Editorial: Savour Bay's diverse cultures

Growing up in a multicultural society is enriching, writes Annemarie Quill. Photo / Joel Ford

While much of Tauranga still slept, enjoying a day off work, a crowd of more than 100 gathered at dawn yesterday and were encouraged to celebrate diversity. In today's paper we have three pages of coverage of Waitangi Day events in the Bay.

Reporter Natalie Dixon, who attended the dawn service told me she was moved by the young speaker Anna Keogh who said Waitangi Day was about celebrating differences and moving forward.

Keogh's comments are particularly relevant in light of the census results released this week which highlighted the increasing diversity of the Western Bay.

Yesterday Amy McGillivray reported the figures show 18.2 per cent of Tauranga and Western Bay residents were born overseas. That is an increase of 27 per cent on the number from the last census.

The number of people who identified themselves as part of Asian ethnicity rose by 86 per cent and the number of people who spoke Tagalog (the main language of the Philippines) and Korean more than doubled.

Today Amy McGillivray reports further that in the Western Bay the number of people identifying themselves as Sikh more than doubled from 2006 and people identifying as Hindu has increased by around 72 per cent since the last census.

Growing up in a multicultural society is enriching. I am glad that my children have the same opportunities that I had growing up in big cities, to make friends with people from different cultures, to understand their beliefs and traditions and maybe learn some of their language.

The Treaty of Waitangi promised biculturalism for New Zealand. Today New Zealand is made up of many cultures. Yesterday was a reminder for the Bay to embrace its multicultural society which offers opportunity for people who come here to identify with their own cultures as well as those of others.

A multicultural society does not fear overseas investment in property, land and other assets and as such can attract affluent immigration.

As MC Turi Ngatai told the crowd yesterday on Mount Drury, embracing diversity in the Bay reaps rewards. "Because it is in our differences that we have our strength."