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Dr Guna Magesan
*New Zealand** Prime Minister inaugurates the 1st **New Zealand** Hindu Conference*
Hon. Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, inaugurated the 1st New Zealand Hindu Conference, a historic event for the Hindu community in New Zealand, by lighting the lamp for the auspicious beginning of the conference on 12 May 2007 at the Hindu Heritage Centre, Auckland.
The theme of the 1st New Zealand Hindu Conference was "*The contribution of Hindu community to the national life of **New Zealand*". It covered the economic, health, environmental, social and cultural aspects.
The welcome address was given by Mr Vinod Kumar, a successful businessman from Auckland, and the President of the Hindu Council of New Zealand Inc. Shri Sridhara Mysore, the media and PR coordinator of Hindu Council of New Zealand Inc., was the master of ceremony.
The keynote address was presented by Dr Guna Magesan, general secretary, Hindu Council of New Zealand Inc and a senior scientist with NZ government research organisation. In his presentation, he highlighted the fact (based on NZ census 2006) that Hindu community is the second largest faith-based community in New Zealand and it grew by 62% in the last 5 years. He also highlighted the Hindu contribution in health, economic, education, social and cultural aspects.
Dr Magesan, in his keynote address, mentioned how Hindu doctors and nurses are providing services by working for the various health boards and also running successful private hospitals, thereby fulfilling the shortage of skills in the health sector. In terms of economics, he explained how the Hindu migrants moved from mini business (corner dairy shops) to mega projects in matter of few decades. In education, he highlighted that the number of graduates, post graduates and doctoral degree holders in Hindu community is at least 3 times more when compared to total NZ population, in percentage scale. In social and cultural aspects, Dr Magesan showed evidences of strengthening bonds between Hindus and Maori community, and also how Hindus have integrated with the New Zealand society while maintaining the Hindu identity intact. He pointed out that all these contributions are not well recognised by the government. The Prime Minister acknowledged the Hindu contribution to the national life of New Zealand in her special address to the audience. She thanked the conference organisers for organising the historic conference and was impressed by the vision and mission statements of the organisation.
Sir Barry Curtis, the Mayor of Manukau city, mentioned that Manukau is the Hindu capital of New Zealand since a large number of Hindus live in the Manukau county. Mr Haare Williams, the kaumatua (a Maori elder) and Tangata Whenua (son of the soil), blessed the occasion with a Maori traditional prayer along with Swami Vigyananand of World Hindu Council who blessed with the Hindu prayer. Haare Williams was impressed by the welcome by the Hindu community and told the audience that he felt being at home, and wanted to participate in future conferences.
This conference also provided a platform for all the Hindu organisations and like-minded groups to showcase their contributions to the New Zealandsociety. There were 7 paper presentation sessions and 3 workshops. The workshops focused on issues which were common to all Hindu organisations, and also to the wider community, such as "Health and wellbeing", "Education and culture" and "Social beliefs and family".
Although this conference was mainly for the New Zealand community, presence of a number of visitors from overseas has encouraged the conference organisers to go worldwide next year. Shri Aruneshwar Gupta, President of Hindu Heritage Foundation, Shri Ravi Kumar, joint coordinator Sewa International, Shri Vijay Singhal, Secretary of Hindu Council of Australia and Swami Sanyuktanand from Fiji Sevashram Sangha also participated and blessed the conference.
There were number of presentations given by highly qualified research scholars, university lecturers of both Hindu and non-Hindu origin. Discussions following the presentations and during the workshops were highly appreciated by the audience, and the participants suggested that the conference organised need to provide more time for such discussions in the future conferences. A session on 'Working with Government Agencies' was an instant hit among the audience and we believe that this would become a regular feature in our future conferences. Hindu Council of New Zealand Inc. have identified key issues of the Hindu community and have decided to launch the Hindu Social Services Charitable Trust to work with the community and the government agencies to find solutions to those burning social issues.
The conference organisers were overwhelmed by the response that they received, and it appeared that the conference had caught the imagination of the people. There was an active participation from various government agencies, professionals, university staff, business leaders, Maori elders, and community and youth leaders.
All the conference papers and workshop deliberations will be published and the copies will be available to the government agencies and community workers, and also to all participants of the conference.
Finally, Dr Magesan, the general secretary of the Hindu Council of New Zealand and the conference coordinator, thanked all the members of the organising committee for their hard work, the foreign and local delegates for their participation in the conference, sponsors for their financial and in-kind support, media and internet sites for wide publicity, volunteers for their selfless service for the success of the conference.
Following the success of this conference, and to satisfy the expectations of the audience, next year's conference was announced to be held from 16 to 18 May 2008 with the theme "Sustaining New Zealand Communities with Yoga, Meditation and Ayurveda".
*HINDU COUNCIL OF **NEW ZEALAND** Incorporated*
P.O. Box 6240, Whakarewarewa
Rotorua, New Zealand.
Phone: 07-350 1336; Mobile: 021 0345621; Email: hindu.nz@gmail.com
President: Vinod Kumar
General Secretary: Dr Guna Magesan
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