Local teen's speech a winner

Aquinas College student Kimberly D'Mello feels privileged to have won the New Zealand Race Unity Speech Competition. Photo / George Novak

A Tauranga teenager has won a national speech competition which aims to promote racial unity.

Kimberly D'Mello, 16, won this year's Race Unity Speech Competition in Auckland at the weekend. The Aquinas College student said she was passionate about taking steps to reduce racism in New Zealand.

"I feel so privileged for having been given the opportunity to do something about it."

View video of Kimberly's live speech below.

Kimberly, who was born in India but spent most of her life in New Zealand, said she had not experienced racism directly but had seen and heard it and thought "why not" when the school offered her the chance to take part in the contest. "If anyone can make a change, I guess it's New Zealanders. We've done so much already. It's easy to solve it ourselves ..."

More than 170 students nationwide competed in the competition which was open to Year 11-13 students.

Kimberly previously won the Bay of Plenty regional competition and impressed judges with her "do it yourself" approach to race relations. In her speech, Kimberly said: "Don't wait for someone else. Do it yourself. Don't get someone else to fix the problem ... Big change starts with me. Big change starts with you. We have two per cent of separation for our 50 shades of different colours, we need to be a country with all colours ... So come on New Zealand: Do it Yourself. DIY It's in our DNA."

Kimberly told the Bay of Plenty Times she also drew parallels between race relations and the NZ Road Code in her speech. "Just like how you don't park your car on yellow lines, don't park your prejudice on me."

As part of her prize, she won $1000 plus $1000 for her school and she said she would use the money to fundraise to establish a Tauranga branch of StarJam, which aimed to give young people with disabilities the opportunity to take part in performing arts. She hoped to raise up to $10,000 for the cause. The awards were initiated by the Bahai community.

The principal sponsor was New Zealand Police with additional support and sponsorship from the Human Rights Commission, Office of Ethnic Communities, Unesco and the New Zealand Federation of Multicultural Councils.