23 April 2021

Kia ora koutou katoa,

Let me begin by wishing everyone in our Muslim communities Ramadan Mubarak. This holy month is a time for spiritual reflection and devotion to prayer. Ramadan is important to millions around the world and I'm delighted to see it increasingly acknowledged in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Work to get the new Ministry for Ethnic Communities set-up has gained serious momentum. Every single member of the team is involved and a lot has now been put in place.

An Order in Council has been gazetted. Although it's not something that most people will notice, this is a significant step in legislatively creating the new Ministry. A lot of work has gone into making it happen and we would not be open for business on 1 July without it. 

The Chief Executive's role has been advertised and you can find the details on the Public Service Commission's website. Appointing the Chief Executive will take some time yet. As you'll appreciate it has to be a robust process with a number of stages to find the right person to lead the new Ministry. We hope to be able to announce the appointment in June but it may take a little more time. We'll keep you up to date as the Public Service Commission works through its process. 

We also have different project teams working on everything from branding and budget bids to accommodation and de-commissioning the Office of Ethnic Communities.

The other critical piece of work we've started is our public engagement with ethnic communities on the priorities for the new Ministry.

We're running drop-in sessions in different towns and cities so that people can come along and have their say. These sessions are open-house so people can join us for as little or as much time as they like.

The schedule of these events is on our website and we'd love you to be able to join us. The photos are from our first session in Christchurch.

We've also set up an online option so that people who can't make it to a session can have their say as well.

I've said before that a lot of our work setting up the new Ministry is about putting the building blocks in place. While we won't be able to function without these building blocks we won't  succeed without the input of our communities. So this work is vital. Please help spread the word to the communities you represent and work with.

I will keep you up to date with everything on the new Ministry including a summary of the themes coming from our public engagement.

There's one other event I'd like to share with you. Recently, along with Nandita Mathur our Regional Engagement Manager for the North of New Zealand, I attended the New Zealand Chinese Association’s SS Ventnor memorial service in Opononi. 

The memorial marks the historic links between Chinese and Māori formed in the aftermath of the 1902 SS Ventnor shipwreck. The Ventnor had sailed from Westport to return the remains of 499 Chinese gold miners home to China’s Guangdong province, but it struck a reef off the Taranaki coast and later sank near the Hokianga Heads. This was a great tragedy for the Chinese community, as it was believed no one would be there to tend to the men’s spirits. In 2007 it came to light that after the ship sank, tangata whenua along the coastline, including Te Roroa, Te Rarawa and the ancestors of the current Te Hua o te Kawariki Trust, found the remains that had washed ashore and had been caring for them ever since, waiting for the families to come back.

It's a moving story and a beautiful example of tangata whenua and ethnic communities coming together to celebrate shared values and a common history. You can find out more of the history of the SS Ventnor and what followed in this article from the Asia Media Centre.

Take care of yourselves, your families and communities. 

Ngā mihi nui
Anusha Guler
Executive Director, Office of Ethnic Communities

Our recent work

COVID-19 vaccination roll-out

Recently we've seen a genuine focus on ethnic communities by the Government agencies working on COVID-19. Last year it often felt like we had to fight to get things like translation prioritised. Now agencies are coming to us for advice on engaging with ethnic communities. It's a very positive sign.

We've  continued to support the Government's response to COVID-19. The travel bubble with Australia is grabbing recent headlines but a huge amount of effort is going into vaccination roll-out. A new public information campaign started this week and it includes a good spread of ethnic community media.

Vaccination for Aotearoa New Zealand is planned in four phases:

1. Starting with those in roles with greater exposure to the virus e.g. our border workers and those in managed isolation facilities
2. Then high-risk front-line workers and those living in high-risk places
3. Followed by those who are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 such as older people and those with pre-existing conditions
4. Finally the wider population.

More information on the roll-out is available at covid19.govt.nz.

One of the hardest things in communicating the roll-out programme is that, for most people there's nothing to do right now. It's simply a case of waiting for our turn to come round. Thankfully we're fortunate enough to be living in a country where COVID-19 is contained.

Big response to our Graduate Programme 

Our new Graduate Programme is off to a flying start with over 400 applications. 

We've been short-listing and interviewing candidates with our partner agencies across Government.

The programme directly addresses the low representation of ethnically diverse employees and the barriers they face to access employment in the public sector. It aims to achieve that by offering a targeted pathway into the public service, with the expected benefits of improving its representativeness and broadening its cultural competency.

We hope to share many positive stories with you as the successful candidates take up their roles.

More information on the Graduate Programme is available on our website. 

Finding things InCommon

Last week we were delighted to be part of the launch of InCommon. This new campaign encourages people to reach out across cultures and faiths to make Canterbury a place where everyone feels they belong.

It was created in response to the Christchurch mosque attacks to highlight how similar we are to people who, at first, we may not think we share much in common with. It acts as a reminder that our differences are often only skin deep.

The Office helped fund the campaign through the Ethnic Communities Development Fund. 

Pictured are the InCommon Working Group, from Left-Right: Amanda Booth (Campaign Coordinator), Nicholas Latty (OEC), Mahtab Jalal (Intern), Liz Hawes (Social Equity Wellbeing Network), Rebecca Parnham (Giving Seeds of Love and Krama and Co), Matthew Dickinson (Christchurch NZ), Eileen Yee (OEC), Lana Hart (Humanitarian Journalist), Magnum Tuipulotu (Ministry of Education).

To learn more please visit https://incommon.org.nz

Other news

New exceptions for those separated by border closure

The Government is introducing border exceptions allowing offshore visa applications for the families of health care workers in New Zealand, as well as a small number of other highly skilled workers in other sectors who are currently in New Zealand.

A new border exception is also being created for the partners and dependent children of temporary visa holders in New Zealand, who hold visas, but had not yet arrived here when the border closed.

To be eligible for the new border exceptions, the family member currently in New Zealand must have more than 12 months remaining on their visa.

More information is available at covid19.govt.nz

Funding available to help communities engage with Government following the Royal Commission of Inquiry

A new fund has been set up to help ethnic and religious communities engage with Government.

The idea is to help reduce barriers to people properly engaging and informing the Government's response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain.

Information about the Fund can be found on the Community Matters webpage.

They moved to Aotearoa at the age of 18 and through the 12 years has been working in the private sector. They were nominated for the Tourism Export Council’s Rising Star Award for upcoming leaders in 2017. 

Vivian is also the current Chair and Festival Director of Wellington Pride Festival, making them the very first ethnic migrant to hold this position here in Pōneke. They are extremely passionate on social justice conversations, particularly on the marginalised of the marginalised in the rainbow communities, which has led them to establish their own organisation called Frills-a Queer Events Collective, where fashion meets music centering queer excellence and providing a space for queer people of colour.

About their role as Project Advisor, Viv says “I am really looking forward to supporting the Office of Ethnic Communities in the implementation and delivery of the Graduate Programme- a much needed initiative to address the low representation of ethnic peoples in the Public Sector. I am also really looking forward to being part of the framework development for rainbow engagement to ensure that our most marginalised within ethnic communities are being heard, thought of and taken care of in every conversation.”

This year, Viv is looking forward to supporting more platforms for queer people of colour to exist and show their excellence. In their minimal spare time, Viv likes to shut down their bedroom curtains, turn on the TV and order in KFC.