Speech for Friday March 13th - 2020 Commemoration of Mosque Attacks

As-salamu alaykum

We warmly greet our Muslim community who are here with us today and particularly acknowledge our Muslim students. Thank you for playing an important role in organising today’s ceremony. We extend love for the loss you have experienced and the journey you have walked in the last year.

I also acknowledge staff and students who, under the leadership of Mr Sawyer, experienced and managed so well an extremely difficult afternoon, one which we would have never imagined happening.

After the tragic attack on the Al Noor and Linwood Mosques on March 15th last year, the Imam Gamal Fouda, parent of our school community, said “We are heartbroken but we are not broken. We are alive. We are together. We are determined not to let anyone divide us”.

I was at Hagley park that day for the service and his speech was powerful. It was also gracious, thankful and forgiving. The day was beautiful with the sun shining, a light breeze touching our faces and a there was a gentle shimmer through the Hagley Park trees. One might have imagined on this bright day that nothing had happened, that the mosque across the road was as it had always been.

But we were gathered as a city with our Muslim community to honour Friday prayers and the terrible tragedy which had taken the lives of so many and wounded many more. We could hardly believe this could happen in our city, already so fragile and having suffered so much. We were just feeling our city was perhaps turning a corner, becoming whole again after our devastating earthquakes, our emotions and grief still there, lingering below the surface.

Our Muslim community had come to our shores to make New Zealand a home, seeking peace, safety, tolerance, to make a good life and be valued citizens. Some had been in Aotearoa for a long time with connections, jobs and homes established. Others were new arrivals to our shores, full of hope. What was most notable in the aftermath of the tragedy was the response of the Muslim community, which was a message of love overcoming hate, hope overcoming devastation and forgiveness overcoming hurt. How brave and compelling was that response for us, the host people.

Here at Christchurch Girls’ High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora, barely 500 metres from the Al Noor Mosque, we were the first school in lockdown. The police response across the city was unprecedented and joined us all in the tragic events which unfolded. Many of us will have gone down to the Riccarton corner or to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens wall and laid flowers, written messages, lingered treasuring a sense of community in the face of inexplicable grief.

That shared humanity is the true victor of the events of March 15th. A glimpse of a city where we might reject hate, reject racism and religious discrimination, reject the notion of “other” and celebrate love, celebrate unity in diversity, celebrate our common humanity on this planet. When we see the “other”, who may look different, have different beliefs, speak a different language, have a different skin colour and culture, respond with aroha. Be open to difference, to richness, to learning. Enhance each other’s humanity by sharing that humanity.

Nothing is impossible. Nothing is inevitable. In the face of all that confronts us, in the face of our own human fears and limitations, we are still a people of courage and freedom, of vision and responsibility, a people of hospitality.

Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Hei huarahi mā tatou I te rangi nei
Aroha atu, aroha mai
Tatou I a tātou katoa
May peace be widespread
May the sea be like greenstone
A pathway for us all today
Give love, receive love
Let us show respect for each other

Two of our students spoke eloquently to us all at this assembly. You can read what they shared here: 

As a year has passed, by Hawwa Niyaz, Year 11

15th of March - Assembly, by Salma Mohammed, Year 12