Bahá’í New Zealand: Involvement in society

In recent years, the New Zealand Bahá’í community has become more active in promoting positive race relations in society.

In 1997 the Bahá’í community approached the Race Relations Conciliator of the time, Dr Rajen Prasad, with the suggestion that a Race Unity Day be established in this country. Discussions took place over many months and on 10 December 1998 (Human Rights Day), the Race Relations Office formally announced that Race Unity Day would be celebrated in New Zealand on 21 March each year, beginning in 1999. (21 March was chosen as it is also the UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.) Race Unity Day was renamed Race Relations Day in October 2002.

From the start, Bahá’í communities throughout the country were amongst the strongest supporters of Race Relations Day, which is now increasingly celebrated by other faith groups, district and city councils, ethnic councils, schools, and others.

As well as a wide variety of events and activities organised by Bahá’í communities at the local level, and the publication of “Race Relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand — a Bahá’í Perspective”, the New Zealand Bahá’í Community has undertaken two major initiatives:

Each year, the New Zealand Bahá’í community runs a “Race Unity Speech Award” for senior high school students. Contestants are provided with a specific topic and several “bullet points” to consider. Their speeches, which may be delivered in either Maori or English, are to be 7–8 minutes duration. The competition is held in support of Race Relations Day.

The Human Rights Commission has been extremely supportive of the competition with the Race Relations Commissioner frequently appearing as guest speaker at the finals, and presenting the winners with their prizes.

Each year, the winning student receives a $750 cash prize and a shield. Their school also receives a shield and $750.

Feedback from students, parents and teachers, has been highly appreciative:

The first competition, in 2001, was won by a Korean student, Yea Ji Sohn of Rangitoto College, Auckland. Students representing schools in both the North and South Islands, and of various ethnicities, have won each year since — including Maori, Indian, European and Sri Lankan.

In its first year, the competition was held in the Auckland area only, but has now spread to many other cities and towns around the country.

Each year, National Radio broadcasts finalists’ speeches, and airs interviews with them. Many media articles have also helped to generate widespread interest in the contest.

Race Unity Conference

In 2005, a Race Unity Conference was initiated as an adjunct to the Race Unity Speech Award. The conference is primarily for young people aged 15-25, but parents, teachers and other interested people may also attend. The Conference takes place on the same day as the finals of the Speech Award (a Saturday in late March/early April).
Two short, keynote speeches start the day — one given by the student who won the previous year’s Race Unity Speech Award; the other by a Bahá’í youth. These are followed by workshops on a variety of topics designed to increase knowledge and understanding of race relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
As with the Speech Award, the Conference has proved extremely popular with students, parents and teachers:

Teachings on race unity

For more about the Bahá’í teachings on race unity, please see the article, Race unity.

Over the past few years, the New Zealand Bahá’í community has brought a number of overseas experts in race relations and other vital issues to New Zealand, and has arranged for them to meet with and speak to a variety of other people working in the same field.

For example, in 2004, people in the human rights field found that ideas presented by a visiting Bahá’í lawyer from the United States, Layli Miller-Muro, offered fresh new perspectives.

Speaking to various groups of government officials, human rights workers, and community leaders, Layli put forward some illuminating ideas on justice as something that needs to be developed both through legal measures and through personal transformation.

Layli also had opportunities to share her perspectives through the media, including radio and television interviews.

Layli is the Executive Director of the Tahirih Justice Centre, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting women from human rights abuses through the provision of legal aid and social services (www.tahirih.org).

She first achieved international renown while still only a student at law school, when she successfully argued before an Immigration Judge and assisted in the appeal of a high-profile case involving a woman’s right to receive refuge in the United States from female genital mutilation. The case set nationally binding legal precedent and made legal history.

Two special events, in particular, brought Layli to New Zealand. The first of these was as a keynote speaker at an international conference co-sponsored by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission and the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO on “Living and Learning Together: the role of human rights education in strengthening communities in New Zealand and the Pacific”. Secondly, she was invited by the Bahá’í community to speak at the 2004 Margaret Stevenson Memorial Dinner and Lecture, in which she spoke on “Justice and Equality, a Basis for Change”.

Another visitor was Dr Jeanne Gazel of Michigan State University in the USA. Jean was a co-founder of the university’s Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience (MRULE) programme. In 2005, she presented the Bahá’í community’s fifth annual “Margaret Stevenson Memorial Dinner and Lecture”, her topic being “Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Achieving Unity through Diversity”

During her visit to New Zealand, she shared information about MRULE at four different universities. She also gave presentations at several polytechs, to police, the Office of Ethnic Affairs, the Department of Labour and the Human Rights Commission.

The Margaret Stevenson Memorial Dinner and Lecture has also often featured local New Zealand speakers. The speaker in 2006 is Jenny Hindin Miller, her topic being “Protecting Vulnerable Families: how education and support can change lives”.

A pioneer in the field of education for teen parents and their children, Jenny Hindin Miller is Director of Karanga Mai Young Parents College, which she founded in the mid 1990s, as one of only two schools for teen parents in New Zealand. The concept was so successful, and the need so great, that New Zealand now has 17 such schools. A teacher and counsellor herself, Jenny is passionate about the need to educate and support vulnerable families. In the wake of increasing awareness of the devastating impact of child abuse, she has offered her school as a simple yet highly effective and relatively low-cost model of early intervention which has life-changing consequences for young parents and children.

If you wish to find out more about any of the above activities, please see the Contact us page for details on how to contact the Bahá’í National Office.