Students’ ideas to foster race unity focus of annual speech awards
Being new to Taranaki and a member of a faith that actively promotes peace made Ainslie Duncan the ideal person to launch an annual speech event helping students share ideas on race unity.
“I was the new kid on the block and didn’t have anything else to do, so I got involved, and I’m really glad I did. All the stuff we do as Baha’is relates to creating unity in the world,” she said.
Nine years later, she is still organising the annual Race Unity Speech Awards, with this year’s heats being held today in New Plymouth and March 28 in Hāwera.
“It’s about fostering unity, harmony, acknowledging that we are a very diverse group of people and we need to get along with each other and there are ways we can do it effectively,” she said.
Year 10 to 13 students from schools around Taranaki give speeches on their ideas for achieving unity and resisting racism.
“Some of them come up with some very good ideas. We get some new ideas coming in each year, or new angles on old ideas, and some of them are quite practical.”
The top speakers from each event will travel to Auckland for the national speeches, she said.
A hui to find ways to put the ideas from the speeches into action is being hosted at Stratford High School on May 8.
“The idea is that the students have something they can do, not just getting told this is a great idea,” awards co-organiser Mervyn Chivers said.
“Ideas that have been put into action in past years included simple ones like smiling at everyone you meet on the street, others have organised recognition days at their schools.”
The awards were established by the New Zealand Baha’i community after the death in 1998 of race relations advocate and member of the Baha’i faith, Hedi Moani.
The police are the principal sponsor of the event, along with others including the Human Rights Commission and the Hedi Moani Charitable Trust.
* The North Taranaki speeches are being held at the New Plymouth District Council from 9.30am today and the South Taranaki event is at the South Taranaki District Council from 7pm on March 28.