Solway College student Kiriana Welsh-Phillips has captured a national semifinalist berth in the Race Unity Speech Awards.
Teacher Sue Franck said the Year 13 student had competed as a Wellington regional finalist in the capital last Thursday and won her way though to the national semifinals in Auckland next month with a genuine, hard-hitting and moving speech that was delivered "a little like a spoken poem".
"Kiriana's speech is incredibly powerful and moving and it is about racial stereotypes and labels. It is a big honour to get through to the next stage," Ms Francks said, especially given it was the first time a student from the school had entered the contest.
According to the Race Unity Awards website, the speech contest was sparked in the wake of several "nasty, racially-motivated incidents aimed at non-Europeans" hit the headlines across New Zealand including an attack on a Somali man in Christchurch; the verbal assault of a Maori woman in Wellington; and the emergence of a Neo-Nazi group in Auckland.
An Auckland-based Iranian Hedi Moani was deeply concerned at the stories and in 1997 organised alongside the Race Relations Office the inaugural Unity in Diversity Rally in Auckland on December 10 - United Nations Human Rights Day.
