A Northland man who has made it his mission to help Māori organisations achieve zero waste has been honoured by the Muhammad Ali Center in the United States.
Jared Hiakita (Ngāi Tūhoe), who lives in North Hokianga, is an educator with Para Kore, an organisation delivering waste minimisation and environmental training to marae, kura and kōhanga around the Far North.
Hiakita will travel to the centre's US headquarters with his partner, Rangimarie Mules, and their 6-month-old son Taupae this week to receive a Humanitarian Award alongside five other inspiring rangatahi from Syria, Ghana, Gaza, Colombia and the US.
The environmental campaigner said at first he struggled with being singled out for the award and even wondered whether he should accept it.
He had since come to terms with it by seeing the award not as a reflection of his own work, but of all the kaupapa and people who had shaped him, and the movements he was associated with.