I delivered this address on behalf of Philip Langenhoven, Chairperson of The Afrikaans Club of New Zealand, at the opening of the Afrikaans collection at Christchurch Central Library on 25 June 2008.

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Kia ora koutou, goeie middag almal and good afternoon everybody.

First of all I would like to apologise for not being able to attend this event after all, due to changes to my family situation this week. However, I am thankful to Jaco Swart for agreeing to front up on my behalf with a message from the Executive Committee of The Afrikaans Club of NZ - a cultural migrant support organisation.

The Afrikaans Club of NZ exists to offer an ‘African watering hole' to immigrants from South Africa and Namibia who wish to remain in contact with their cultural roots.

We know that NZ accommodates diverse peoples and has a growing multi-cultural society. We also know that New Zealanders are generally very understanding of our need to refresh ourselves culturally and emotionally from time to time, as this makes for more relaxed, confident and positive contributors to New Zealand society.

The 3 focus areas of The Afrikaans Club are: The family, music & drama and ‘reaching out'.

Seven years ago we initiated our KiwiKasie Festival, which involves an annual Afrikaans concert. We bring a popular Afrikaans singer to NZ for this event and we organise a national tour - also to Christchurch. We always try to include local talent in the preliminary programme.

The fact that Kiwis generally accept and understand this basic cultural need of ours, does not go unnoticed. We appreciate your positive acceptance of us and our culture, which really revolves around our language, Afrikaans. We don't have a unique dance, as Indians or Pacific Islanders have, but mainly the language. And of course we have food, like BILTONG and BOEREWORS (beef coil sausage).

When discussing our Afrikaans culture, we refer to activities where we can use our mother tongue, Afrikaans. We love story and joke telling, singing in Afrikaans, etc. If you have been wondering about this before, perhaps you will now understand why our culture really revolves around our language, Afrikaans. There is nothing sinister or imperialistic about it, rest assured!

But we continuously remind our supporters to participate on other levels in Kiwi society. Whether it's through churches, schools and other community services, we believe we should get involved in life around us. We continue to communicate through our internal communications media that we need to get constructively involved. We believe that we need to assist Kiwis to continue to shape and - keep in shape - the orderly and pleasant environment we all have the privilege to live in.

I think South Africans generally have a ‘soft landing' in NZ, compared with others who are struggling with the English language. Although there are differences between us and the Kiwi culture, we have a good start with the similarities of rugby, netball, cricket, driving on the left side of the road, barbeques (or BRAAIS!), outdoor life, etc.

Us Japies are really trying to fit in well and make a good contribution to this wonderful country.

This is perhaps why it is so much more special that the Christchurch Central Library has agreed to help realise the dream of Afrikaans speaking locals, by initiating a first ever Afrikaans book collection.

It is therefore my privilege and pleasure to announce that the Executive Committee of The Afrikaans Club of New Zealand has decided to donate an amount of $2,000 to the library, earmarked for the acquisition of additional Afrikaans language books, to maximise the initial impact on the local community who love to read Afrikaans. We are aware that there are also English speaking South Africans who will enjoy being able to read the language they were exposed to over the years in South Africa. We trust Marietjie Swart will be happy to support the process of selecting a further representative collection of new books.

This financial donation is additional to the very modest book collection donated by the Club some weeks ago, to strengthen the first collection facilitated between the Library and Marietjie.

While we wouldn't want to interfere in any way with the library's intention to support a gradual expansion of the Afrikaans collection, The Afrikaans Club executive and our members also support the principle of making our financial contribution where possible, to further demonstrate our appreciation towards Kiwi institutions that support our migrant community.

In 2003 The Afrikaans Club initiated a similarly sized project with the East Coast Bays Library in Browns Bay, Auckland. That first collection was also modest, but the Club continued to raise funds, and two years later managed to donate $4,000 to the library for further expansion of the Afrikaans collection. We were delighted to learn of your intention to pursue a similar initiative in Christchurch.

Thank you for giving us the space we need from time to time to celebrate our cultural heritage and for respecting our basic cultural needs. But thank you also for welcoming us to your great Aotearoa New Zealand.

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa. Thank you.