Mervin Singham, Director, Office of Ethnic Affairs Speech for the Death and Diversity Exhibition opening, Museum

of Wellington City and Sea. 5 December 2011 Tn koutou, tn koutou, tn koutou katoa. I would like to welcome you all to the opening of the Death and Diversity Exhibition at the Museum of Wellington City and Sea. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Police Commissioner, Peter Marshall, Wally Haumaha from the NZ Police, Joris De Bres, Race Relations Commissioner, Paul James Deputy Chief Executive DIA, Philippa Tocker, Executive Director of Museums of Aotearoa and all the members of the Wellington Museums Trust who are present tonight. The subject matter of this exhibition is bound to capture attention. Death is often a shunned topic particularly within ethnic communities. The English playwright William Somerset Maugham once said that death is a very dull, dreary affair...and that we should have nothing whatever to do with it. I hope this exhibition proves him wrong! I would like to share an experience I have had with death rituals. I grew up in multicultural Malaysia. My family is Christian with Hindu roots. We were very accustomed to dealing with people from diverse cultural and faith backgrounds. That changed when we came across a death ritual that we found difficult to accept. My parents experienced a Sky Funeral which was an eye opener. Sky Funerals are practised by Tibetan Buddhists. When a loved one dies, the family carefully prepares the body for the funeral. After the body of the deceased is cleansed, it is then carefully apportioned into small pieces. These pieces of flesh are then fed to birds of prey, particularly vultures until the entire body is consumed. Perhaps that makes a few of us in this room flinch. My family found this death ritual difficult to understand. It did not correspond with their understanding of Buddhists. That caused them to look into the basis for this ritual. They discovered the significance of the ritual for Buddhists. A core part of Buddhism is the belief in the impermanence of the physical world. Many Buddhist rituals are reminders of how transient our physical world is. The Sky Funeral is a reflection of that belief. Even the treasured body of a loved one is impermanent and not as important as we might believe.

The feeding of the body to vultures is a reminder of this belief. Buddhists also believe the body is a mere shell for that which is much more important the soul. When a person dies, they feed the body to vultures because vultures are believed to be dakhinis or angels that take the soul of their loved one to higher realms. My parents learnt that although the Sky Funerals of Tibetan Buddhists are very different from those of Christians, the same fundamental compassion and values existed in both belief systems. They learnt that the rituals of death they had seen said much more about how Tibetan Buddhists live their lives than they did their deaths. Rituals such as funerals, wakes, and memorials, help us deal with loss and grief. They guide us on how to deal with our emotions, how to confront what we have lost, and how to usher our loved ones into the next world. These rituals are intertwined with our beliefs, with the needs of our families and communities and with our environment. They evolve and change to reflect who we are. So why is the Office of Ethnic Affairs involved in this project alongside Museums Wellington, NZ Police and the Funeral Directors Association of NZ? NZ is one of the most diverse countries in the OECD. Today, approximately 11% of our population is comprised of ethnic minorities other than Maori and Pacific peoples. That figure is projected to grow to 18% by 2021. The DNA of our society is changed forever, For our diversity to work well, we need people from diverse backgrounds to learn more about each other. As we become more diverse, it is easy to focus on the differences we see across cultural groups. Most of what we read, see and talk about focuses on the novelty of our differences. The Office of Ethnic Affairs encourages this focus on difference because it is increasingly becoming recognised that these differences are in fact pressure points for innovation. However, it is equally important to learn about our similarities. We are much more similar than we are different. Throughout the world, communities mark particular milestones that are significant in their lives. The milestones we mostly share in common are birth, marriage and death. This Death and Diversity exhibition focuses on that final chapter of death and the similarities and differences we share in our expression of this chapter. While we all share a common bond of experiencing and coping with death, every culture has customs and rituals that guide how to deal with it. They are as varied, as vibrant, and have as diverse a range of emotions as any other expression of culture. By learning about these practices we share the most intimate insight possible into a persons culture and beliefs. I think this exhibition gives us cause for optimism far more than meets the eye. While the exhibition focuses on death it, ironically shines a sharp spotlight on our lives and our spiritual expressions. It tells us about the values of the diverse communities that uphold these rites. Museums are usually regarded as keepers of knowledge and totems to days gone by. With the evolution of the information age, the role of museums has been dramatically transformed. They now play a central role in our communities. They are social spaces that allow us to

interact with our past, present, and future. They provide the platform for dialogue in our communities. We hope this exhibition will generate dialogue in the community. By sharing the most intimate of our rituals - the rituals of death and mourning - we open ourselves up to authentic engagement with each other. I hope this exhibition generates excitement and thought provoking discussion on life, death and diversity. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have much enjoyed being a part of it. Thank you. Enjoy!