Research

Te reo Māori. I think we need to embrace the fact we are on a shared land. First bit of understanding about Te Reo Māori and tangata whenua, and whakapapa and what our relationship is as guests in NZ. And I think if people wake up to that a lot of people would rethink their approaches to other people’s race. We then need to be very clear, just having law and educating people what that looks like.

Enrolling son in school, horrific choice of Māori school or mainstream school. Didn’t have the ability to go to kohanga reo so he can’t enrol in the Māori school. Mainstream school doesn’t teach the language [te reo]. That should be easy, all schools should be teaching te reo from day dot.

Part of future trajectory in diversity, more solidarity between tangata whenua and ppl from other ethnic groups. Not enough forums for that kind of engagement. Only person of Asian descent there. I think ethnic migrants and ethnic communities can play a real role in fostering a sense of solidarity by engaging in indigenous culture. I would make it mandatory for ppl coming into the country to learn basics of te reo or tikanga. In the NZ schooling system, there’s a gap in what’s been done already. What it means to engage with Māori communities, history of the treaty. That creates more fracturing and division amongst our ethnic community.

Learning te reo - I don’t learn well in the Western system, but I can’t find any community organisations that use [non-Western] systems.

For eg, I tried to learn Māori, I had to pay thousands of dollars to learn this due to me being an immigrant. This made it difficult to be exposed to Māori people and culture as there are very limited resources, and even less for immigrants, to make a difference in people’s lives.

Te Reo Māori should be compulsory.

Our education system needs to make massive changes. Small changes like hiring more minorities, ensuring te reo Māori and NZ history is taught at schools and treated appropriately as the taonga they are. Find ways to ensure the rangatahi of today have tolerance acceptance and understanding ingrained in their everyday lives.

That petition to teach about NZ history in schools, needs to be done. Teach new immigrants to Aotearoa, that they get to learn our histories. And learn Te Reo. It’s a beautiful language. I’ve had conversations with people of many religions around the world. It’s a beautiful language about respecting and sharing all living things, of speaking to all faiths.

Our health system, my daughter has a Māori name, received multiple letters with her name wrong. Her name is two words, we get letters addressed to [xx] or Miss [xx]. Our teacher’s learning how to pronounce children’s names in all languages.

In schools, since English is one of the main languages. Te reo and sign language should be offered, that would change some perspectives of young people coming through. We could always do other languages.

If people see an interpreter they might be interested in [learning about] the deaf world... The same [goes for] other disabilities as well.

Teaching of te reo Māori, would be a core subject rather than an optional one. If we think about signing as well, an ability to speak in Māori and sign as well. To think about people who live with disability.

So like sign language taught to every person from primary level - some babies learn sign language, so if the focus was on communication, rather than the maths or whatever […]

I think it was great for sign language and teaching people. Little bit [?] through their diner experience, that I could offer something to them in terms of their experience with sign language, and other values that, and [?] some people recognise it […]

Providing NZSL [New Zealand Sign Language] interpreters at events

What needs to change? Oh, sign language, universal. Not a universal sign language, but having everyone understanding sign language. Having everyone understand it and be able to say things in it. Like here in New Zealand we know New Zealand Sign Language, but for me, I’d really like to be able to communicate more and learn more about different cultures, different languages, different experiences, that aren’t just [translated?] to my language.

So lots of hearing people would […] I’d show people how to do the sign, and then they’d give it a go. Some people, especially older people, couldn’t manually make the signs […] younger people were sometimes more keen to give it a go and sometimes I’d be like ‘chill out’, but they older people were a bit more […] [?]

I’ve got this community building project, to raise awareness of our nearly 70 nationalities in [small North Island town] so we can embrace them. In Australia, they would have Greek, Italian, Polish dancing, whoever was there. And we’d have food. We’d learn a bit of [each of] their languages. In [Australian city] my language was multicultural, you’d have 4 languages making up your thought pattern.

Learning language and culture. Language is a way of reaching out, understanding what’s important.

In terms of faith and non-faith, somehow getting them to mingle. I really don’t mingle with anyone who is different to me. My kids started here just before high school. They didn’t go to school from Year 1, but now they can do stuff at school with kids. Introduce faith and non-faith, different languages [at school]. Do that with the kids when they are young.

When I arrived at 40, it was too late, it’s hard to learn languages. It’s useful for a young child to be taught another language.

There’s no [Indian] language classes yet, but we thought about it.

Here, if someone sees you, they say Kia Ora. But that’s what everyone says. I would much rather my Hungarian friend say hello in Hungarian, and Spanish speakers in Spanish, [same with] Japanese. So it would grow our tolerance base. I thought that would be so wonderful if that[tolerance] would filter through to Whangarei, and then other places.

Everyone in NZ had to speak a non-European language. Language means learning another culture. A lot of mono-lingual who think they’re a majority, when they are a minority.

With wananga, there’s been a push for Māori language. But going to Niue language classes, there wasn’t a lot of resources. Would bring that community consciousness and collectiveness.

