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Fighting racism one cup of tea at a time

Sally Kidson sally.kidson@stuff.co.nz

One of the best ways to build harmonious communities is to sit down with people and talk with them, Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon says.

He says he has lived his life by the lesson taught by his dad – you can’t do business in the office, you’ve got to go out and listen to the people.

‘‘It’s quite simple.’’

Foon said building relationships was about going and seeing people and having a cup of tea with them.

Foon was in Nelson to speak as part of China Week. The event is supported by the Nelson Branch of the New Zealand China Friendship Society.

In a 50-minute speech that canvassed a range of topics, Foon spoke about the long history of the Chinese in New Zealand.

He acknowledged the Nelson descendants of Appo Hocton, the first Chinese man to come to New Zealand in 1842, and the Chinese miners who were invited to work the Otago goldfields in the 1860s.

He said Chinese did not really want to stay in New Zealand, as they had families back in China – they just wanted to seek a fortune. This worried the white settlers, who worried that the ‘‘yellow devils’’ would bring over their families, so they created white leagues to get rid of the Chinese.

Foon said it was good that the Government had decided to teach New Zealand history.

‘‘Our children are going to teach as a few things as they will be learning the history, which is the truth. Good, bad or ugly, we shouldn’t be afraid of history.’’

The te reo Māori-speaking commissioner said he wished that everybody learned te reo Māori and English at school. Learning other languages in schools overseas was common practice.

Foon said people understood a culture once they knew their language. One of the major things stopping te reo being rolled out earlier was the adults making the decisions.

He said he had told the Minister of Education that he believed there was a way to make things happen sooner, and this was getting year 1 pupils to learn how to pronounce te reo properly.

In their second year, children should then be taught the meanings of Māori placenames, which were instructive and had a lot of information about a place, he said.

‘‘When people get to know your culture and understand the value of culture, it lessens discrimination and racism.’’

He said that while New Zealand had made a lot of progress in terms of race relations and highlighting discrimination, it still had a lot of work to do. Ending discrimination needed those who were in the majority to call it out.

Foon said he hoped the National Action Plan Against Racism which the Human Rights Commission was working on would help, because if there was a penalty for bad behaviour, then people would behave better.

He cited the example of rich-lister Simon Henry’s throwaway comments about My Food Bag founder Nadia Lim, which led to millions being wiped off the share price of Henry’s company DGL Group.

‘‘Is a few words worth that much?’’ China Week concludes in Nelson today with China Day at the Trafalgar Centre from 11am to 2pm. All welcome.

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en-nz

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281642489052944

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