If the heinous attacks that took place at the two Christchurch mosques on 15 March 2019 were intended to sow disruption and strife between the disparate ethnicities and religious communities of Canterbury, they were a spectacular failure. Rather, they welded Cantabrians together even more closely. He was there in the thick of it, supporting the Pakistani and wider Muslim communities, helping to liaise between government departments, embassies and the families of the victims. He looked to the welfare of the stricken, providing material support and succour. In the course of his ministrations he became aware that the various ethnic communities were disconnected, and that the attack could serve to widen the gap between them.
To bridge the gap he began to use a recently formed cricket team as a focus to bring together sports fans of all ages. The team became a club. He sought the input of youth groups, community leaders, sporting organisations, and bodies such as the Community Activation Fund. The result was an indoor cricket tournament that drew in teams from nine different ethnicities. Families mixed and mingled, and had fun playing the sport that they love. Tragedy threw them together, but he united them with Cricket.
In 2019 four young women set out on a mission to raise awareness of the great and ever-increasing societal, environmental and ethical issues that confront the world today. They determined to make a sustainable and ethical lifestyle more accessible to the general public, and to ultimately improve the health of the planet and all the creatures that dwell here. The main values of their ethos would be diversity, inclusivity and ethical living all bound together with kaitiakitanga, the Maori term used for the concept of guardianship of the natural world.
Dirk has been extremely active in the cycling community of Christchurch since he and his wife emigrated here from California in 2003. He has been a member of the executive of the advocacy group Spokes Canterbury since 2007, and was a founding member of ICECycles, Christchurch’s first community bike workshop, providing free mechanical help to local people. He was a founding member of Pop-up Fix-up, a volunteer mechanic for BuyCycles, and the cycling representative on the now-disbanded Active and Passenger Transport Working Group for many years. Quite apart from cycling, he has volunteered for other causes as well, having served the Quaker Church in various capacities, including finding and adapting a suitable replacement meeting house, and providing pro bono bookkeeping and refinancing services to Quaker members. He has been a stalwart in supporting issues around climate change and the environment for many years.
For longer than most of us can think of June gave unstintingly of her time, energy and wide knowledge to her community. She was the secretary of the Fairleigh Kindergarten, served on the Central Playcentre Committee and was Secretary of the Young Wives at St. John’s Latimer Square. She served on the board of the YMCA as a member and as Vice President, served on the board of the Civic Trust, and for twenty-five years was Chief Usher and Organiser at the Court Theatre.
In a world beset by earthquakes, plagues, volcanic eruptions and murderous acts of brutality, what could be more central to the needs of the community than an enclave of peace and tranquillity. For many years the Fo Guang Shan Temple at Riccarton, under the guiding hand of the Venerable Juexi, has welcomed all who seek harmony in life and freedom from mental stress. For twenty years it has worked with the NZ Red Cross Meals-on-Wheels service, and with the NZ Police and local schools to organise cultural festivals. It is the hub of many community initiatives such as art exhibitions, dialogues on Buddhism, and instruction in meditation and philosophy.
Over at least four decades she has made an exceptionally positive contribution to the development and well-being of the arts in Christchurch and Canterbury. She has held various positions within the Christchurch Arts Festival, the N.Z. International Arts Festival and the N.Z. Jazz and Blues Festival. She has been Arts Advisor to the Arts Centre of Christchurch, and has managed the WORD Christchurch Festival. She has long been an active supporter of the Friends of the Christchurch Art Gallery, serving on the Executive Committee since 1999, with two terms as President. She joined the Canterbury Embroiderers’ Guild in 1986, and through a combination of her own projects and her advocacy for the work of others, she has contributed to the acceptance of textile art as a significant art form.
Jumayah has been engaged in activities within the Muslim community of Christchurch for many years, but the tragedy of March 2019 gripped the entirety of Canterbury and New Zealand, giving her work an unprecedentedly broader scope. She was involved in the establishment of the Nawawi Centre, helping to equip a new generation of thinkers and doers with the means to play a significant role in the response and recovery of the community in the aftermath of the tragedy. She became a regular attendee at and a contributor to the INFORM network, and has recently been appointed to the Christchurch City Council’s Multicultural Advisory Group.
The loss of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or medical termination is a uniquely agonising hurt that can cause substantial emotional pain to the bereaved survivor, all the more poignant as this is a hurt that is often overlooked by wider society. But help is at hand. An active member of the Sands Canterbury organisation for ten years and Chairperson for the last eight years, she has given countless hours of her time and considerable amounts of her own money to the assistance of those who have suffered the loss of a baby. She prepares and provides up to fifty care packages and memory boxes per month, items that are gratefully received as few people expect such a tragedy and even less make provision for it.
