Persuasive speech on Canterbury earthquake experience wins International Student Award

“I’m a kid of my time.”

The opening line of a speech by Violetta Daker, a ninth-year student at Ranji Roro Girls’ School, shows a level of self-awareness not commonly found in a 13-year-old girl in her first year of high school.

Her speech, He Moana Pukepuke Ekinga E Te Waka (a choppy sea navigable), is about rebuilding Canterbury after earthquakes, and its experience in the years since.

Speech Daker won the 11 to 14 year old speech category in the annual Never Like That Innocence competition, titled Life After Conflict. The international competition attracted 3,181 participants from 96 countries, and was endorsed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Read more: * Rangi Roro rowing dynasty returns after success in Maadi Cup * Public art of award-winning Christchurch student damaged by vandals.

“Hearing the voices of young people, wherever they are or whatever their circumstances, has never been more important to promoting global peace and understanding among societies around the world,” Johnson said in a message to participants.

Violetta’s description of the earthquakes and shocks that followed and the shared experience of the people of Canterbury is a mature perspective on a very complex issue.

Her passion for te reo Māori is also present throughout the speech.

“I could have written about World War II, or Ukraine, but I thought this story was for me and my city.”

Dean Williams / Stuff

Violetta is a passionate writer, public speaker, cyclist, hockey player and dancer.

Violetta, who was two years old at the time of the earthquakes, doesn’t remember much about the events themselves.

“My first memory after the shaking was the broken mansion that was my grandmother’s house,” she wrote.

“She lost her home 40 years ago, a place for weddings, funerals and unwritten memories. A place where I used to run in the garden and laugh in the sun under the lights of a huge copper beech tree.”

The speech continues to explore how the phrase Kia Kaha (stay strong) was an important tool in uniting the city and helping people rebuild as a group, both physically and emotionally.

It honors the 185 lives lost, and touches on the now infamous Red Zone in the city.

Dean Williams / Stuff

The 13-year-old says she plans to continue participating in speech and writing competitions in her later years.

When asked about her reaction to winning an international award and beating thousands of people involved in the process, Violetta said she “started to cry.”

“As a 13-year-old from New Zealand, I didn’t think I would ever hear my voice. It meant so much.”

Violetta gave her 1 a.m. speech on the day of the March deadline as she had just recovered from Covid-19.

The enthusiastic writer and public speaker, who hopes to one day go to medical school, said her speech aimed to highlight the “common experience” of all Cantabrians, regardless of their demographic.

She felt proud when she told people she was from Christchurch, and she wanted others to feel the same.

“It’s a story about surviving a disaster.”

Violetta published her first written essay at the age of eight. She hopes to write a novel before she finishes high school.

She described herself as extroverted, creative and confident, and when not writing or speaking in public, she liked to compete in road cycling, hockey and dancing, and was “very motivated,” she said.

She had competed in the Canterbury and Nationals Road Cycling Championships.

She said writing teacher Keren Sharp, an English language teacher and published author from Christchurch, has been a key teacher and guiding pillar in Violetta’s writing.

Juliet Collins, assistant principal at Rangi Roro Girls’ School, said Violetta’s speech provided a shared experience of a very personal tragedy.

“I’m 60 and she’s 13, but the idea is that we have this common experience and we can relate to it, despite our differences.”

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