Salom, Shalom, Nei Hou, Ni hao

The past two months have been a whirlwind of International Women’s Day activities and preparing for the end of the financial year and the annual reporting process. The operational business of focusing on what we have achieved last year is a good reflective process, particularly when it informs our future directions. The Board is continuing to consider our strategic direction and prepare for the transitions ahead.

Last Circular I talked about the organisational value of being courageous. This Circular I would like to reflect on the value that 'inclusivity is the core of our mahi'. NCWNZ has long considered ourselves to be inclusive, that is, welcoming everyone, advocating on behalf of a wide range of women. Yet it is worth examining how well we actually do this. Being inclusive means not just saying we include everyone but going out of our way to make this possible. It means educating ourselves about cultural attributes that differ from our own cultures, finding out about the impacts of different (dis)abilities, considering whether our processes (times, spaces, channels of communication etc.) present barriers to some people. In short, it means mahi – work – on that part of us who are already in NCWNZ to include those who would like to join us.

The Board often gets invitations to represent NCWNZ at various cultural events, and we try to get to them as often as possible. It shows our support for different cultures, and it also helps us educate ourselves about what the important values of different cultures are. I recently attended a Nowruz celebration at Parliament, organised by the Welcome Academy and Iranian Solidarity group, and last year this event was attended by Board members Kerri, Katie, and our then-intern Amandine. Nowruz is the Persian New Year, and the symbols and stories that accompany this celebration were new to me – and yet familiar at the same time because they deal with the same themes of love and acceptance, family and community, remembrance and striving for a better life. The symbolic food platters reminded me of the Seder meal that I was privileged to attend last year as a guest of International Council of Jewish Women President Helene Ritchie. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves, but those similar themes emerge across cultures.

Another recent invitation was from the Hong Kong Federation of Women to attend the Women Power Forum (see Circular article on this). It was an opportunity for Kerri and me to learn more about Chinese culture and hear about their concerns and issues regarding women status and rights. They were very hospitable, which in a Chinese way meant keeping us busy! The pace of life was a noticeable difference, which is a good learning for understanding Chinese women among us.

Working cross-culturally will always have compromise, but to be inclusive we need to ensure the compromises be made by everyone involved (especially those of us already in NCWNZ). To quote Baigali Ochkhuu, President of the International Women’s Federation of Commerce and Industry in Mongolia, and speaker at the Women Power Forum:

'Unity is not uniformity. It is difference moving in the same direction.'

To read more articles from The Circular (March-April 2026) issue 656, click on the tag below.