Research

You need to start raising a generation of little people who care about diversity and equality. Children are influenced from birth by what’s around them. They don’t get born being racist. Responsibility falls on the parents to do that.

And I think for people - it always comes back to empowerment, and whether or not you’re feeling empowered as a person and having that ability to be yourself and be accepted as yourself by other people there. I’m really lucky in being able to be in most spaces and feel [?] but there are some issues.

Having people like this [who can mentor] at an early age, would have helped. Once you hit your teens and start getting into strife, you’re going to be in your whole life.

We are teaching them [children] emotional health, community service, their roles and impact they have, all in English, young people need to be seen and feel heard. Once those 2 things happen, then they can move into positions, I’m primarily talking about people of colour and diversity where other people can see them. and young people have shared bloody mindedness, I remember people saying, you’re naive you think you can change the world, well I could. Young people can, but they need us to be cheerleaders. The issues we have, as white men in spaces, we have ego, which means we’re not prepared to, well my job as a manager is to see people go past me, that’s how I know I’ve done my job.

You have to be a really special person to create a community, but that’s a given - that’s what I know. Doesn’t everyone? No not everybody actually. Nothing really follows how you get that consciousness. Can you learn it? Critical learning skills. Critical thinking its something I encounter with younger people coming through my workplace.

We don’t have the funds, especially to support young people’s activities.

Need to focus on younger ones to see what benefit there is to do these things for the community. Need to get into the high schools, or even after high school. Something to get those people involved so there’s someone to carry on.

Building confidence in everyone. Thinking about some of my kids who don’t feel like they should go to school because they don’t have that sense of belonging.

Kids don’t know what all the options are, but this way they can see that it’s more than getting a [construction] site job digging and shovelling, that there are many levels in the construction industry.

I am grateful for the dark times, because it makes me relatable to those children to know what they’re going through. Then you can give them some kind of hope, some kindness. We can’t heal someone if you don’t have that experience yourself. If gives you the gift of being relatable. It’s gifted through those dark times. They will feel safe around you and being able to share your experience. These children are so cold, that gives them some trust and warmth to feel safe around you.

Youth face a lot of discrimination. Accessible, the buildings are accessible, the information is, the services. No one is excluded. It’s about equity, because sometimes some of us need more of a soapbox than others. Young people from any background [should have] equal standing.

We need a younger person to look after the younger newcomers.

We have to get out of denial. The nation is in denial. Face up to our history. All we want from our kids is that they tell the truth, we can deal with it once we have the truth. The problem for telling our truth is that everyone has their own version. But for too long there is only one version. Being monolingual is a disadvantage. And mono centric in terms of our culture.

In the school holidays, we were sent to camps for the entire holidays. We got lots of bits and pieces, but not the nurturing guidance. Even as there are so many things held up as an ideal, which is such a fucked up picture. The ideals, it would be good to talk to kids to say that there are other things that are just as good as that. It would be good to start young.

The people who aren't inclusive with others, they have no experience of the people they are not inclusive with. Our social groups don't meet enough, we stay in our bubbles that don't often connect with other bubbles.

Integration means that you get accepted into the collective, but you don’t need to become the other person. Like Muslims who don’t drink [alcohol], don’t eat pork. That’s okay – you just don’t eat the food with pork, just ask politely if this food has pork. You don’t have to assimilate and eat pork, just integrate. People are still in tribal mode – they only want to hang out with people like themselves and not integrate, they don’t want to hang out with the other groups.

If you send out literature to people, and personally stand on their doorstep, they will come. Send them via letter and they'll chuck them in the bin. Everyone wants to come if they are encouraged.

Need to change transport and need more public transport and really need more information on how to access it. The information is all online and I can’t access it.

Matching single parents with grandparents is another thing. But there’s been some pushback from grandparents who don’t want to end up as babysitters.

Maybe we have a repair café, where old people recycle things and the young people could go there to learn. Or it could be vegetable growing.

The ageist thing, is just attitude changes. Some societies, not that I consider myself elder, they respect the wisdom of their elders. I don’t’ think NZ societies do, that wisdom and experience they bring. Why do the tutors say that social work is for young people in front the whole class. I don’t consider myself old. When it happened to me, I was quite shocked. I started to think maybe she’s right. I’ll admit I thought, holy heck, maybe I’m too old for this. Our environment has got a lot better for that, there’s a lot of mature students

For elderly, need more engagement. We’re too small to have assisted living for them. We have a rest home, but that’s it. We need a retirement village where they can be independent.

Lived experience, and any kind of knowledge, they deeply care about issues. You [x] have experience of when you were young of trauma. It takes you to that next level of insight and empathy. It’s hard to have that without that lived experience. That white supremacy is strong, globally. It’s strong. In terms of political power and also, in a NZ context like land ownership and power play, it still sits with older white males.