Research

I don’t feel like I belong - the way the school is very insular. They don’t communicate with the rest of the community.

You don’t know why you’re rejected, whether it’s because you’re an immigrant, or educated or Muslim. They never tell you.

Not classed as a Coaster unless [you have] been here for generations.

I think it’s when people get treated differently and that’s obvious and they’re not part of the “in-crowd”. It’s that differential treatment that makes people feel like they don’t belong.

I had neighbours and friends around me, but I couldn’t get into that group. They just wouldn’t let me into the group. I invited different ones to the house, I tried, I could do something on a one-to-one basis, but as a group they just closed it off.

Who you know is a barrier. Definitely felt that here. That’s why I found volunteering really useful as you get to build your network. Great opportunity to meet other people and get into other lines of work.

Intentional boundaries like a trans-women’s group gives a strong sense of belonging for some - it can be a powerful space, but for others it is a sense of not belonging because they are not welcomed.

Money prevents people on pensions from being included.

Loneliness has been identified as a real problem, especially in older people. Senior males are the highest suicide rates we have.

The everyday things create barriers to access — mobile phone, WINZ — how do you solve a problem without paying a lot of money and without getting snarled in a lot of red tape?

Negative attitudes and perceptions hold them back. Same for older people as well. Living with an ageing parent and watching how social networks disintegrate and disappear into nothing. Only the paid service provider [is left in their social network].

Elderly have a really hard time belonging. On a daily basis, isolation stops them from belonging.

When things go wrong for elderly, it’s very hard to sort it out. If my mother didn’t have me as her advocate, she wouldn’t survive and manage.

One group are speaking about the community – they are a really strong voice. Other people feel like they can’t speak out.

A lot of financial burdens. If you’re in poverty, it’s hard to be inclusive of the community. Can’t put your energy into community. People are not able to socially participate if they don’t have their needs met [financial equity].

Hearing voices of migrant communities [is an issue]. They don’t come to public meetings. They’re working often.

We don’t teach civics in schools - what does it mean to be a citizen? Why do we vote? In this town, it is typically white wealthy people who are driving the decisions - about township boundaries, town planning, development decisions, developing the showgrounds - in the community because they are the business people and they want to drive the growth for their businesses. Big money makers say they know best and feel that the lower income earners know nothing. There is now a polarised split in this town — between big business and people who care about the environment/greenies. A massive divide!

There are people who are disengaged. If your literacy is low, it’s difficult. You don’t have a voice. Part of Adult and Community Education is learning that you do have a voice, and that you have rights and also responsibilities.

There is skepticism in communities. They don’t know them. All they know is that they control their benefits and if they say something they could cut it.

Disabled women never get a look in. Brushed off during the suffrage year, why? Don’t know why, why we can’t be seen as women. I’ve had fights with women. Only country in the world where disabled women don’t have a voice.

As a 58-year-old Pakeha male I don't see many vitally alive belonging role models, I'm talking guy next door so tv and sport and entertainment stars don't count.

Also living in a big city it is hard to have your connection back to your whenua and your people.

The city: anonymity. I lived in a building with another 500 people and didn’t even know who lived next door. We [ie people in apartment] lived together in a small space and were not actually connected.

Upper Hutt forced me out, I’m gay and it wasn’t a place I felt I belonged.

Here people actually say “hi” to you in the shops. In Auckland people don’t do that. I feel like in Auckland, you’re just a number.

Even with adults. It’s not so much dislike. The drink and drugs scene in Queenstown. If you’re not into that, this town is quite difficult. Me and [xx] can both speak to that.

There are some places I won’t feel comfortable living, like some of the dictatorships of the Middle East, because I value democracy so much.

It’s very hard when you have different culture. It’s very hard to adjust.

At Fremantle, all the parents would bring afternoon tea down to the park every day [after school] and talked while kids just played. At Wanaka, everyone picked up their kids and went home. Everyone is so much busier here, have to work harder so don’t have half an hour.

Some people told not to get involved with activities. International students – they have been told by families not to go to the masjid no purpose. So they try and encourage them.

Sport groups helps you join ‘a tribe’ but Wanaka has a lot of ‘selfish sport’ like snowboarding is a 1-person sport, an individual sport.

I feel like in Raglan I do belong here. Prior to that I felt I didn’t fit in. It’s different as the kids are growing up – you’re so involved with them, you don’t spend as much time on yourself and putting yourself out and meeting people.

Biggest things we experience: rapid population growth and tourists. Don’t have a perfect connection with different migrant groups. Filipino sports, Spanish; Diwali.

Example of conservatism: 11 people, right at the end of our resource consent process for a community centre, the group objected to it. Questioned the need “for a centre for the ne’er do goods.” Asked “Is this going to be a place for the homeless?” Real fear of change with new people coming in.

That conversation about privilege – privilege is so different in groups. It's so confronting to tackle. Often the privileged people don’t want to have the conversation whereas the people who want to have this conversation are often the non-privileged.

There will always be people NIMBY [not in my backyard]. Negativity around freedom campers. Need to do more celebrating of differences, in school and community.

I find our workplace sometimes protective and disengaged to change or the discussion of change.

For older women, change in the organisation is not easy for them, [ie change to] staff and processes. It’s that routine and the ritual, there are a whole lot of things happened in a certain way.

Ethic of volunteer work has vanished these days. How do we fix that?

In past years, high schools used to have community work days, and do jobs for a couple of days, which helped developed voluntary ethic. Teachers these days see their jobs as being in the classroom, not leading sports teams, doing service work, etc. That’s not happening now.

It’s really hard to get people to engage, e.g. with the diabetes information evening, we can’t get Māori and Pacifica to engage. How do you connect with young people and get them to engage?

No one is being trained up in this Centre to take on jobs here. We barely know what the next plan is forward-looking. We just toddle on through things.

After 17 years [in NZ] I still feel homesick. Because I have no Arabic community here. When you’re upset you want to explain [your feelings] in your own language.

People have only a limited amount of energy to volunteer, and especially only a limited amount of time to deal with all the admin stuff.

Looking after my mother — aged people — is a struggle.

One of the problems is medical services are based on the population of the Coast. They are based on figures of the whole district. But here, there are more 70-year-olds than 20-year-olds, and there are more medical needs for the elderly than for the younger. They are not catering for the needs of the people.

To have that sense of purpose. They might have had a good, inclusive life, but that was part of their job [i.e their social network was related to their job, and once they stopped working, they lost their social network]. Also, lose friends because they are dying.

The ageing volunteer population is a problem. The Community Centre’s volunteer committee is aged 60-80.

The workforce is ageing but they’ve cut teacher’s college and cut programmes, so they are not replacing them.

For many of them [membership of Rural Women], there is an inter-generational difference. Quite significant demographic of older women [members], 65+. With younger women coming in, with their views being more directly expressed which the older women might not see as issues.