Few could be unaware of the rise of alcohol-fuelled antisocial behaviour at club level rugby league games throughout Canterbury, particularly on the sidelines and in the changing rooms and car-parks after the match. Sports Clubs had expressed deep concern over their lack of authority to manage troublemakers, and were dissatisfied with the lack of support they received from community agencies in this matter. Members were leaving in disgust.
Originally from Guangzhou Province in China, he has been resident in Christchurch for more than thirty-three years. As the long-serving chair of New Zealand China Exchange Inc., and leader in Christchurch Chinese community public welfare undertakings, he has been involved in many projects and promotions invaluable to the development of the local Chinese Canterbury community as well as the wider population. He organised a group of representatives of local businesses to visit the Trade Fair in Guangdong, promoting valuable commercial ties between the two economies. He arranged for groups of young Cantabrians of Chinese extraction to attend Chinese language courses in China, the better to promote mutual understanding between the two communities.
The problems inherent in an aging social housing stock are widespread and, often, seemingly intractable. A lack of modern efficient heating is a particularly serious concern, which can lead to ill health and its attendant miseries and costs, as well as emotional and mental distress. Residents all too often feel powerless, feeling that their voices cannot be heard, but from time to time there arises one who can make his voice heard.
It took a fall from the porch roof for the late Professor Alan Clarke, Dean of the Christchurch School of Medicine, in 1991 to fully realise how under-resourced the rehabilitation process really was. The result was that two years later and now confined to a wheelchair, he established the New Zealand Spinal Trust, which is now recognised as a world leader in its field. Working largely out of the Burwood Spinal Unit, it provides services and programmes free of charge to anyone suffering from Spinal Cord Injury anywhere in New Zealand. The Trust’s immediate mission has always been to improve the quality of rehabilitation and the enablement of independent living for all those with SCI.
One of the most significant insights to be gained from the study of the natural world of which we, as humans, are but one part, is that everything is connected. Life on earth is a vast web of interlinked and interdependent strands, the loss of even one of which can have far-reaching and potentially catastrophic consequences. To educate children to the importance of this simple but often overlooked fact, she set up Butterfly Musketeers in 2013. She travels throughout New Zealand from late spring to early autumn to educate people about the gorgeous Monarch butterflies and their importance to our food chain.
As a refugee in a new land with a different language and very different customs, his early years in New Zealand were a struggle. He dropped out of secondary school, slowly sinking into a quagmire of drugs and alcohol. But within the unprepossessing bud there lurks a magnificent flower, a flower which began to blossom with a trip to Afghanistan in 2012. Back in Christchurch he began to make changes, dedicating his life to helping others, successfully gaining University Entrance and undertaking a course in Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He became involved with World Vision, who quickly perceived his leadership potential, and in 2019 he was elected President of the University of Canterbury Muslim Students’ Association.
One of the worst nightmares of those who care for loved ones who suffer from cognitive impairment conditions such as autism or dementia is that their charge may wander away and disappear. With more than four decades of experience in emergency services – Red Cross, LandSAR, Civil Defence and Victim Support – between them, they were well placed to bring relief. In 2010, the successful search for a missing boy who suffered from autism inspired them to create what would become the WanderSearch Canterbury Charitable Trust, a tracking device loan bank which enables anyone who needs the protection provided by such a device to have one regardless of ability to pay.
Noeline has been a loyal member of SPELD since she joined in the Wairarapa in 1978, relocating to the Christchurch branch in 1993. She served as a teacher and tester in Christchurch for the next twenty years, during which time she was President of SPELD Canterbury. She helped to organise three SPELD conferences in Christchurch and contributed to and ran fundraising stalls for the local group. For many years she acted as convenor of Canterbury’s teacher training courses.
The mosque attacks on 15 March 2019 did much more than end the lives of the fifty-one worshippers who died that day. The victims of this horrendous event number in their hundreds, for they are also those who were injured, many so severely that they shall never fully recover. They are those who lost loved ones, and whose grief at their loss can never be fully assuaged. As President of the Pakistan Association Kalim was an authoritative voice for the guidance of the families of the victims at a time of extreme crisis, many of whom were left helpless, without money, and without the knowledge to go about such ordinary things as getting bank accounts, or driver’s licences, or any of the myriad details that mainstream New Zealand society takes for granted.
