Joris De Bres

NZ Race Relations Commissioner

Joris has been New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner since 2002, having been reappointed for a second five year term in 2007. His involvement in Project Crimson started when he was Public Awareness Manager and General Manager External Relations in the Department of Conservation from 1992 to 2002.  Prior to this, he has worked as a community organiser, teacher, journalist and public sector trade union official.

His work brings him into contact with all New Zealand’s diverse communities, ranging from Maori and Pakeha to more recent migrants from Asia, the Pacific and elsewhere, as well as with government, local government, business and community organisations.

 Joris came to New Zealand from the Netherlands with his parents at the age of seven.  Growing up in a harbourside suburb in Auckland, pohutukawa was never far away.  They are just as present and cherished in Island Bay, Wellington - where he and his wife Angela now live - even though they are also immigrants there.  Project Crimson is now working with the Wellington City Council,  the Karori Sanctuary Trust and others to being rata back to the city’s hills.

Joris is also Vice-Chairperson of Oxfam New Zealand and a member of the Advisory Board of the Victoria University Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Studies.