Speech
Indians in Pukekohe Book Launch
Ladies and Gentlemen, Greetings in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, English, Maori, Cook Island or Raraotongan Maori, Niuean and Tokelauan.
Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa lahi atu.
Greetings specifically to you Uka Chhiba, Author of Indians in Pukekohe; Mark Bell, Mayor Franklin District Council; Dr Paul Hutchison, MP Port Waikato; Bharat Bhana, President Pukekohe Growers Association and Pukekohe Indian Association
It is a great pleasure for Susan and myself to be here today to launch this wonderful book, Indians in Pukekohe.
I have read the final draft of the book, prior to its publication, and I would like to pass on my congratulations to its author, Uka Chhiba, for his extraordinary diligence in recording this fascinating history.
It is a truly enjoyable and enlightening read and brought back many fond memories of my own family's linkages as friends of many Pukekohe Indian families like the Girdhars and the Ranchods for example.
More than that, however, it is an important contribution to New Zealand's written history. By tracing the successes, the challenges and the every-day lives and loves of the Indian community in Pukekohe, it offers an insight into life for New Zealand's migrants throughout the 20th Century, and the first years of the 21st Century.
While the stories are particular to those individuals represented in the book, I am sure their experiences will be shared by other migrant communities.
There is a certain universalism of migrant experience, which I believe will lend Indians in Pukekohe an audience well beyond the Indian community in Pukekohe.
This is an honest account of the challenges and triumphs of the first settlers.
It takes a candid approach to the hostile reception some settlers received at the hands of some Europeans, and the hardship created by the ebb and flow of racial tension over the years.
Some of the book makes difficult reading.
It is hard to read of children being disadvantaged and abused in schools because they were from a land and a culture other children of the time did not understand - and so feared.
But it is important reading. We must never gloss over history as there are too many lessons within it for us all.
As Spanish-born philosopher, George Santayana said:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Equally, the book recognises the vast cultural change that occurred over the century, resulting in the Indian settlers becoming an accepted, and an integral part, of the wider Pukekohe community.
It tracks their sporting, business, cultural and academic achievements . It acknowledges the contribution made by Indian growers to our export economy. And how that same entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic is being applied today in many disciplines, from medicine, to law, to commerce.
Most of all, however, it brings to life the people who founded the Indian community in Pukekohe.
This seems, to me, the greatest achievement of Indians in Pukekohe.
It is a tribute to these people and an important read for anyone connected with this community.
I take great pleasure in officially launching Indians in Pukekohe .
I began speaking in all the New Zealand realm languages. May I close by speaking in Maori issuing greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora koutou katoa