Speaking out for fraternity

Kris Ross believes New Zealand is not yet a bi-cultural nation. Picture / Richard Robinson

Kris Ross has a dream. She is going to win the Race Unity Speech Awards this week.

And then the 17-year-old co-president of Selwyn College will give her $1500 winnings to a special class for junior boys with behavioural problems, students she helps to mentor.

She's already part-way there - last week Kris, a keen drama student, won her regional heat of the contest, run by the Baha'i community in support of Race Relations Day.

Kris, of Ngati Kahu and Tainui descent, contests the Friday semifinals against 16 other students, and, she hopes, the Saturday finals against six. Both events are open to the public.

Kris sees her eight-minute speech in English as "the powerful truth" - that New Zealand is not yet a bi-cultural nation, let alone a multi-cultural one. We are still more willing to swallow stereotypes, she says, than get to know our neighbours as they are, trusting the evidence of our own eyes and ears.

She wants to support the 15 Maori and Pacific boys of Whai Mana, who follow a tailored curriculum, because she understands their issues.

When she came to Selwyn from a solo-parent household, her behaviour wasn't what it could have been, she says.

"It was all about me."

The turnaround has been spectacular. Teachers describe her as good-humoured with a strong awareness of others' needs.

The speech contest, which this year attracted 100 entries, started in 2000 in memory of Hedi Moani, an Iranian-born Baha'i who lived in New Zealand. In 1998, aged 54, he was beaten to death by West Auckland man Joeseph Dean Edward Paul Hemopo, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity. A trust set up under Mr Moani's name funds the speech competition.

* The semifinals of the Race Unity Speech Awards are this Friday from 7pm at the St Columba Centre, 40 Vermont St, Ponsonby. The finals start at 4.45pm on Saturday at the Bahai Community Centre, 129 Taniwha St, Glen Innes. Both events are open to the public.

* This week's ASB Polyfest, a celebration of Maori and Pacific culture at the Manukau Sports Bowl this Wednesday to Saturday, will for the first time feature a stage for other cultural groups. Thanks to a $15,000 grant from the Office of Ethnic Affairs, 44 school groups demonstrating Indian, Chinese, Korean, Sri Lankan and Pakistani culture will appear on the new Diversity Stage.