Tanya Nock, Community Arts Educator, lives in Nelson
with her husband Vinny and daughter Asha.
Our in-laws had migrated to New Zealand from the UK, and we felt it was the best place to bring up young children. The weather was also a huge factor, coming from the southwest of England, which was very wet. And given my arts background and travelling around New Zealand, Nelson Tasman felt more aligned with the Arts than other places.
There was definitely an aspect of safety coming from the UK. I love the fact that the front page of the newspaper was somebody's dog's gone missing or somebody had been stealing manure from the honesty box. I remember thinking, gosh, if that's front page news then we will be safe here.
When the kids were growing up, through schooling and the community, there was always so much to do, particularly outside with children – we were never bored in that aspect.
While we love our life here, I didn’t often feel accepted as a ‘Nelsonian’, and that's one of the reasons why I set up Cultural Conversations, because it did take me a long time to feel part of the community.
Coming from the UK where there were lots of people doing the work I did, I found that there was such an opening for work here. I just felt that it was actually a land of opportunity for me. Work-wise, it's been really easy.
I’ve moved through a number of roles; I started as a violin teacher at the Nelson School of Music (now NCMA), then as a Music programme leader at Clifton Terrace and then as Education Manager back at NCMA when we managed an increase in classes from seven to 75.
Eventually I decided to set up my own charity - I felt that there was a lot of output with the multicultural community, but there wasn't enough impact, especially in light of things like the Christchurch Call.
That turned into Cultural Conversations, our organisation to connect and engage. Part of it is to not see people as statistics, not see people as projects so much. We're very much about equity - it's about giving our diverse community the chance to feel part of the bigger community picture - the opposite of being ‘others’.
We’re definitely not a support service. Quite often people say, oh poor refugees. But actually, they're highly qualified, often really overqualified for the job that they're doing. And they deserve an opportunity to participate and give back to the community on their terms.
Culturalconversations.co.nz. A place that celebrates and respects diversity.