Year 13 student Adeeba Yoosuf competed against four students from Waitaki Girls’ High School at an evening of speeches held at Te Aitarakihi last week.
By winning the regional heat, Adeeba will now go on to represent the represent the Central South Island at the national semifinals in Auckland on May 3.
Adeeba said "unity" was very much the key message of her speech.
"Unity and trying to spread the message about the importance of cultural acceptance and diversity in New Zealand.
" I think that words are really important and can impact people both negatively and positively.
"Therefore we need to be careful with the words that we choose and ensure we use them to support and develop growing minds."
A memorable part of her speech flipped the perceived Ugly Duckling moral of you might not be so attractive when you’re young, but you come into your own when you get older, and looked at it from a race perspective.
She highlighted the idea that when the duckling was young and ugly it was black and brown but when it grew into a white swan it was now considered attractive.
Getting to represent the region on a national level was very exciting, she said.
"I am very excited and nervous to represent the region in such an important hui in New Zealand."
"It’s all about the importance of having multicultural conversations and awareness and acceptance and to hear youth’s voices and listen to their perspectives.
"When you can hear people’s perspectives, you can get a feeling about the impact of some racial things that are happening to them.
"If anything is going to change in the future, children talking about their race and struggles from their perspective is so important."
She said it would be her last year co-ordinating the competition.
"Numbers were quite low this year, both for the crowd and speakers. The hope is that with a different agency we can engage more schools, because I feel like it needs to be someone who has more time to be able to get in front of them, talk to them about the benefits and support the whole project rather than just co-ordinate.
"I think some like the YMCA or ELP (English Language Partners) could really rally the schools to get more involved.
"It would also be great to see a bigger crowd next year to appreciate and listen to what the youth have to voice and to encourage more students to participate."
