Christchurch Invitation

At a time when the NZ government is discussing firearms legislation we consider the great harm from weapons in the wrong hands. Temel Ataçocuğu suffered major bullet injuries in the Christchurch mosque attacks. Almost six years on, he speaks about the drastic changes in his life, and on how his traumas can be triggered. He talks, too, about his Walk for Peace and about how he decided to make this...

In a previous conversation, Bariz Shah suggested the tables should be turned and the host (that’s me) should be questioned. I dwelt on that for a while, then asked Sara Qasem to be the questioner (There seemed a kind of balance: Sara was one of the speakers at the 2021 launch of The Christchurch Invitation / Mahia te Aroha and was my first podcast guest). But I thank Bariz for suggesting the idea....

We're told that nearly 28% of New Zealand's population were born elsewhere. We come as outsiders, and learn to live in this quieter place where the streets, by comparison, can seem almost empty. Assumptions are often made: "Oh, you're from ______. That means . . . " It seems valuable to ask what we 'new' New Zealanders, we 'others' (I'm one) bring with us....

If we cannot dictate what happens to us, our power is in how we choose to respond. From being “played out” by someone he thought of as a friend, Bariz Shah learned to have higher loyalties. Prison offered a disconnect from what was hurting him but systems do not easily forgive or forget. So you look beyond for stronger, enduring points of reference. In Afghanistan after March 2019 with his wife Sa...

We enter a challenging world depending on our mothers. Then journey to realise ourselves as individuals. The young person making their own choices, even if they're "dumb" or seem dumb to others. The mother, here a single parent, concerned to protect, yet fearing losing her boys. In this conversation, Mel and her son Hakan share some of the challenges they have worked through. Her counsellor's word...

In Shirley Wright’s childhood her father’s habit of inviting people home meant interesting conversations around the dinner table. Even in a family with seven children there was always enough food for one more: you “put another spud in the pot.”   She talks here about the inherited memories she grew up with; of a great grand-mother and an unjust pauper’s grave; of her mother's teachings and of how...

With the NZ Police Jeremy Faumuinā says, "I get paid to care" for youth and community. Working with people who "haven't had encouragement" he explores what success looks like for them. And that key concern: what world will our young people inherit? His conviction is with the power of conversation (talanoa), of alofa (love and compassion), and with the Pasifika concept of the Vā – on common ground...

Savage attacks are deeply unsettling. Individuals, and their families are tested. Media may be hungry for stories. Our whakapapa – our, sometimes complex, lines of identity – may not be recognised. And then your child’s teacher might say, simply, “Just be here! Sit here in your own space!” Systems take over and your opportunities to work for the common good may be stifled. This conversation talks...

On his work in counselling: the privilege of working with young people and alongside men who are in prison; on helping people realise who they have in their corner; on the possibility of jiujitsu for building trust and overcoming anger; and more . . .

Bill White on his journey as an engineer; of how work done cheerfully is work done differently. Of being comfortable with mistakes and and accepting what others might see as physical limitations; of how sharing his researches on hydrogen power – the fuel of the future –  has to beyond commercialism and capitalism because of the importance to our existence.

The past does not define us but it shapes and lives on. Sara Qasem is a poet, a high school teacher; someone who responds strongly to the flavours of her Palestinian heritage and her life here in New Zealand. Her father, Abdelfattah Qasem, was killed in the March 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks. His continuing presence in her life comes through in the poems he shared with her and the values she s...