Race Unity Hui foster hope amongst youth
Featured photo above: A group of rangatahi at the local Race Unity Hui held at Solway College, Masterton, on 14 August 2021.
Please scroll to end for more photos.
In mid-August 2021, a group of around 30 teenagers gathered in a school hall in Masterton to share their experiences and consult about ways to eradicate racism and build unity in their community. By the end of the four hour “Race Unity Hui”, the teens, some of whom had met for the first time that day, were exchanging phone numbers and giving farewell hugs to each other as if they were dear old friends. There was broad agreement among the youth that ongoing conversations about race, identity, diversity and unity, are hugely important for building our collective and individual resilience and well-being.
Masterton’s local Race Unity Hui was organised by Solway College student Sheryl Chand, an award winner of the 2021 Race Unity Speech Awards. The Hui was well-organised and promoted thanks to the sponsorship and support of Sheryl’s school, the Masterton Bahá’í Community, and local businesses. One highlight was a delicious Middle Eastern lunch provided for participants by a catering company run by a local Syrian woman.
2021 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Race Unity Speech Awards, an initiative which began in 2001 to honour the memory of Hedi Moani — a Bahá’í who worked tirelessly for the cause of race unity and who was instrumental in the establishment of Race Relations Day in Aotearoa New Zealand. Hedi was killed in 1998, just months before Race Relations Day was first observed in 1999. The Speech Awards bring together rangatahi (youth) from around Aotearoa to speak on the topic of race unity, and seek to provide them a platform so that their voices can be heard on the national stage. The Race Unity Speech Awards continue to be organised by the NZ Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs, with sponsorship and support from a wide range of organisations including the NZ Police and the Human Rights Commission.
In recent years, a national Race Unity Hui has been held alongside the Speech Awards; giving youth, and those who work with them, the opportunity to kōrero and develop their thinking around how to eliminate racism and build unity, and to have their contributions shared more widely. In 2021, the Race Unity coordinating team trialled a new initiative — encouraging participants in the national Race Unity Hui to consider organising local Race Unity Hui in their own school, neighbourhood, or town, with as much local support as possible. A number of rangatahi took up the challenge, and while Covid-19 considerations have interfered with some plans, at least four local hui or similar initiatives have taken place so far around the motu, with more still in planning.
With ongoing support from the wider community, and the willingness and zeal of our rangatahi, it is hoped that many more local Race Unity Hui can go ahead in 2022 and beyond, thus extending the conversation about how to eliminate racism and build unity in diversity into more towns and neighbourhoods around Aotearoa.
In the words of a participant at the Masterton hui, “My experience at the Race Unity Hui gave me hope in this world. It showed me there are so many youth who see the problems in the world and are passionate about fixing them. I became so close with these youth in only one day, and it shows what happens when you bond over shared hope.”