Wendy is well known to the Chinese community of Christchurch as an active and energetic teacher of Chinese culture, language and performing arts. She works through the Zhong Hua Qing Cultural and Arts Education Centre, an educational facility for the second generation of Chinese children as well as international students, providing instruction in Mandarin, dance, painting, calligraphy and folk music. The institute provides an invaluable window for the younger generation of children to build a relationship with their ancestral country and its ancient and immeasurably rich cultural heritage.
Over many years the very successful Stedfast Brass has brought pleasure to thousands of music lovers. Their performances are many and varied, ranging from their annual 'loyal variety' concert to the Summertimes programme concerts, school fairs, rest homes, garden parties and church services. Their playlist covers genres from pop songs to jazz standards, classics to golden oldies and marches to sacred songs. The key to the success of the band is the man who wields the baton, the Conductor and Musical Director. He is passionate, enthusiastic and a virtuoso musician in his own right.
He joined Christchurch Technical Association Football Club as a playing member in 1979. By 1982 he was working as a volunteer fundraiser, and by 1985 he was facilitating the introduction of a part-time paid fundraising and marketing role. By 2002 he was promoting the formation of a regional football entity to represent the clubs of Canterbury. Then came the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes: club buildings were damaged, grounds destroyed and members lost jobs and were forced to move away. He became a key driver of the amalgamation of the Cashmere and Woolston clubs which saw the birth of Cashmere Technical.
They were a group of ex-pat British who came together for companionship and to share the good old English tradition of the Pantomime with their new community. That was in 1976, and over the years the organisation evolved and broadened its avocation. In 2000 the society formed a group for the purpose of mounting sing-along concerts, primarily for the elderly residents of rest homes and retirement villages. Nineteen years later, the group is still going strong despite the loss to the earthquakes of 2010-2011 of their primary performance venue, the Caledonian Hall.
For generations, Christchurch has been known as the Garden City, and she is amongst the most pre-eminent promoters of that image, both at home and abroad, of this or any other generation. A passion for sewing, quilting and flowers led her into the world of theatrical costuming, an evolving path that over the years inspired her to produce exhibitions and performances.
The organisation became an incorporated society in 2003, and a registered charity in 2011, but its roots extend far deeper than that, to the 1980s and beyond. Historically, it has focussed on the problem of litter, but over the years its purview has broadened to include environmental matters more generally. No more is it concerned simply with collecting and disposing of litter, but with the increasingly pressing problem of what happens to that litter after disposal, and the burnishing of the Garden City image. It is a well-run organisation with a long track record of achievement, at all times looking to improve and add to its effectiveness.
For nearly three decades he has been a member in good standing of the Lions Club at Christchurch South, and over that long period has participated in many community projects. They are too numerous to list, but special mention must be made of his untiring efforts in fundraising, particularly in the aftermath of the earthquakes.
Folk music is the voice of the community, the voice that traditionally comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. It is the music that binds the generations together, the harmony that bridges ages, cultures and every social level. For the last four years she has been the Secretary of the Christchurch Folk Music Club, and President of the Canterbury Folk Music Festival, a task into which she has poured countless hours of dedication.
She is a registered psychologist with over thirty years of experience in the field of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), both in New Zealand and overseas. As Clinical Director of the Seabrook McKenzie Centre for over twenty-five years, she has been a major presence in the development of the Centre from its foundation in 1991 to the present day. She has generously given of her time, her knowledge, and her wisdom in so many ways.
As New Zealand moves deeper and deeper into the Asian economic sphere, so it has become increasingly imperative that New Zealanders and Asians both learn more and more about each other’s societies. There is no better way to achieve such rapprochement than through face to face contact, contact that must begin at an early age. As both a member of the Songpa-gu Sister City Committee and Principal of Kirkwood Intermediate School, he has been uniquely well placed to enable this contact.
Collectively, violent crime, civil emergencies and acts of God have become a growth industry in Canterbury. Professional first responders are hard-pressed to cope, and this is where volunteer groups such as Canterbury Neighbourhood Support come into their own. David became Canterbury Area Co-ordinator in 2010, just in time for the worst civil emergency that Christchurch has ever suffered. After a three-decade career in law enforcement, he was well equipped to handle the disaster with confidence and professionalism.
Dr Maan Mustafa Alkaisi
Ken Clearwater
Pat Duggan and Paul O’Connor
Coleen Dunlop
Ruth Gardner
Jillian Meryl Lord
Maurice White Native Forest Trust
Pauline Mohi
Katherine Peet
Stephen Leslie Phillips
Robert (Bob) Arthur Shearing
