Real Life: Trailblazing local board chair Ella Kumar calls for more diversity in local politics

Trailblazing Kiwi-Indian community leader Ella Kumar is encouraging people from ethnic minority backgrounds to get involved in local politics, saying more representation is desperately needed.

As head of the Puketāpapa Local Board in Auckland, Kumar in 2010 became the first woman of Indian descent elected as chair of a local board in New Zealand history. Last week, she was inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame for the contributions she’s made to her community.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Kumar said there’s work to do to get more people of colour involved in local politics.

“We need to get that change to happen, big time.

“The first time I got elected in 2010, I went to the 21 local boards’ get-together. There was myself and one Chinese person there at that time. The one thing we said was, ‘Gosh, we’ve got to work hard to get a bit more representation of our wider communities into local politics.’”

Kumar’s own journey into local body politics was an unlikely one. She had a shy nature as a child and the cultural differences she had with other kids her age put her at a disadvantage.

“If I put myself back to the 1970s and ‘80s going into school, I probably never thought I would be where I am today,” she told Cowan.

“It was totally different the way we were brought up. I wouldn’t change anything, but there were a lot of challenges at that time, and I was brought up with a very traditional cultural family who’d migrated.”

Ella Kumar is head of the Puketāpapa Local Board in Auckland. Photo / Communities & residents

Kumar’s childhood was spent in a busy multi-generational household in Mt Roskill with three families, where she shared a bedroom with four others.

Her dark complexion and adherence to a strict vegetarian diet, due to her Hindu faith, made her a target for bullies at school.

“At that time, not many Indians were around. Going into the school we were shyer than most children were … and trying to make ourselves fit in,” she told Real Life.

“I was definitely not a confident student; I was very scared to put my hand up when a question was asked by the teacher.

“Lunches were a big issue. We never took our Indian food to school, we only took sandwiches because we were called curry munchers at that time. Things like that held me back a little bit.”

“I think I try to keep my culture within me, I don’t want to change that," says Ella Kumar.

Kumar said the expectation for Indian women growing up in New Zealand at that time was very simple: finish school up to Form 5 (Year 11), get a job, get married, and start a family.

She herself got married at 17, though had to fight her parents to marry the man she wanted because he wasn’t wealthy at the time.

Kumar went on to challenge cultural norms by becoming an aerobics and jazzercise instructor. Her family frowned on that decision, just as they had when she had taken up netball in her youth, but Kumar enjoyed the freedom she felt - and crucially, she felt empowered.

“Being an Indian, it was the first time that when I told people to go right, people went right, and when I told people to go left, people went left,” Kumar recounted to Cowan.

“It helped me to be able to know that I can do things. It really changed the way I felt … it helped a lot to get my confidence out.”

More than 35 years on, Kumar still runs aerobics classes – though she now fits these in around her many other roles as a volunteer, a marriage celebrant, and of course as chair of the Puketāpapa Local Board.

She’s pleased that exercise classes have become normalised among Kiwi-Indian women.

“Aerobics was at the time seen going against [my culture], but now it’s not. It’s taken a 360-degree turn and people accept it to be their health and wellbeing of a person, and they actually allow that to be something that they encourage and want it in their own facilities.”

“The freedom of allowing them to wear what they want… I do that to give back now.”

Despite the challenges she’s faced and the things she’s pushed back on, Kumar is a big advocate for retaining Indian culture. She continues to dress in traditional clothing and still holds strong to the Hindu faith she was raised with.

“I think I try to keep my culture within me, I don’t want to change that. I’m quite strong about that – it is who I am,” she said.

“But there are ways we can follow a journey that can actually help us to be better people, [without] making drastic changes and going against our culture.”

Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.