Speech
Dinner hosted by the Fiji Community Group
Thank you Prabodh.
High Commissioner of Fiji, Your Excellency Mr Balram and Mrs Nirmala Balram; High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea, Your Excellency Mr Bernard Narokobi and Regina Narokobi, Adi Tui Adams and Dr Peter Adams; Chairperson of the Fiji Community Group Prabodh Mishra and Roshni Mishra; people from the Fiji community in New Zealand; Ladies and Gentlemen.
I greet you, if I may in the languages of Fiji and New Zealand
Kia Ora, Ni sa bula vinaka, Namaste, Greetings all.
What a wonderful Kai viti o Hindustani welcome ceremony - and a colourful one too.
The welcome is living evidence of the diversity we have in New Zealand and likewise the moreso in Wellington this evening.
It is in these festive garlands, it is in the costumes of the dancers and it is in the faces and the stories of those with whom we are gathering and dining tonight.
I love the colour of diversity.
When I was thinking about the subject of diversity and what I would fashion to say tonight, a song came to my mind.
You may recall it - it was very popular in the 1980s. It was called "Melting Pot".
The band was When the Cat's Away and they sang:
"What we need is a great big melting pot, big enough for all the world and what it's got.
Keep it stirring for a hundred years or more, turning out coffee coloured people by the score."
It is interesting to think how much the world has changed since the 1980s. Back then we were beginning to celebrate the blending of cultures - which of course is a very important part of life in a multi-cultural environment.
Today, 20 years on, we are able also to celebrate what is distinct about each of our cultures. While we still celebrate the merging of cultures, we have matured to the point where we also embrace what makes each culture unique. And we look at ways we can preserve what makes each culture so special.
If we were writing a song about the ingredients of such a pot today, I would like to think we would be celebrating the component parts as much as the blended whole.
We would sing about how to keep each colour bright and proud, while ensuring they each enhance the other colours around them.
This country New Zealand has provided for us many advantages and a way forward. It is a fine country committed to doing things in a principled way internationally and having a community that is educated and aware of its rights. It is a good place in which to provide a safe and encouraging climate for our children. One of its attributes is what we are doing today - New Zealanders celebrating diversity and tonight, we celebrating our connection and our friendship with our Pacific cousin country, Fiji.
I am of Fiji Indian descent and it is a heritage of which I am extremely proud. My grandparents on one side lived in Levuka and then Navua and then Suva. My grandparents on the other side lived in Lawaqa near Sigatoka, Lautoka and Suva. Our family has maintained its links through all my life. I know many of you share my love of Fiji.
Indeed, in spite of Wellington's somewhat less tropical climate, our Fiji culture - in all its wonderful forms - can and does thrive in this city.
There is true friendship between Fiji and New Zealand. Our connection spans the vast Pacific, and, thanks to organisations such as the Fiji Community Group, it gets stronger every year.
Thank you so much for welcoming Susan and me here tonight. I must serve everyone in New Zealand in in my role and as part of that I look forward to serving you all here in the next five years as Governor-General.
Vinaka vakalevu, Bahut dhanbaad, Tena koutou, katoa