Through a series of serendipitous encounters, I attended a community dinner event on Thursday 20 June 2024 celebrating World Refugee Day. The event was organised by Voice of Aroha, with support from the New Zealand Refugee Youth Council, Wellington City Council, Porirua Multicultural Council and Everybody Eats (Wellington) where the dinner event was held. Everybody Eats is a pay-as-you-feel community restaurant that serves up 3 course set dinners transformed from rescued food. The World Refugee Day dinner event on that day was a heartfelt synergy of social cohesion, environmental responsibility and community voices. I have been engaged with migrant and ethnic communities for the past 10 years. But that evening was the first time I was part of a celebratory event that recognised and gave voice to the different journeys of refugees, and their stories of survival and triumph.
It was an intimate affair with around 60 people gathered to celebrate World Refugee Day over a 3 course meal prepared by a Colombian family. The family was invited to come out from the kitchen and share with the diners, not just about the dishes they prepared, but about their refugee journeys to Aotearoa New Zealand. Echoing their words, they prepared the food ‘with love’. To my mind and mouth, the meal they prepared was also a testament to their culture, strength and resilience.
The evening also featured former refugee guest speakers who included Soulivione Phonevilay, a former refugee from Laos and President of the Porirua Multicultural Council, and Abdul Samad Haidari, a Hazara-Afghani former refugee now based in Wellington.
Soulivione shared her family’s journey from a refugee camp in Thailand more than 40 years ago, to their final safe haven in New Zealand through framed family photos passed around the diners. She also shared a little known fact that 60-70% of workers in the Whittakers’ factory (located in Porirua) are from migrant and refugee backgrounds, and is the reason she believes for Whittaker’s success as one of New Zealand’s most loved brands. The next time we pick up a Whittaker’s Peanut Slab Bar, we’d do well to remember the hands and hearts that made that chocolate treat.
Abdul, who has been in New Zealand for just over a year, shared poetry from his recent book The Unsent Condolences. The poems reflect Abdul’s experiences of “flight from war torn Afghanistan to Iran as a child of the oppressed Hazara ethnic group, and later boat travel to Indonesia where he remained as a ‘stateless’ refugee without his family for 10 years until being accepted in 2023 to live in Aotearoa New Zealand.” Abdul spoke about the 10 years he spent as a refugee in Indonesia where there was no recognition of human rights for refugees. The poetry he shared expresses how it feels like to live under ‘the elbows of authoritarianism’ and be threatened by ‘the swords of tyranny’.
These two speakers stood out for me because of the conflicting and confronting messages that come with refugee stories. One the one hand, we want to celebrate the triumphs over persecution and family hardship, but on the other hand, we must not forget the atrocities and trauma that refugees experience in their long journey to escape and find safety in whichever place that will take them. I am grateful to Soulivione, Abdul and all the speakers who shared their stories. News articles and reports provide facts to startle, titillate and lull you into a comfortable spectator’s seat. An event like this, stories shared over a common meal, threaded by the indomitable spirit of those who have had to rebuild their lives from scratch, invites you into their space.
The evening ended with music, dance and laughter, no doubt a message of hope and joy that comes with being human – no matter your culture, language or journey that brought you to this land.