Race Unity Speech Competition

The Baha'i Community have conducted the Race Unity Speech Competition for the past 22 years, which is sponsored by the New Zealand police. This year's speech topic was about Nurturing the young on Racism. I started my speech with a Tamil song, leading into my speech discussing race and racial discrimination. I shared a few personal experiences as well as some policy suggestions such as improving contact opportunities. My viewpoints were based on the ideology that we are all different in equal ways, and that racial discrimination can only be eliminated by celebrating diversity and acknowledging differences. I ended my speech by singing another extract of the Tamil song which portrayed the message that the world is for everyone.

I received first runner-up. One of the judges said she got tears during my speech and numerous other people said that they got goosebumps while I was singing, they recounted my speech as strong and passionate. We were later suggested to join the National Multiethnic Network and to continue presenting more speeches on race unity in Aotearoa.