Get some culture

It’s time to immerse yourself in some culture at Culture Galore! Part of the Garden City Summer Times it’s held at Ray Blank Park, Maidstone Road, Ilam on Saturday 10 March 12 – 4pm. Come celebrate all the many cultures within our garden city. Enjoy performances of native dancing with beautiful costumes and savour the delicious flavours of exotic countries.

Christchurch City Libraries will have a stall as will other informative groups. So come along and say Hi!

It’s a great day out for the whole family with entertainment to keep kids happy.

And if you want more culture, think Library. If you read Chinese, we have resources in Chinese language and you can read 17 Chinese newspapers for free with your library card and PIN number through Press Display. Find out about our World Languages collection or search our BiblioCommons catalogue for items in other languages.

People in Harmony: Diversity Forum 2011

The New Zealand Diversity Forum is a unique national convention, now in its seventh year, at which people involved in race relations, human rights and cultural diversity come together to share ideas and good practice.

The theme this year was ‘People in harmony’ which was also the theme for Race Relations Day. You can view some of these presentations on slideshare.

Two new books were launched this year:

• Tangata Tiriti from the Treaty Education Group is a new resource specially written for migrants as an introduction to our very first immigration document. It’s a fun workbook designed for educators or personal use.
• New to New Zealand: ethnic communities in Aotearoa: a handbook is an updated introduction to the myriad of minority communities in New Zealand.

A  highlight for the event was seeing Deaf Aotearoa receive an award for their work in producing  a National Anthem DVD featuring all three of our official languages.

Here are some suggestions on how to keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the diversity arena in Aotearoa:

• Join the mailing list of the Human Rights Commission to receive their newsletters. You can choose from 9 different titles – some relate specifically to the Diversity Action Programme and race relations, while the others deal with disability, transgender and Treaty issues
• Follow @nzdiversity on Twitter
• Like the Diversity Action Programme on Facebook
• Subscribe to the RSS feed of news from the Human Rights Commission

Find out more about the  library’s diversity resources:

• Explore our World language collections
• Find out about support we offer new settlers
  
• Read books about other cultures