Sister Cities New Zealand - newsletter November 2013

Building people-to-people and economic relationships

www.sistercities.org.nz ISSUE 8 - 2013

NEWS & EVENTS Gore Conference Update

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ore is delighted to be hosting the 2014 conference from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 April at the Scenic Circle Croydon Hotel. A small but dedicated group has been working hard on planning an interesting and enticing programme for those attending. The theme is “Country to Country – from the heart of Southland, to the world.”.

We hope to be able to release a draft programme along with registration costs and accommodation information by the end of November or early December. In the meantime, start booking your travel to our special part of New Zealand – home of brown trout fishing, tranquility, green rolling hills and the illicit Hokonui Moonshine whiskey. We hope you may consider staying an extra day or two as Gore is within easy distance of such gems as Te Anau, Milford Sound, Queenstown and the Catlins.

FROM THE BOARD Farewell to SCNZ Youth Director and Appointment of Youth Interns

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Hiromi and Cameron

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Graydon Hayes

Mark Perkins

t is with regret I advise that Cameron has resigned from the board due to increased work and other commitments. We understand and support this and want to acknowledge the fresh, youthful ideas and dedication he brought into SCNZ over the past two and a half years. He was instrumental in creating our new website, was a dedicated organisingmember for the 2012 Wellington Conference, and as his final project he organised the Wellington Youth Workshop held at Parliament. The board sincerely thanks Cameron for his commitment, time, and energy and we wish him all the very best for the future.

I also would like to advise the board appointment of two talented and internationally focused university students as SCNZ “Youth

Interns”. Mark Perkins of Auckland University (originally from Tauranga) and Graydon Hayes of Victoria University (originally from Southland) approached us with strong willingness to work with SCNZ in a voluntary capacity. We admire and appreciate their offer. They attended the Wellington Youth Workshop and enjoyed networking with young participants. They will be supporting the content and growth of SCNZs social media platform.

- Hiromi Morris, President

NEWS & EVENTS

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Wellington Youth Workshop

n 31 July SCNZ held a youth workshop at Parliament with the aim of informing more young people about our work, and encourage younger leaders to get involved in Sister Cities programmes in their local communities.

The event targeted university-age students (19-24) but was well attended by young professionals working in government departments like the Ministry of Youth Development and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Workshop was opened by SCNZ Director Cameron Oldfield, who talked about his experience as a young person working on a board, the challenges of inter-generational communication, and how to attract and motivate young people to get involved in their community.

Presentations followed from three high school students from Lower Hutt who had taken part in Tempe, Arizona Sister Cities exchanges. They talked about their time in Arizona, and the differences from their own home life. An interesting point

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The workshop’s key note speaker was Minister of Youth Affairs Nikki Kaye. In a passionate speech she commended the work of SCNZ – connecting young people around the world and developing leaders. She shared her own experience of her time overseas and the friends she has made around the world.

She also talked about the importance of supporting our young colleagues to realise each opportunity that is presented to them. We were humbled she was able to spare her time and learn about the work we do, and how in her view, we can keep driving our work forward.

- Cameron Oldfield

Friendships formed thanks to cultural experiences

he exchange of cultures and warmth between Whanganui and Sister City Nagaizumi (Japan) has strengthened over the last couple of months through the sharing of cultural identity and commemoration of the Hiroshima bombings.

During the July 2013 school holidays, Whanganui people, young and old alike, made 1236 origami cranes at ’origami stations’ located in public spaces across the city. These cranes formed a ‘peace chain’ which was sent to Nagaizumi for Peace Day in August. From here they will then travel to Hiroshima to be placed on the Children’s Peace Monument.

The peace chain is part of a Japanese tradition which celebrates health and well-being. Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima, made more than 1000 cranes before she died from leukaemia in 1955 following radiation poisoning.

Since then, people around the world have made peace chains to commemorate the Hiroshima bombings.

Nagaizumi students perform the ‘Fish Dance’

Nagaizumi-Whanganui Sister Cities Friendship Centre Manager Yumi Mizuno, who helped organise the project with the Whanganui District Council, was apprehensive in the first few days of the crane-making that there would not be enough cranes to form the peace chain.

