Aranui
As an outsider coming to Christchurch, I didn't know one area from another. You could say Bishopdale or Swanson, and it would mean absolutely nothing to me. But I'd heard of Aranui.
The stigma of the East side of Christchurch travels far and wide, and is re-promoted continuously. Only at the weekend, an MC at a kapahaka event asked all the participating schools if they were here, and the schools would shout back that they were. When Haeata, the new school in Aranui shouted back that they were here, the MC responded "Oh good, then my car is still in the car park." The fact that this kind of stigma that people are working hard to remove is promoted by leaders in our community ensures that it is refreshed, reinvigorated and continued. This is not however, a single isolated event. It is a stigma that our students experience and have drilled into them over and over again every day.
So are all the children in Aranui thieves and vagrants? No. Of course not. They are loving, caring children, some of which have had some hard lives which they respond to in different ways.
The issue lies with society. When parents are crying out for help, and schools are struggling to cope with demands, it lies with social services to do something. But at the moment those social services, as has been for so long in New Zealand, are waiting at the bottom of the cliff for someone to fall.
It's easy to ignore Aranui though for Christchurchians. It's easy to say "Oh that's over on the east side, we just don't go there." It's simple to just not see, when it's all centred in one place. But ignoring the issues doesn't make them go away. The community needs help, and if we were a society that lived by community values there would be help there for them.
Ara in Māori means pathway, and nui means big. Where is this big pathway leading our community?
The stigma of the East side of Christchurch travels far and wide, and is re-promoted continuously. Only at the weekend, an MC at a kapahaka event asked all the participating schools if they were here, and the schools would shout back that they were. When Haeata, the new school in Aranui shouted back that they were here, the MC responded "Oh good, then my car is still in the car park." The fact that this kind of stigma that people are working hard to remove is promoted by leaders in our community ensures that it is refreshed, reinvigorated and continued. This is not however, a single isolated event. It is a stigma that our students experience and have drilled into them over and over again every day.
So are all the children in Aranui thieves and vagrants? No. Of course not. They are loving, caring children, some of which have had some hard lives which they respond to in different ways.
The issue lies with society. When parents are crying out for help, and schools are struggling to cope with demands, it lies with social services to do something. But at the moment those social services, as has been for so long in New Zealand, are waiting at the bottom of the cliff for someone to fall.
It's easy to ignore Aranui though for Christchurchians. It's easy to say "Oh that's over on the east side, we just don't go there." It's simple to just not see, when it's all centred in one place. But ignoring the issues doesn't make them go away. The community needs help, and if we were a society that lived by community values there would be help there for them.
Ara in Māori means pathway, and nui means big. Where is this big pathway leading our community?
Comments
Post a Comment