Assyrians in New Zealand are

New Zealanders New Zealanders ( mi, Tāngata Aotearoa), colloquially known as Kiwis (), are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common history, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citiz ...

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

descent or Assyrians who have

New Zealand citizenship New Zealand nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds New Zealand nationality. The primary law governing nationality requirements is the Citizenship Act 1977, which came into force on 1 January 1978. Regulations apply to t ...

. The Assyrian community in New Zealand began in the 1990s when refugees from

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

settled in the country. The majority of Assyrian New Zealanders live in Auckland, in the suburbs of

Manurewa Manurewa is a major suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand. It was part of Manukau City before the creation of the Auckland super city in 2010. It is located south of the Manukau City Centre, and southeast of Auckland CBD. The suburb is b ...

and

Papatoetoe Papatoetoe is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest suburb in Auckland by population and is located to the northwest of Manukau Central, and 18 kilometres southeast of Auckland CBD. Papatoetoe has the unofficial title of Auckland ...

. They have an Assyrian church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church. Wellington has a sizeable Assyrian population consisting of several hundred people. Smaller communities can be found in Miramar, Newtown, Strathmore, and in the Island Bay area.

History

In 2018, the Assyrian community of New Zealand unveiled a monument at Makara Cemetery in Wellington to immortalize the souls of the Assyrian martyrs in the WW1

Assyrian genocide The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish ...

. The Holy Cross Primary School in Wellington began teaching about

Assyrian New Year Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyria ...

as a subject through the ''Intensive Oral Language Program'', where students learn about Assyrian culture, language and heritage.

Religion

Majority of Assyrians in New Zealand adhere to churches of the

Syriac Christian Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expr ...

tradition. These churches include the: Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East,

Ancient Church of the East The Ancient Church of the East is an Eastern Christian denomination. It branched from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1964, under the leadership of Mar Thoma Darmo (d. 1969). It is one of three Assyrian Churches that claim continuity with t ...

and the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Demographics

According to the 2013 Census: * 58.1% of Assyrians in New Zealand lived in the Wellington Basin * The median age was 33.7 years * 22.1 percent were born in New Zealand and 77.7 percent were born overseas. The statistic of the number of Assyrians in New Zealand may be inaccurate as many Assyrians would identify as Iraqi or Middle Eastern before Assyrian when completing the Census.

References

External links

Assyrian Church of the East Archdiocese of Australia, NZ and Lebanon

Chaldean & Assyrian Catholic Diocese of Australia and NZ
{{Immigration to New Zealand Assyrian diaspora Ethnic groups in New Zealand