Multicultural New ZealandMulticultural New Zealand continues to further positive community relations with the launch of a Tiriti-based Multicultural Day on the last Friday of August. Backed by rangatira (community leaders) in all regions of New Zealand, MNZ launches this annual celebration as part of a continued effort to normalise and celebrate diversity in New Zealand within a Tiriti-based framework.
On the last Friday of August (Friday 27th August 2021), people all over New Zealand will be bringing their cultural heritage into their work and family life. This includes wearing traditional attire, sharing traditional food and music, speaking in their native language, sharing stories from their home or kāinga tipu (ancestral homeland).
National MNZ President, Pancha Narayanan, puts emphasis on this day belonging to everyone in New Zealand, not only recent migrant and former refugee communities. “We all have at least one ethnicity,” he says. “As Tangata Tiriti we have all arrived here from another land at one point in time, and we all have a right share and celebrate our whakapapa. And as Tangata Whenua, Māori of course have a rich culture”
New Zealand often celebrates diversity with festivities around the national Race Relations Day on March 21st. “The festivities that MNZ initiated around Race Relations Day are a great success, and we are moving on with the Multicultural Day in August to promote diversity in further ways.” On choosing a weekday for this celebration, Narayanan says “We want cultural visibility to be normalised in everyday environments. Let’s see it in the workplace, in the universities, on the streets, in the schools.”
Rangatira from around the country applaud Narayanan’s pioneering leadership, continuing to reframe the multicultural paradigm in New Zealand and pushing for embodiment of te Tiriti o Waitangi in every aspect of community and policy.
MNZ invites any organisation or community who wishes to partner on the upcoming Multicultural Day to connect with the MNZ office and keep an eye out for following updates.