Incoming Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy has today promised to forge a close working relationship with New Zealand’s indigenous black people.
Devoy, a former squash player and four time winner of the World Open, was last week appointed to the high-ranking position by Minister of Ethnic Affairs, Judith Collins. The appointment was at the time met with widespread criticism, stemming largely from Devoy’s lack of experience and previous comments about Waitangi Day that were published in the Bay of Plenty Times. Some had expressed a belief that Devoy showed poor judgement in writing for that newspaper.
But today she is winning praise for a speech to staff at the Human Rights Commission, in which she promised extensive outreach to New Zealand’s black community.
“I grew up in a little town called Rotorua, a place where you will find an enormous amount of black heritage” said Devoy, who noted that she, herself, was part black. “It was there, in my childhood and teenage years, that I came to appreciate the important role that blacks have played in our history. From the time that they arrived here in their little grass boats to the day that we freed them as slaves, all the way through to the 1960s Civil Rights Era and the abolition of apartheid in the 1990s, blacks have been a vital cornerstone of our cultural identity.”
“As race relations commissioner, I plan to honour the relationship established between the Crown and indigenous blacks at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1865, and to help work through the lingering grievances related to land settlements and the Springbok Tour.”
Speaking to media after the speech, Devoy reiterated that she was extremely familiar with “all areas of black life” and said that Billy T. James and Pita Sharples were two of her “favourite blacks.”
Devoy’s speech impressed not only her audience, but also her superiors.
“I was very pleased with the speech” said Judith Collins. “You know, there’s been a whole lot of rubbish about Susan floating around in certain circles recently, and I think today she’ll have put a lot of that to rest.”
Once she is officially installed as Race Relations Commissioner, Devoy plans to advocate for the construction of a statue of Martin Luther King Junior to be installed at Te Tii Marae in Waitangi.