Youth Diversity Forum welcomes Bahá’í input

A recent national forum where youth shared their ideas on fostering social cohesion included several Bahá’í students among its organisers, facilitators and participants.

Diverse youth leaders came together at Tuahiwi Marae in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) to consult about the future of race relations in Aotearoa.

Across the weekend of 4–6 October, about 80 diverse youth leaders from around the country came together at Tuahiwi Marae in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) to consult about the future of race relations in Aotearoa.

This Youth Diversity Forum was developed and co-hosted by the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and Ngāi Tahu, with support from the Human Rights Commission, in response to the March 15 mosque terror attacks. It was inspired by a desire to create a safe and empowering space for youth from a wide range of backgrounds to share ideas, connect and think about what we need to do differently as a country to foster greater social cohesion and understanding.

Among the participants were two semi-finalists from the 2019 Race Unity Speech Awards from the South Island, who were nominated by the Bahá’í community. Also participating were three Bahá’í university students, two of whom served as facilitators for small group discussions during the weekend and one of whom sat on a panel with four other youth on the topic of “Challenging, Appreciating and Celebrating Who We Are”.

The Bahá’í participants learned about what participation in public discourse at a national level entails, and about the capacities and qualities needed to share Bahá’í concepts and principles in these spaces in a way that is meaningful, tactful and humble.

One of the tangible outcomes from the forum was a collaboratively written Declaration of Key Messages, which summarised and encapsulated the korero of the occasion. This was presented to a range of invited leaders and influencers from civil society and the government at the forum’s closing ceremony, including a representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of New Zealand. The key themes from the forum were also shared at the 40th UNESCO General Conference and the 11th UNESCO Youth Forum 2019, both held in Paris in November.

The opportunity for Bahá’ís to contribute to the forum arose from a representative of the community participating in “The Cohesion Conversation”, a consultative space about social cohesion and youth development held in Auckland in early August by Ara Taiohi and Prince’s Trust New Zealand. This space brought together representatives from key organisations throughout New Zealand working for social cohesion to brainstorm and discuss different strategies to improve relations among people of different backgrounds, with a focus on how youth can lead this movement.

The Bahá’í representative’s contribution to the discussion led an advisor for the NZ National Commission for UNESCO to recognise that the Bahá’í community should be involved in the Youth Diversity Forum. In the weeks following, a University of Canterbury student was asked to be a Bahá’í representative on the forum’s organising committee, which devised a system for youth to be nominated as attendees and which shaped the theme and topics for the panels and small group discussions on the programme.

Featured photo: Graphic featuring key messages from the Youth Diversity Forum. The complete graphic appears below.