Margriet Theron: Main lesson from Christchurch mosque attacks

Rotorua Multicultural Society president Margriet Theron. Photo / File

One year ago 51 people died and 49 were injured in shootings across two Christchurch mosques. The effects were felt around the country. Rotorua Multicultural Council president Dr Margriet Theron reflects on New Zealand's darkest day.

COMMENT:

When I was invited in August 2019, along with the presidents of the other 20 multicultural councils, to make a submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 Christchurch mosque attacks, my first reaction was, ''no''.

I had not been involved; why would I have anything useful to say? But then I reflected on what had happened in Rotorua since that fateful day and I did make a submission.

The Rotorua Multicultural Council runs a range of programmes to help migrants to settle, to give them the opportunity to celebrate their own culture, to make them aware of the Treaty of Waitangi, to help them to build relations with Māori and to make the local community aware of the contributions migrants make to Rotorua. Our executive committee and staff include people who come from A to Z, from America to Zimbabwe.

After March 15, 2019, I was contacted by the Rotorua police, the office of mayor Steve Chadwick and a local manager of Immigration NZ.

Their questions were: Do we have a Muslim community in Rotorua? Do they have a mosque? Is the Rotorua Muslim community okay? What support do they need?

Fortunately, we have two Muslim women on our executive committee. Through them, we got in touch with the leaders and other members of the Muslim community.

Together with the Rotorua police commander at the time, Inspector Anaru Pewhairangi, Monty Morrison from Ngāti Whakaue and the Rotorua Lakes Council and Muslim leaders, we organised a vigil on March 22 at the Rotorua Lakefront. Students from Rotorua Girls' High School carried flags to represent the people from 18 countries who had been killed in Christchurch.

Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust held a board meeting the following Monday. Like the rest of New Zealand, the trustees were asking themselves: "What do we do?"

The decision was that the fund manager should, "Phone Margriet, tell her to do something, and we will pay for it".

On June 8, with funding from the Rotorua trust, there was a "Thank you, Rotorua. Eid Al-Fitr Celebration" where the Rotorua Muslim community had prepared a wonderful lunch which was attended by MPs, the mayor, and leaders of the Māori, migrant and other communities in Rotorua. It was an opportunity to remember March 15 and to celebrate all that was positive that had come out of this terrible day in our history.

The main lesson we have learned is: "You cannot wait until disaster strikes and then try to build bridges with migrant communities. You need to work on cohesive communities every day."

There is now more government funding available to community organisations to run programmes that will bring people together across ethnicities and religions. We now run a Women's Wellbeing Programme to help migrant women to settle in our community. We have funding from the Office of Ethnic Communities for a programme called CATCH – Cultural Awareness to Create Harmony – where we work with schools to bring young people from diverse backgrounds together.

We are very pleased that the Rotorua Muslim Association has been set up.