Queen’s Birthday Honours for Unitec whānau

Lisa Reihana

The recent announcement of the Queen’s Birthday Honours’ list saw a number of Unitec graduates, former staff members, and guest lecturers recognized for their considerable achievements:

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Lisa Reihana, MNZM – For services to the arts.

Lisa is a multi-disciplinary artist who was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018 for her services to art. She is a 2014 Master of Design alumni.

Lisa’s large-scale video installation ‘In Pursuit of Venus [infected]’ represented New Zealand at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Her exhibition ‘In Pursuit of Venice [infected]’ was the most visited solo exhibition by a New Zealand artist at the Auckland Art Gallery since 1997, with 49,000 visitors. The exhibition has been displayed in several locations internationally including at the Honolulu Museum of Art in 2019 and in Tallin, Estonia in 2020.

She created a large bronze sculpture of Ellen Melville which depicts the scales of justice but tipped in favour of women, displayed at the Ellen Melville Centre in Auckland. As part of Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, she has been the artist in focus in honouring the story of legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe whose pursuit of the octopus Te Wheke a Muturangi led him to Aotearoa. A large installation of Te Wheke a Muturangi is currently on display in Wellington Harbour, as one of the places Kupe is credited to have named ‘Te Whanganui a Tara’. Lisa has incorporated Wellington’s wind in her display of six waving mokomoko/geckos in Waitangi Park.

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Susan Elliott – For services to human rights advocacy, particularly refugees.

Susan Elliott has been a campaigner for human rights on both a professional and voluntary basis for more than 40 years, particularly refugee rights, diversity and inclusion. She is a former staff member in the Department of Social Practice.

Sue was a member of the action group who in the mid-1980s worked to establish the first mental health service for people from refugee backgrounds. She was a founding member of the Auckland Refugee Council, now the Asylum Seekers Support Trust, the Human Rights Foundation of Aotearoa-New Zealand and the Auckland Refugee Family Trust. She has been a Trustee of the Development Resource Centre/DevZone and ECPAT/Child Alert for the protection of children from sexual exploitation.

She has been a consultant and advisor for numerous international development NGOs and has travelled to more than 30 countries. Within New Zealand she has worked with numerous NGOs focusing on refugees, women’s refuge, youth, health and employment. She is in high demand for her knowledge of facilitation, evaluation, strategic advice, organisational dynamics and community development practice.

Sue has strongly advocated for the voices of former refugees to be included in policy and constitutional processes, such as ensuring that the Asylum Seekers Support Trust original constitution had a President and 51 percent of the Executive Committee from a refugee background.

Denise Messiter

Denise Messiter – For services to Māori and health

Denise (Ngāti Pūkenga ki Waiau) has been a long-term advocate for Māori owned and controlled health and social services, and is a current Social Practice student. She has been key in the development and delivery of kaupapa Māori family and sexual violence support and prevention services, including the programmes the Poutama Mauri Ora, Mauri Tu wānanga.

She played a key role in establishing Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki Māori Women’s Refuge in Hauraki and is currently the General Manager. She led the establishment of the Hauraki Housing Network and the Pātaka Kai food rescue service based in Paeroa. In the 1980s she helped coordinate the establishment of the Hauraki Māori Trust Board.

She led the establishment of the Hauraki Māori-owned health service Te Korowai Hauroa O Hauraki in the 1990s and was inaugural CEO, overseeing primary and mental health services and home-based care for kaumatua, and participating in the deinstitutionalisation of Tokanui Hospital.

She is currently involved with advisory groups to government agencies regarding services for and the elimination of sexual and family violence. She refocused Hauraki Māori Trust Board’s social services into the Whānau Development Group, establishing Hauraki Family Start and extending Court Managed Care. She led the establishment of Whānau Ora for Hauraki. Ms Messiter has supported indigenous communities and organisations in South Africa and Australia on a voluntary basis.

Denise is currently completing her Masters in Applied Practice (Social Practice) which focuses on the Hauraki Māori Trust Board’s Poutama Mauri Ora, Mauri Tu wānanga programme.

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Dr Ella Henry

Dr Ella Henry – For services to Māori, education and media

Ella has a background in sociology, business and Maori indigenous development and has been active in research, teaching and advocacy for Maori media for more than 20 years.

She has worked at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) since 2008, initially in Maori Development and since 2019 at the Business School, where she is director of Maori advancement, and was head of Puukenga School of Maori Education at Unitec from 2002 until 2004.

Ella has tried to accumulate knowledge of Maori history, culture and society, particularly examining gender complementarity in Maori cosmology and society, and apply this knowledge to contribute to better outcomes for Maori, specifically wahine Maori and in the fields of media and academia.

She has been involved with the Maori screen industry as a writer, actor, presenter and commentator; and she was chairperson of Nga Aho Whakaari, the Association of Maori in Screen Production, which she helped establish.

Henry was previously chairperson of the Association of Women in Film and Television New Zealand and was a Treaty negotiator for her iwi Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. She was also a trustee and chairperson of the Post- Settlement Governance Entity until 2019.

Jo Pilkington

Jo Pilkington – For services to the events sector and the community

Jo is a long-standing member of the New Zealand events industry and has worked with a wide variety of professional, community and voluntary organisations.  She has used her experience to help organisations nationwide, in many cases on a voluntary basis, and has been particularly active in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay.

She helped develop the events industry professionally by being instrumental in the design and implementation of the Diploma in Event Management for Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in 1999. She followed this by guest lecturing and mentoring Event Management students at AUT, Unitec and the Eastern Institute of Technology between 2005 and 2013.

Jo was a board member of Creative Napier (from 2006-2008), the Kingsland Business Society(2010-2012) and chaired the Northcote Intermediate School Parent Teacher Association (2012-2014). She has supported Auckland’s LGBTQI+ communities, as a board member of the Auckland Pride Festival Trust from 2014 to 2016 and Event Producer for the Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust’s annual fundraising gala since 2018. Jo became Co-Chair of the Rangitoto Island Historic Conservation Trust in 2020.