More observant readers will have noted the appearance of a poster around the town declaring Whanganui a Violence Free Zone. This is a concept I have been talking about for some time, in the hope that it might get traction across the community. Clearly an aspirational statement, the declaration does require vision. Navigating a way there will not be easy, as it lies in uncharted waters. As far as I am aware, no community has ever made such a declaration and taken it on as a measure of social progress.
It offers a challenge, especially now that Whanganui has found itself stuck with a misleading reputation as a gang town. Moves to create a bylaw banning gang patches in the main street are just dressing up the issues as an item of clothing. If the gangs start wearing suits, Mafia style, the ban will fail and the violence will continue, albeit more smartly dressed. (The latest banking scandals do suggest that a ban on men in suits might not be such a bad idea.)
Originally, I had envisaged the Violence Free Whanganui declaration as a move that would be led by a coalition of local organisations. There has been considerable support for the idea, but the dithering and pondering has turned into inertia, so I have decided to rely on the much undervalued currency of social capital. Various individuals and organisations have taken up the idea and put up the Declaration poster to signal their commitment. If the concept gets traction, it will not be because it has been foisted on them by government but it will be because people see value in it.
Whanganui has a wealth of social capital but it is not counted as an asset or considered when the future of the town is discussed although there are numerous examples of social capital in practice. Local music venues such as Space Monster and the Whanganui Musicians Club now have NZ and overseas acts queuing up to perform here. Both venues get packed houses for gigs, yet there is no harnessing of this powerful social currency into the bigger picture of Whanganui as a place to live and work.
There is ample international evidence that creative communities attract innovators and creative thinkers. We are a small provincial town but we have incubated and grown ideas that have gone well beyond the Awa. Examples are easy to find. Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD) got its NZ momentum from a small group of local high school students who saw the potential for a peer-based approach to reducing risk. Life to the Max and the Youth Services Trust are innovative approaches that began here in Whanganui and have been emulated all around the country. The debate about the H in the name of the town places us at the forefront of a wider dialogue around Maori identity and colonial history.