ਕਰਾਈਸਟਚਰਚਕਰਾਈਸਟਚਰਚ

Christchurch, Ōtautahi in Māori, is the largest city in New Zealand's South Island and the country's second largest city by urban area, in the Canterbury region on the South Island's east coast, with 391,383 people in the 2023 census. It is the South Island's Punjabi centre: Sikhs were among the earliest Punjabi settlers here in the first wave of the 1890s, the Canterbury region counted 4,842 Sikhs in 2023, and in 2009 Christchurch opened the first Sikh centre on the South Island.

Where is Christchurch, and why do Punjabis live there?

Christchurch stands on the Canterbury Plains near the centre of the South Island's east coast, at the southern end of Pegasus Bay, bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean and to the south by the volcanic hills of Banks Peninsula. The Avon River, Ōtākaro, winds through the centre of the city, with a large urban park along its banks, and the city's gardens earned it the nickname the Garden City. British colonial settlement began with the First Four Ships, which brought the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton Harbour in 1850, and Christchurch became a city by letters patent on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand. The city was badly damaged by a series of earthquakes from September 2010, the most destructive on 22 February 2011, in which 185 people were killed, and rebuilding has reshaped the centre since. Christchurch is also one of the world's five Antarctic gateway cities and home to the University of Canterbury and the country's second busiest airport.

Punjabis live in Christchurch because Canterbury offered the same ladder it offered the North Island pioneers: farm work on the plains around the city, then dairying, contracting, city jobs and study. The first small wave of Sikh settlers between 1890 and 1910 spread across Waikato, ਔਕਲੈਂਡ, Wellington and Christchurch, so this city has held a Punjabi presence since the pioneer years, small for a century and fast growing since the immigration changes of the 1980s. Christchurch completes this series' map of Punjabi places in New Zealand, joining ਹੈਮਿਲਟਨ and ਤੌਰੰਗਾ as the community's South Island home.

What do the numbers say?

Christchurch City counted 391,383 people in the 2023 census, up 6.1 per cent since 2018 and 14.6 per cent since 2013, with a median age of 37.5. People of Asian ethnicities made up 17.1 per cent of the city, alongside 75.9 per cent European and 11.2 per cent Māori, and 27.8 per cent of residents were born overseas. Panjabi was spoken by 2,952 people in the city, 0.8 per cent of Christchurch, and the Indian ethnic group numbered 16,191 people, 4.1 per cent of the city.

For religion, the Stats NZ place summary for Christchurch City does not list Sikhism separately, folding it into an other religions, beliefs and philosophies group of 2.0 per cent, so no exact Christchurch City Sikh total is stated here. The regional growth is dramatic: the Canterbury region counted 4,842 Sikhs in 2023, 0.74 per cent of the region, up from 2,973 in 2018 and just 621 in 2013, a near eightfold rise in a decade. Nationally, Sikhs numbered 53,406 in 2023, 1.07 per cent of New Zealand, the country's fastest growing religious group.

The South Island's first gurdwara

For most of the twentieth century the South Island's Sikhs were few and scattered, farming families among the pioneer generation who had settled in Christchurch and Canterbury from the 1890s. The community grew slowly until the immigration policy changes of the 1980s opened the door to the modern migration, and with growth came the need for a temple of their own. Until 2009, the southernmost gurdwara in the world was Wellington's, opened in 1997. In 2009 the first South Island Sikh centre opened in Christchurch, ending the long trip north across Cook Strait for Canterbury families and giving the South Island community a home of its own. The city's cricketing Sikhs have their own footnote: Amandeep Singh, listed among New Zealand's notable Sikhs, played for the Canterbury Wizards.

Gurdwaras and community life

Christchurch today has three gurdwaras on the national list. Gurdwara Singh Sabha Christchurch stands on Ferry Road in Woolston, on the city's eastern side. In Riccarton, the suburb whose ward recorded the city's highest Asian concentration at the 2018 census, the Gurdwara Jagat Guru Nanak Sahib stands on Kilmarnock Street, close to the university. The Linwood Gurdwara on Gloucester Street serves the eastern suburbs. Between them they carry the prayer, langar, Punjabi teaching and festival life of a community that now reaches from the city into the Canterbury farm districts, in the pattern seen across Punjabi New Zealand: the temple first, then the community life around it.

Christchurch is the Garden City, New Zealand's oldest established city, the South Island's Antarctic gateway and, for Punjabis, the South Island's home: a pioneer presence from the 1890s, the island's first Sikh centre in 2009, three gurdwaras, and a Canterbury Sikh population that grew nearly eightfold in a decade. For the full map, see Punjabi places in New Zealand.