Investigating the Call to Kindness: A Study with Community Participants in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Here in Aotearoa New Zealand there is a 'call' for kindness often associated with Jacinda Ardern and the Covid-19 response. But how do 'ordinary' people experience and understand kindness? What do their understandings and the tensions within these reveal about the call to kindness? In 2019, we ran a Ropū Whai Whakaaro/Values-Based Practice course in Auckland with 21 community participants. As part of the five-week course, six women aged from 31 to 65 years did a group project on the value of kindness. Analysis of their discussions, presentation and individual interviews suggested a kindness 'trajectory' that was simultaneously held in community and undercut by social forces. Kindness was described as something people 'do' beginning with children who are 'innately' kind, and if practised regularly could flow in all directions. It was portrayed as having radical potential to include and transform, but participants spoke of themselves as imperfect practitioners. We conclude by returning to the call for kindness and, inspired by our participants, suggest that kindness, while in some sense risky and extraordinary, is a practice worth cultivating.