Speaking up on racism
Media Story by North Canterbury News.
Nicole Kexin Ni
Nicole Kexin Ni admits she is often mistaken for a foreign exchange student. The Rangiora High School year 12 student was one of two Canterbury regional winners selected for the 2025 Race Unity Speech Awards held in Auckland earlier this month. Speaking up on racism is not an easy thing to do, but Nicole said ‘‘it is the right thing to speak on’’. While her parents come from the Jiangsu province in China, Nicole was born in Auckland and her family moved to Kaikoura when she was 3-years-old. The family continues to run a business in Kaikoura, with Nicole commuting between Kaikoura and Rangiora to attend school. ‘‘I have experienced racism myself, but I think I have been fairly lucky,’’ she says. ‘‘After Covid someone made some comments about the Chinese connection, but I’m not that impacted by it. ‘‘If you don’t think they are credible, it doesn’t have the same impact. ‘‘A lot of people do mistake me as an exchange student.’’ She entered to Race Unity Speech Awards after an English teacher suggested she give it go. This year’s theme was Te Moana nui o te kanorau - the great ocean of diversity. ‘‘I was quite surprised I ended up being placed in the regionals and ended up going to Auckland,’’ Nicole says. ‘‘I kind of think you can go one of two ways with the theme - you can either give an emotional speech or you can take a practical solution approach.’’ Nicole went for the solution approach, advocating for an ‘‘annual statistics project’’ to be fed into a national strategy against racism.
‘‘I think it would be a good way to hold people accountable, because when you have the evidence they can’t say ‘it’s made up’ if the organisations have done thorough research.
‘‘We must measure racist behaviour, racial disparities and the trends of equality in all areas of our societies.’’
While she did not win any prizes, Nicole said it was ‘‘an amazing experience’’ and she recommends other students give it a go.
And she did get some extra English credits for level 2 NCEA.
The first Race Unity Day was held in 1999, following racially motivated attacks on the Baha’i community two years earlier, with the first speech awards held in 2001.