A Committee made up of local residents and businesses, chaired by Councillor and Selwyn Central Community Board Chair Jeff Bland, is planning the 150th celebrations. The theme of the celebrations will be ‘Rolleston – New Zealand’s Youngest Old Town’ reflecting Rolleston’s history but also its recent growth with the population increasing from 1971 in 2000 to around 14,000 today.
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The Christchurch Educated Skills Scholarship programme is supported by Education New Zealand, the Canterbury Development Corporation, and the economic development agency of the Christchurch City Council.
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A new study has revealed that “changes in immigration policy, which can impact only on visa-controlled immigration, are unlikely to have much impact on the housing market”.
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As part of the World Health Organisation's International Safe City initiative, Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council, the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board, NZ Police, community organisations, government agencies and educational institutions have worked collaboratively to establish New Zealand’s first regional reporting system for racist incidents, Speak Out Nelson Tasman, with the motto “There are no strangers here”.
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Organised by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, the Forum will be held at Wellington's Te Papa Museum with the theme Te Anga Whakamua/ Future Focus 2016. The keynote speaker this time is Australian human rights lawyer and advocate Deng Adut.
Read MoreMinister for Ethnic Communities Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga has announced the opening of the funding round for the new Ethnic Communities Development Fund. The funding round opened on August 15 and closes on September 27. Any not-for-profit group can apply. It replaces the Settling In Fund and is designed to better support the ongoing needs of ethnic people. The priorities of the fund are to support leadership development, social cohesion and cultural events.
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In similar vein to Hellers from Waimakariri [story on page 6], Christchurch-based AuCom Electronics, specialists in fixed speed motor control, which has 110 employees on its role, employs migrants coming from 26 different nationalities.
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The population of Waimakariri is changing, with the range of ethnicities and numbers growing as employers have to go further afield to recruit workers. An example is Hellers Ltd in Kaiapoi, which employs 450 people in their state-of-the-art meat processing plant and over 50 are migrant workers.
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Prime Minister John Key was in Christchurch recently, when our editor Gaurav Sharma sat down with him for a chat on various migrant issues that New Zealand is currently facing.
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Disability Issues Minister Nicky Wagner is encouraging New Zealanders to give feedback on the first draft of the disability strategy as the second round of public consultation begins. The consultation opened on 25 July, and will go on till 21 August.
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The two authors interviewed 14 migrant taxi drivers in Christchurch and Wellington to find out more about their lives. In fact, the authors interviewed many more but some families did not want their story published, in part because taxi driving is not seen as a suitable career in some countries.
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In August 2015, my boyfriend and I attended the annual Takumi concert at the Aurora Centre at Burnside High. I had lived in Japan when I was younger and had belonged to a taiko club in my town so I knew a little about taiko.
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She is the Liaison Manager for Filipino worker's Social Integration Programme at Canterbury Migrants Centre, and also the founder and President of the community organisation Philippine Culture and Sports (PCS).
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A special citizenship ceremony was held on July 31, in Christchurch’s famous Botanical Gardens to mark the 160th anniversary of the founding of Christchurch. in which 32 people from 12 different nationalities became New Zealand citizens.
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Peter Townsend is the Chief Executive of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce (CECC), a position he has held since 1996. In addition, he holds several corporate directorships and is the Honorary Consul for Chile for the South Island. In recognition of his services to businesses and communities, he received the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in the 2014 New Year’s Honours. He is actively engaged in earthquake recovery issues and as such he was appointed to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Advisory Board on Transition in January 2015. He is also on the Board of Pegasus Health and Ōtākaro Limited - a new Crown company established to deliver key anchor projects and precincts in Christchurch.
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In 2013, I decided to donate a kidney to a kiwi friend of mine, whom I had known fora long time. After a few compatibility tests, it was decided that the transplant could go ahead. My mum came from Rome in 2014 at Easter time, to celebrate her 80th birthday and to reassure herself that the transplant was not a bad idea. The following May the operation was performed and all went according to plan, thanks to the wonderful surgeons and hospital care. All is well two years later!
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Ironically, I didn't become any happier in western culture because I still carried my culture with me, subconsciously. I never felt relaxed or free while I was trying so hard to become strong and independent, and to achieve higher status. So I started searching once more for true freedom by taking all sorts of personal development courses such as meditation, yoga, shamanism and reiki. That new inner journey took me to a course in the US where I met my future kiwi husband.
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Over 400 Canterburians, many of them migrants, responded to NZ Police's call for a more diverse force on July 16 in Christchurch
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In what can be termed as a first in the region, Anna Filippochkina of CLANZ (Community Languages Association of New Zealand) and Angela Bland of CANTESOL and TESOLNZ (Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages), organised a workshop for pro-fessional development of community language teachers on July 21.
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