Leadership needed to counteract the scaremongering on immigration

11 July 2017 - Carrie Stoddart-Smith, the Māori Party’s candidate for Pakuranga is campaigning to end the harm that scaremongering about immigration is inflicting on our diverse Asian communities.

Stoddart-Smith says “What we do at home with immigration policy and how we talk about it, matters in the international community. It speaks to the authenticity of our story as an inclusive, progressive and whānau (family) centred country and affects the credibility of our social, political, cultural and economic relationships.”

“Māori welcomed the first wave of immigrants to this country and signed a Treaty to govern that new relationship. It was through cultural exchange and a commitment to our core values of aroha (love) and our obligations to manaaki (host) our manuhiri (guests) that enabled the cohabitating of these lands.”

It is in this context, that she considers the Māori Party to be the vehicle to opening hearts and minds to the many shared connections between all the people who have come to call New Zealand home.

Stoddart-Smith welcomes the selection of Wetex Kang, the Māori Party’s first Chinese-Malay candidate who will contest the Botany seat.

She says “Through linguistic linkages, anthropologists have traced Māori genealogy through South East Asia and up to geographic regions in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Given the Botany and Pakuranga electorates sit side by side, Wetex’s candidacy provides a unique opportunity for us to work together and leverage our shared genealogy to provide leadership on this issue through both a tangata whenua and an immigrant lens.”

Her campaign will focus on connecting culture, commerce, and community.

ENDS

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