COMMANDING THE NARRATIVE
I
n 1903, when Bishop Neligan first articulated an initiative that was to become Diocesan, he clearly had a concept of educating young women to equip them for life – such that societal expectations defined it at the time. His commitment to providing quality schooling for girls was laudable. After
all, while vastly ahead of most of their global peers, women in Aotearoa had only been able to vote for 10 years. At that time, some may have even remembered Kate Sheppard saying: “Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops.”
If a vote is commensurate with articulating political and social opinion, then it’s raining torrentially and with monsoon consistency at Dio at the moment. Different streams of political and social discourse flow through the School in the form of soapboxes, speeches, debates, mooting, ethics discussions, slam poetry and classroom interaction. They give voice to ideas, beliefs, arguments, and random semantic wrangles that prompt their protagonists to have an opinion, justify and defend it and, importantly, back down and reconsider it if it’s flawed. Ella Riley is passionate about her involvement in ethics. Through her winning Soapbox interventions, which have been judged by teachers and her peers as considered, moving and compelling, she has managed to ruffle some feathers. Not that the New Zealand Council of Women had any problem when she presented her most recent intervention on sexual harassment. It was greeted with accolades. “You see,” she explains, “sometimes making people feel just a little uncomfortable is a legitimate way of advancing a conversation. I’m not going out of my way to be controversial, but everything I say is about inviting conversation on topics that I feel incredibly passionate about. My overarching motive is to articulate my viewpoint in the hope to make a positive
Left: Old Girl Emma Sidnam (2017) was the guest speaker at this year’s Scholars’ Awards. Emma became interested in the genre of Slam Poetry at school, and she has gone on to become a member of the Wellington Feminist Poetry Club. She describes it as "as safe place to rage at the world”.
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DIO TODAY
