Girls’ Brigade Direction 2009 Fonomarae

To Christine Brunt, National Commissioner; to Jill Clarke, International Vice Patron; to Suzanne Ward, Convenor of the Fonomarae; to Heather Kennedy, National Chaplain; to Isabel Ross, National Youth Representative elect; to distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni (sign ‘good afternoon’). These are the languages of the Realm of New Zealand.

Thank you for inviting my husband, Anand, and me to attend the Direction 2009 Fonomarae here in North Canterbury.

Girls’ Brigade has much to celebrate. Last year, Girls’ Brigade marked the eightieth anniversary of its establishment in New Zealand. It was a pleasure, both as your Patron, and as a former Girls’ Brigader, to join those celebrations at your National Conference in June last year.

Girls’ Brigade was started in Ireland in 1893. That was the year New Zealand women gained the vote whereas Irish women were not enfranchised until the 1920s.

While women here had signed huge petitions for the vote, women in Ireland formed groups for girls. Both initiatives were motivated by the same wish, to help women and in Ireland to enable young women to gain skills, self-esteem and a sense of citizenship.

The spirit is alive today in Direction 2009 Fonomarae. This gathering, which includes Girls’ Brigaders from around the world, addresses not only the spiritual and social needs of young women but also the educational and physical.

These international gatherings have a long history, with the first being held in Pukekohe in South Auckland in 1973. As well as those held throughout the world, fonomarae have been held in Rotorua in 1997, Queenstown in 2001 and Ngaruawahia in 2005.

The word "fonomarae" is an amalgam of two words. Fono is a word widely used throughout Polynesia to describe a council or gathering of people and indeed is used in the names of the legislatures of Samoa, American Samoa and Tokelau. The word "marae" in Maori, Cook Island Maori and Tahitian is a term used to describe a significant meeting place.

Two points can be made from this. First, this is a meeting place for Girls’ Brigaders from throughout the world. As well as the New Zealanders, gathered here are Brigaders from Singapore, Britain and American Samoa.

Participating in a gathering such as this is a challenge. With the exception of the few people you know from your companies back home, most of the people here will be strangers to you.

So this is an opportunity to meet people from throughout New Zealand and from throughout the world and to attempt to understand their culture and attitudes. You will need not only to be tolerant of others, but also to understand those who are different from you.

The second point the word fonomarae symbolises is how cultures and people are increasingly travelling, moving, mixing and changing. To give one example, in 2005 UNESCO estimated there were some 2.7 million students studying outside their home countries.

New Zealand is becoming an incredibly diverse nation, both culturally and religiously. The last census found nearly a quarter of New Zealanders were born overseas. A century ago, most foreign-born New Zealanders would have come from Britain or Ireland. The census found that there were as many foreign-born New Zealanders from Britain or Ireland as there was from Asia.

On a personal level, for example, I was born in Australia and moved to Auckland when I was young. My forebears had come from Britain in the Nineteenth Century. Anand and his brother were born in New Zealand. Their parents were born in Fiji and their grandparents were born in India.

Likewise, while just over half of New Zealanders describe themselves as Christians, more than a third profess no faith at all. Among those who describe themselves as Christians, there is diversity in views and beliefs.

The meeting of different cultures and religions poses both challenges and opportunities. As disputes throughout the world have shown, just because there is greater cultural contact, it does not necessarily follow that people will show greater understanding or tolerance of each other. Greater contact can equally lead to a retreat to the security of one’s own cultural, religious or ethnic zone or an assertive outward emphasis on nationalism.

That is why gatherings such as this fonomarae are important. I encourage everyone to get to know people from outside their cultural or geographical grouping. It’s just as important for the Southlanders to get to know the Aucklanders, for girls living in towns and cities to get to know those living in rural areas as it is for the New Zealanders to get to know those from overseas and vice-versa.

By talking over a meal, participating in a team activity or playing sport together, we get to know others. By talking about everyday things, we often find we have much in common with those who initially seem so alien. American writer Ola Joseph noted:  "Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another's uniqueness."

I would like to wish you all the best for a successful and fun Direction 2009 Fonomarae. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.