‘interesting situations’’.
Last year she took a group of 140 newcomers to Marlborough’s Mistletoe Bay, and once supported a woman through the birth of her child. ‘‘I wasn’t awake when my own children were born – I don’t like the sight of blood – so for me that was certainly an experience,’’ she said.
Western had seen the centre grow from ‘‘humble beginnings’’ as a referral agency into the valuable community network it is today.
Western had taken a new role as Pathways to Employment Manager at the New Zealand Red Cross, and was excited to welcome the region’s first intake of Colombian refugees this month.
Leaving the centre’s management in ‘‘good heart’’, with a navigator and manager taking on her former role, Western was confident Marlborough was ‘‘wellpositioned to foster’’ a diversifying population.
‘‘Marlborough would not operate without the migrant community,’’ she said. ‘‘Embracing that diversity is how we can make our differences a strength.’’