At work, I deal with racism. In the staff room this one teacher always says, “I hate it when these Asian teachers speak Asian.” First of all, I tell her it's not ASIAN. There is no language called ‘Asian.’ I say, “they’re talking on the phone [on their break], why does it matter to you? Why do you even care when they’re not even talking to you?”

I think language has a lot of power. Pronouns. Unconscious reactions. Chairman and chair person. First iteration can seem naff and PC. Children will appreciate this in the future. Sign language, te reo etc.

My plea is that you use language that’s really accessible. For example, people talk about structural racism, I know what that means, I’m a sociologist but most people don’t. Those stories that are 2 liners and 3 liners are really helpful. Drop the mumbo jumbo language around it. Don’t need something theoretical.

I think a really good way to overcome this would be BLIND RECRUITMENT, as why is there asking for my passport? Also, due to people not being able to pronounce my name and them assuming I can’t speak English properly, or being surprised that I speak English so well – all these perceptions, if changed, would help me – so these need to change.

Language needs to change. Language is so important. How we describe things. It's about going back to the individual – how people want to be represented.

My brother does translation on the phone for someone. Interpreters need a special training how to respect the person, understand what the refugee needs.

From this area, I worked in a primary school with a classroom support person. There were only 3 kids in the classroom who I could pronounce their name. I made a real effort to pronounce their name right. They had to educate me.

Access to things. Things have to be easier to navigate. Not necessarily for me, but for my students. If they weren’t even able to navigate on a computer, [then] they couldn’t access services online. Moving to digital creates a bigger divide. Leaves people behind.

Access to things. Things have to be easier to navigate. Not necessarily for me, but for my students. If they weren’t even able to navigate on a computer, [then] they couldn’t access services online. For example, Immigration NZ. When I arrived here, I could go to an office and ask a question if I didn’t understand something. Then after a year, you had to email or call. If English isn’t your first language, then it’s really hard to navigate email or online. Or if you didn’t have a computer or phone, it’s really hard to navigate. People don’t always the [calling] minutes on their phone. Half an hour in a queue eats up their time, then having to explain your issue eats up your time. Moving to digital creates a bigger divide. Leaves people behind.

In general I can communicate in English but I find language as one of the barriers. Having a space where people could just have a friendly informal talk with the “locals” so that we can learn the phrases and expressions we don’t get, before we came here.

The most important thing is to improve the language [ESOL]. It’s the number 1.

If you emigrate to any country, to understand how that country operates you need to understand the language. I’m not saying that speaking English makes you more worthy, but you need to speak it.

It’s not new but when you are supporting people from another country [to link them to resources], there’s other things like language - I’m trying to find an interpreter for them.

Elderly woman: When kids are at home, the mum and dad are at work, then I can’t understand the kids and they don’t understand her. There is no conversation possible. I can’t even ask for water.

Deliberate initiatives to deliver equity, not treating people as equal to achieve equity. Big challenge for [xxx], a third of the workforce don’t have English as their first language. At first level management, we see that and certainly in some roles like IT and accounting services, that’s very apparent, as well as community support workers. We don’t see that reflected right through the organisation. It’s an issue for organisations like ours, because the entry level for work like ours is lower. People will look to get entry visas through organisations like ours.

There needs to be diversity of opinion. We need more dialogue, not less. It doesn’t mean everyone is going to agree at the end, but we hopefully end up relating to each other more, and things can change.

It is a team effort, everyone needs to make an effort to make everyone feel included. This can be done by gathering together and listening or having hard conversations, making sure to really be actively listening, educating oneself with history or culture, and overall just making people feel understood or heard. Making them feel like they are part of a family or a collective.

More communication and korero between different groups of people.

All different people that I talk to are feeling less free to express themselves. I think that more dialogue is needed where people can say what they want without being labelled as some kind of ‘phobe.

“Languaging” is really powerful - we need to stop talking about ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Māori & Pasifica - information should not be sanitised - needs to have more accountability when a racist issue is highlighted.

I think a really good place to start is always to ask, what are our expectations? They might all say completely different things, when you ask at the start of the meeting it's relatively the same that you come to an agreement about. The people that are here for the wrong reason become aware (e.g. thought we were here to hound the government).

You don’t want to kill conversation because everyone is too afraid to ask simple questions. Maybe people are just genuinely inquisitive? It’s the how that is important. It’s just wanting to be treated like everyone else - whatever that may be. Especially where that historical trauma is. The person may not realise they have experienced historical trauma of where that person has been. So, when you find out where someone is from, wherever they grew up, you make that connection and build off that small talk to find more connections and get the conversation going. It is trying to find the common ground, trying to be human beings. The foundation of connection.

For me I really think it is about conversation. They are dealing with their loss of privilege [refers to white privilege] and they're feeling attacked, and I feel as though people need to try to have these conversations.

The way everyday conversations are built around exclusion, that needs to change. It is why we have the assumptions we have. It's how you think that leads down to what you do.