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was that at the same time they were over there, Tempe was hosting students from their other Sister Cities in France and Germany. This meant that the Lower Hutt students had the opportunity to learn about other cultures too. It was fantastic to hear about how the students made friends for life, developed a greater understanding of other parts of the world, and fostered a taste to travel and see the world.

Mayor Annette Main and Nagaizumi group

Mrs Mizuno said “I worried because we only made 83 cranes on the first day and we should have been making 100 per day to make the 1000 needed.” However, she was very pleased at the outcome at the end of the two weeks when she collected 1236 cranes and said she was really proud of the Whanganui people.

In late August 2013 two delegations of students from Nagaizumi Junior High School and Nagaizumi Kita Junior High School were hosted by families of students at Whanganui’s Rutherford Junior High School. The students and their teachers were welcomed by Mayor Annette Main at the Whanganui District Council Chambers. This is the fourth year in a row Nagaizumi students have visited Whanganui.

Rutherford Junior High teacher Michele Downs, who organised the Nagaizumi visits, said the students visit Whanganui to get a taste of New Zealand life and learn English.

“They are welcomed into our homes and treated as one of the family. They experience ‘kiwi life’, including fish and chips and a sports day.”

At the Mayoral reception, a group of Nagaizumi students performed ‘Yosakoi’, a traditional dance which depicts handfishing. Their enthusiastic performance received a huge applause from the audience.

NEWS & EVENTS

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Konnichi wa, Kia ora and Welcome to Auckland!

apanese students from Kakogawa, Shinagawa and the Tōhoku region visited Auckland in August to experience the fantastic sights and great hospitality that Tāmaki Makaurau has to offer.

As part of their visit, Auckland Council and Mayor Len Brown welcomed the students at Auckland’s historic Town Hall. Then the afternoon programme included singing Pokarekare ana with the Mayor and a ‘kiwiana’ themed afternoon tea with representatives of the Japanese community in attendance. A highlight of the afternoon was a Māori performance and haka delivered by Auckland’s Junior Ambassadors from Greenmeadows Intermediate School in Manurewa. These students proudly represented Auckland, and New Zealand, at the recent Asian Pacific Children’s Convention in Fukuoka, Japan.

Mayor Len Brown welcomes students from Japan to Auckland

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Student exchanges between Auckland and their partner cites of Kakogawa and Shinagawa have taken place for many years, with dedicated schools in the Auckland region driving these initiatives. This year a ‘Support Our Kids’ group from the Tōhoku region was also invited to the welcome event, to show Auckland’s support for students affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

During their time in Auckland, the Japanese students attended school, learnt English, visited tourist hotspots and enjoyed Auckland hospitality first hand through a homestay experience. Student exchanges enhance the learning and experiences of young people in Auckland and Japan, and forms strong bonds of friendship that will drive New Zealand-Japan relations in the future.

Auckland’s Junior Ambassadors perform at the Japanese Student Welcome

New Zealand takes root in Seattle

n Sunday, September 15, 2013, the Arboretum Foundation, University of Washington Botanic Gardens, and Seattle Parks and Recreation hosted a public event to celebrate the opening of the New Zealand Forest in the Washington Park Arboretum’s Pacific Connections Garden.

The opening celebration – organised in partnership with the Seattle-Christchurch Sister City Association and the Burke Museum – paid homage to New Zealand’s culture and ethnobotanical history. It featured a traditional Maori “haka,” or war dance, and a dedication ceremony with Maori wood carver Caine Tauwhare, who helped create a park bench in the new forest.

There were also guided tours, family activities, speeches

by Seattle Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith and other dignitaries, a ribbon cutting, and refreshments.

Members of the public learn the Haka

Link to Seattle Times article for more information: Click Here

A farewell message to Takashi ATO, Embassy of Japan in Wellington.

Earlier this month Sister Cities New Zealand received news that Mr Ato, dedicated Director of the Japan Information & Cultural Centre, Embassy of Japan in Wellington, will soon be finishing his posting in New Zealand. We would like to take the opportunity to thank him whole-heartedly for his dedication to Japan – New Zealand relations over the years. We wish him the best of luck on his future endeavours and hope to catch up with him again at the Rugby World Cup in Japan 2019.

