A successful model for social harmony
I recently led the New Zealand delegation at the fifth Asia-Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue - where our nation was praised for being leaders in the way multi-ethnic and multi-faith communities exist in harmony.
We are a country with a successful model for social harmony, which is based on the celebration of our diversity.
The New Zealand delegation was made up of men and women representing many religions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism.
And naturally, forum attendees were treated to a Waiata at the end of my keynote speech, which sparked huge interest from the other countries' delegates - many of whom took photos as we showed the world how all religions could celebrate our country's culture.
During the conference, I was asked to front the only international press conference to talk about our country's success in achieving social harmony and peace.
The Interfaith Dialogue gave us a platform to provide an insight into our multicultural, interfaith and inter-generational practices that ensure faith followers of all persuasions can not only stay true to their religion, but also participate in all aspects of Kiwi life.
New Zealand is largely a secular society but is also home to many religions. Recent statistics show that Christianity is our largest faith with 2.1 million people, while our second largest group is agnostic with 1.29 million.
Our model of success, however, is based on celebrating our multi-ethnic and multi-faith communities through events like Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Matariki (Maori New Year), Chinese New Year, Korean New Year and the many others, where New Zealanders from all walks of life come to celebrate.
The theme of this year's Interfaith Dialogue was, ‘Future Faith Leaders' and the New Zealand delegation represented this well, with a mix of long-standing community leaders and also those who are eager to carry the torch in the future.
The New Zealand delegation ran the workshop on media and utilising the internet to enhance knowledge and understanding of our inter-faith communities and it was interesting to see the dynamic the young people brought to the discussion - with some suggesting social networking sites could be utilised, while others suggested video games as an option.
It provided us with an ideal opportunity to talk about the challenges and opportunities of interacting with the media.
Deadlines, resource issues and a lack of empathy means many news outlets struggle to know or identify interviewees with in-depth knowledge within many faiths and minority communities.
For many journalists writing or talking about religion or ethnic minority cultures, the default tends to label individuals willing to comment as community leaders or to adhere to stereotypes, especially where these stereotypes are widely held and there is pressure to meet a deadline.
One of the biggest challenges that many from within our ethnic and faith communities face when dealing with the media is also collective identity; where often an entire community will be put under the spotlight instead of the individual at the centre of the story.
While it is perhaps unrealistic to expect all media to have on their staff experts of all religions, it is possible to improve general understanding of the issues and personality so that major offence can be avoided.
Some community leaders are already taking proactive steps of communication with media such as releasing press statements, writing letters to the editor to correct misreporting, and making themselves available for interviews with journalists and making their status clear as being an individual or on behalf of an organisation - and not the entire community.
New Zealand is an active nation when it comes to promoting dialogue between different communities and media, one such example is the Asia-Pacific Regional Media Programme, where journalists went to a retreat in South East Asia to examine issues related to reporting on ethnic minority communities while away from the pressures of deadline. Many indicated that this was a very helpful process.
I am pleased that New Zealand will be holding a second Regional Media Programme in early 2010.
Also, through the media exchange programme, we send three young New Zealand journalists to Southeast Asia each year for work experience, to allow them to see life through a different lens.
Domestically, New Zealand's Office of Ethnic Affairs holds media forums with community groups, mainstream media and ethnic media outlets. These forums provide an opportunity for networking and inform attendees on the nature of media in New Zealand.
A component of this project is the Building Bridges programme, which looks at the relationship between the New Zealand Muslim community and the media, and promotes more dialogue between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
New Zealand does not assume social harmony comes naturally and we appreciate that it is something that we have to work at. It was a pleasure to demonstrate to the world that New Zealand is a country that is happy to have the voices of our diversity heard both domestically and on the world stage.
