Palmerston North marks Race Relations Day with a chalk mural

Palmerston North artist Atefe Abadi with part of the mural she created the boundary of to mark Race Relations Day. Photo / Judith Lacy

A bird of a chalky kind rested in Palmerston North to mark Race Relations Day.

Palmerston North artist Atefe Abadi created a mural boundary in chalk in Te Marae o Hine/The Square on March 21.

The bird symbolises freedom from the restraints of racism imposed upon people, she says. The bonded fingers signify unity between races. The budding plant symbolises the start of a world without discrimination, while the sun is considered the illumination of a better life before us.

Passersby were invited to contribute to the mural by writing, painting and drawing within it to bring together a collective spirit of unity. English Teaching College students were among those who stopped to contribute to the mural.

Abadi is from the Iranian capital Tehran, where she was a teacher and a painter. She and her husband, who is doing a PhD at Massey University, have been living in Palmerston North for a year.

Palmerston North City Council supported the project.

Community development adviser Somayyeh Ghaffari says it was about celebrating the multicultural diversity of Palmerston North.

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination encourages the community to keep the conversations going “so we can all gain a better understanding of our beliefs and values, and celebrate what we have in common”.

A detail from the mural created in Palmerston North's Te Marae o Hine/The Square to mark Race Relations Day. Photo / Judith Lacy

The day is observed annually on March 21, the day police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid in 1960.

The United Nations has dedicated the day to achieving the goals of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. New Zealand signed this convention in 1966 and ratified it in 1972.

The New Zealand History website states Race Relations Day was first formally celebrated in 2003 with the theme, Hands Up for Kiwis of Every Race and Place.

Judith Lacy has been the editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.