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NEWS & EVENTS

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Dunedin – Shanghai Sister City Relationship

eter Chin, a former mayor of Dunedin, spoke at a Confucius Institute Forum at the University of Canterbury on “The Importance of Sister Cities in China for New Zealand: Dunedin-Shanghai Sister - Cityhood “. He spoke about why New Zealand has been singled out by China?, the Free Trade Agreement and its impact on New Zealand and the trade benefits of the Sister City Relationship with Shanghai, the Sister City movement and why Shanghai courted Dunedin for a Sister City Relationship, the Chinese concept of Guanxi and the establishment of the Dunedin Lan Yuan garden as a memorial to early Chinese settlers to New Zealand. He concluded with a wrap-up of the current relationship between Dunedin and Shanghai’.

Mr Chin expanded that Guanxi is not an easy concept for New Zealanders to understand and develop. In essence, Guanxi is a general Chinese term used to describe relationships that may result in exchanges or connections that are beneficial for the parties involved. – a networking with an element of personal and mutual trust. It is a personal connection between two people in which one is able to prevail upon another to perform a favour or service or be prevailed upon.

Reciprocity is an essential element.

When asked ‘what’s the benefit of having a Sister City relationship with China’, Mr Chin said the highlevel of trust and mutual friendship, built up over many years, translates to an expansion of trade, economic and cultural links across the board for both cities. The Mayor of Shanghai Mr Xiong Yang has said “of all Shanghai’s Sister City relationships, Dunedin is one of those with a special place in Shanghai’s affections.”

Significantly Mayor Yang has also accepted an invitation by Dunedin Mayor Mr Dave Cull to visit the city in the near future.

‘It is not easy to gain audience with the Mayor of Shanghai but the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office, which looks after the Shanghai-side of the Sister City relationship, has always said that the door of the Mayor’s office is always open to New Zealand’s Prime Minister and the Mayor of Dunedin.

he has had the privilege of meeting the Mayor of Shanghai on three occasions. On each of those occasions Mayor Cull invited the New Zealand Consul General in Shanghai to accompany him because that was the only way they could ever meet the Mayor of Shanghai.

Mr Chin has spent much time over the years pondering a meaningful system for assessing the value of our sister city relationship. The conculsion he came to was simple: When was the last time any of us carried out a cost-benefit analysis on our sister – or any other member of the family for that matter!

He did acknowledge using ratepayer’s money does change the nature of our relationships – but he’s uncomfortable that this should be the yardstick by which such agreements are progressed.’

For the full speech by Mr Peter Chin: Click Here

During the six years Mayor Cull has represented Dunedin

Hanami – Picnic under the Cherry Blossoms in Christchurch

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he Christchurch-Kurashiki Sister City Committee and the Japan Society of Canterbury recently hosted a hanami event at the site of the Kurashiki Sister City Garden at Halswell Quarry Park in Christchurch. The day was a big success and brought together over 250 people to eat, drink and enjoy the beauty of the cherry blossoms in full bloom. A performance by the Taikumi drum group was a highlight of the day and many photos were taken under the beautiful flowers. Plans are underway to make this an annual event in Christchurch.

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FROM THE BOARD SCNZ Annual Engagement Survey 2013 – Heads Up! Each year SCNZ encourage feedback from all the groups we work with. We do this in order to better provide the information you need to work your magic for our organisation.

In mid-November we will be sending you a short email survey, to be completed online.

We would be very appreciative if you could give this a little of your precious time.

If you don’t receive this survey by email, or have any questions, please feel to contact us directly at:

admin@sistercities.org.nz

Is your Sister Cities committee or friendship group on Facebook?

Sister Cities New Zealand opened its Facebook account in 2012, but recently has made a big effort to use it to network well, spread information, and keep members and fans updated on the work we’re doing in the organisation. We want to connect with you as an organization or as a person passionate about international relationships.

Connect with us at: www.facebook.com/sistercitiesnz

This diary of events is only as good as the information we receive.

If you would like your activities for 2013 or 2014 listed here please contact us

Newsletter contributons to: editor@sistercities.org.nz

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