From the ChCh Press:

Students hail mix of Kiwis
By JANINE BENNETTS
Wednesday, 27 December 2006

“At the end of the day we’re all made of the same thing,” says Anton Matthews, 17. “I think people base their opinions of other people too much on how they look.”

Like many other teenagers in New Zealand, Matthews has grown up knowing the importance of understanding difference in an increasingly globalised world.

“The world is changing and … in 50 years time there’s gonna be so many more different cultures and stuff around, so you’ve got to be aware of where they come from and how they do things differently.”

Matthews, who speaks fluent Maori, attends Christchurch Boys’ High School.

At school social groups were based on shared interests, not where people were born. Once you got to know people, differences did not matter, he said.

Christchurch-born and raised Nellie Riley, 17, said having different cultures made Christchurch more interesting.

“If different ethnic groups came to New Zealand and they didn’t bring their ethnic background with them and they didn’t do their traditional things, then New Zealand would be so boring,” she said.

Mayur Sampat, 17, whose family immigrated from India in 2003, has found most Kiwis welcome other cultures.

“If you came 50 years ago, it would be a far greater problem, but now as the world is developing and globalisation is occurring, different races are mixing,” Sampat said. Other cultures brought new ways of thinking and doing things which added to diversity, he said.

Wahida Zahedi, 19, who came to Christchurch as a refugee from Afghanistan in 2004, said most people in Christchurch respected difference, but she sometimes felt self-conscious wearing a scarf on the street.

“I think some of the people think that the Muslim people are terrorists and that’s quite hard for us.” Ethiopian refugee Abeba Mengistie, 18, found it difficult being different when she moved to Christchurch four years ago.

“In class I was the only dark-skinned person and they’re not really used to it,” she said. “It’s important to not judge individuals but to respect individuals and appreciate people as individuals.” Emma Yoon, 14, has lived in NZ since she was five months old, but still experiences racism at school. “New Zealanders have to try, but overseas people have to try as well.”

Keneti Alatimu, 17, who moved from Samoa to Christchurch just nine months ago, has found the way New Zealand children behave towards their parents very different from back home.

“In Samoa if you swore or argued with you parents, man, you have to run, you have to get away and run for your life.”