Since our work is deeply intersectional and equity-based, we talk about privilege and power and how it is relevant to many current issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion work in the world today.
We believe that it is inconsistent with our values to work with organisations and companies that support Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine.
We send our thoughts, aroha and solidarity to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, independence and resistance to the forces of settler colonisation. While the violence has escalated since October 7th 2023, it has been a continuing feature of the illegal occupation since 1948. We condemn violence against civilians, anywhere and perpetuated by anyone.
We understand that when we work with organisations, not everyone will understand the depths of levels of oppression that exist (whether it concerns queer communities, Indigenous communities, migrant communities or any other targetted or marginalised community).
In fact, we feel that our work is partly to bring those topics and reflections to the surface and hold space for discussions and learnings to happen.
However, we want to ensure that the people we work directly with (specifically organisational and people leaders) are aligned with our values.
At Ally Skills NZ, we have all been fully in support of ceasefire efforts – we’ve all been vocal on the matter in many forums, donating, protesting and bringing this up in our workshops and at conferences too.
We see this as one of the biggest examples of power imbalances & marginalisation (in extreme forms of violence) that are happening in the world right now.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza in this time of escalated violence and always. As a global community, we must stand for peace. We must strengthen our international systems for peace, and we call on the New Zealand government to contribute towards this.