Takunda Muzondiwa

I am the current head girl at Mount Albert Grammar School and this year competed in the annual national Race Unity Speech Awards. In my speech, I spoke about the challenges that not only I have faced but other members of the diaspora as we struggle to maintain a strong connection to our culture. Through spoken word poetry I have been able to express that confusion about my cultural identity as I have felt like my Zimbabwean culture has begun to fade. With that however, I’ve come to recognise the various way in which other minority groups tend to feel as though their culture is being erased. Take for instance our Māori people here in Aotearoa who are seeing their language fade right before them. It’s become to important to be to let my own experiences be the fuel which drives me to speak up and bring awareness to the systemic ways in which cultural erasure is enforced.