Tauhara Luncheon

This month’s speaker was Anjum Rahman from the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective. Anjum was a founding member of the New Zealand Islamic Women’s Council and a founding and working member of the Hamilton Ethnic Women’s Centre. She became a spokeswoman for the Muslim community following the Christchurch mosques shootings. Anjum established the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective in response to the attacks; a working group that believes everyone can feel they belong, that New Zealand can build an inclusive society, founded on the partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Born in India, Anjum’s father moved the family to New Zealand when offered a postdoctoral position at the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries in Hamilton. She was only 5 when she arrived and has vivid recollections of the struggles she had of realising she was ‘only one of a kind’, for in the 1970s hers was the only Muslim family living in Hamilton. Anjum experienced bullying and racism, something that has clearly given her a great empathy for others in society from different ethnic, cultural, health and disabled backgrounds. She was a chartered accountant for more than 25 years until her various community and trust roles saw her choose to work full time for the Collective with the commitment of bringing harmony and peace to the people of New Zealand. One of the goals of the Collective is to build open community networks where all have a voice and all can listen. It is much harder to hate a person when you have personally heard about their lives, their experiences and their stories. The group was encouraged to check their own assumptions, learn about other histories and cultures, read, learn, listen, ask questions. The club next meets on Monday July 12. Cost for attendance and lunch is $40. Phone Katherine Ewen on 021 641 926 or Helene Phillips on 378 1237.