Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.

“Racism needs your help”. These are the opening lines of Director Taika Waititi’s video in the Give Nothing to Racism campaign. “You don’t have to be a full-on racist, just being a tiny bit racist is enough. A smile, a cheeky little giggle, even a simple nod in agreement – it all adds up and it give others the message that it’s okay,” he said. Link to Taika Waititi on racism

Recognising and Responding to Racism is the theme of our Social Justice week. All of the students are engaged in a range of Atawhai activities from a question box for a panel discussion to address later in the week to exploring what racism actually is, especially ‘causal racism’ to how to respond to racism when you see or hear it. Link to How to Respond to Racism

This is to not only raise awareness of racism for our students but to also give them some tools and strategies about how we can respond and challenge the behaviour in others when we can see the hurt being caused.

‘It’s nice that you feel good that you’ve been to a protest march but what is your next step? I encourage your next step is to put what you believe into action’. Race Relations Commissioner, Meng Foon. 

This is how we live our Mercy values, especially Aumihi (Justice) and Manaakitanga (Care) in our every day lives.

And, this week, we celebrate and affirm Carmel’s Special Character and Mercy values as we welcome our Special Character Review team, led by Monica Johnston, the previous Principal of Marist College, Phil Mahoney, General Manager of the Auckland Catholic Diocese and James Bentley, Principal of St Peter’s College here in Auckland.

‘We owe it to ourselves to live our best lives and to assist in creating a culture which doesn’t pity the individual who is different but enables them to succeed. If we [continue] to do that, we might just change the world’. Grace Stratton – former Carmel student.