Living in New Zealand in your culture: Poverty, Inequality and Cultural Privilege

“I went to school where the teachers looked pretty much like me. And they taught me about writers, military heroes, political leaders and scientists who looked pretty much like me…all my working life I have been hired by people who look like me. No-one ever patronised me by telling me that I was a credit to my race… Truth is, I’ve been cut quite a lot of slack in my time.”

This small piece is part of a story by Neville Robertson. It describes cultural privilege, the topic to be explored in this session, particularly in terms of its relationship with poverty.

The second part of the session will engage the audience in responding to the call to: Come and tell us about your experience/s of how easy or hard it is to live in New Zealand in your culture?  There will be an opportunity to share thoughts in small groups, to write short messages or longer pieces, or to record your experiences on Dictaphone.  Through this process, we hope to learn more about the relationship between cultural experiences and poverty and to find ways to reduce cultural blindness and dominance.

We hope to compile the information received from the various forms of interaction into a report that can be used to advocate for social change to policies and practices of cultural inclusion and exclusion and poverty and privilege. 

Date: Sunday 21 August
Time:1.30 pm -3.00 pm
Hosted by: Poverty Action, Waikato, Te Whakatika Mahi Pohara i Waikato

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