On Friday March 15th 2019 New Zealand experienced its biggest terrorist attack in Christchurch that took the lives of 50 people. The loss to their families and their community is indescribable. It is our responsibility to pay respect to the victims, their families and their communities. Moreover, we must take action to prevent that such an event will ever happen again.
For this purpose we propose to build a memorial exhibit for the Christchurch Brick Show. The exhibit will consist of two parts.
Part 1: The Memorial
The memorial could be similar to the white chairs that resemble the victims of the earthquake. This could be 50 basic brick towers. The height of the tower would represent the age of the victim. The memorial could be a community build. Each tower, for example, could be build by one AFOL and the memorial should be put together at the start of the exhibition.
At this point we are unable to determine the best format for the memorial. We will contact the representatives of the Muslim community and reach out to the families to involve them in a discussion about what memorial would be appropriate. If the Muslim community should decide that this memorial is inappropriate all together then we will accept their decision.
There were also two other ideas involving building LEGO version of the mosques and to use the Minifig.me service to create Minifigure representations of the victims based on photos provided by the family. All these options would have been discussed with the local Muslim community.
Part 2: The community contribution
The memorial will be placed in the center of a large square of grey base plates. Exhibitors and the visitors to the show are encouraged to bring Minifigures and place them on the baseplates. This symbolizes that we as a community are with the victims, their families and their communities. The goal is to have a visual representation of our support.
Additional concerns
- During the show we will have a collection box in front of the memorial and all donations will be given to the families of the victims. In addition, the memorial and all Minifigures placed on the square will be donated to the families.
- We propose to donate all LEGO sets that TLG will make available to us for the show to the families and their community.
- We propose to give free tickets to the CBS2019 show to all the families affected, including their communities.
- We are all involved in the mourning process and we will have to find the right time to approach the Muslim community.
- The CBS2019 show is only a few month ahead and we will have to work with bricks we already own. Hence a distributed community build might be the best solution.
- We need to approach this project with the utmost respect and diplomacy. We might involve the Christchurch City Council to help with the process.
Proposal Rejection
The Christchurch Brick Show has rejected this draft proposal and banned any other memorial proposal. Reason provided include:
- We feel the proposal submitted would be seen by many as offensive and/or of bad taste and not appropriate given our our board mission, vision and values.
- We have updated the exhibitor handbook that will be sent to all paid exhibitors to clarify our firm position on this matter.
- In light of the recent events in Christchurch, the CBS2019 Committee or BUG4x2 will not be accepting any exhibits that are of a political or religious nature or intended to showcase political/religious/social beliefs or held by another person or specific groups of people, the also includes any replication/ reference of buildings, or victims of the event.
- While it was a draft and/or a starting point rather than a complete and final proposal those involved in the decision felt like the information they had was enough to make a final decision.
- It’s unlikely that any proposal (by you or anyone else) will be accepted in my opinion due to a number of factors (cost and time available / required being a large part of this)
- There is more to it than just costs and time.