Tournament ends successful Race Relations Week

Al-Huda goal keeper Hassan Al-Saayed warms up for the Race Relations Week Tournament of the...
Al-Huda goal keeper Hassan Al-Saayed warms up for the Race Relations Week Tournament of the Nations at Logan Park yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O’BRIEN
A tournament of the Nations has called time on Race Relations Week.

However, the end of the event does not mean an end to celebrating cultural diversity, the Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council president says.

The multi-ethnic football tournament hosted by Football South, in collaboration with the Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council and Southern police, kicked-off at Logan Park yesterday.

It brought together 10 teams, each representing a different nation, including China, Brazil and Afghanistan.

Football South competition manager Rhiannon Beck said the social event was not about medals and trophies, but a fun way to bring race relations week to a close.

It was one of many events that concluded the final two days of Race Relations Week at the weekend.

The South Dunedin Street Festival drew a crowd about double the size of previous years on Saturday, and yesterday, a Red Cross event was held at the Kaikorai Rugby Football Club to celebrate five years of former refugee resettlement in Dunedin.

Closing celebrations were held at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, where a new digital book by the Kotahitaka Trust, in collaboration with the Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council, called We Are Otepoti/Dunedin, was launched.

The book celebrates the many ethnicities within the Dunedin community with a collection of pre-designed pages completed by as many of the current ethnic groups in the city as possible.

A printed and bound version was also presented for viewing.

Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council president Lux Selvanesan said the week, which had the theme of celebrating inclusive diversity in Otepoti, went "really really well".

"We had more events than what we planned last year ... we are really happy."

While the week had drawn to a close, it was important to continue celebrating cultural diversity every day, he said.

"We should talk to each other and celebrate each others’ multicultural differences."

As well as individuals in the community, it was important partners and organisations also came together.

Dr Selvanesan hoped that was what the community took away from Race Relations Week.

"[Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council] would like to set an example for the rest of the country — we need to bring everybody together."

molly.houseman@odt.co.nz

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