Former Silver Ferns coach Dame Ruth Aitken. Photo / Stephen Parker
A Silver Ferns coach, an activist, a Māori health leader and an iwi negotiator are among those Hauraki and Coromandel residents to have received Queen's Birthday honours this year.
Ruth Ellina Aitken, ONZM
For services to netball
Former Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken of Paeroa has become a dame for her services to netball.
Aitken coached the Silver Ferns from 2002 to 2011 - she is their most capped coach of all time at 112 tests.
Aitken told the HC Post it was "a real shock" to find out she was becoming a dame.
"I felt very humbled to have been acknowledged in this way, as there have been so many others that have contributed to the success of the Silver Ferns during my time."
During her time as coach, the Silver Ferns won the 2003 World Netball Championship and the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games.
She described the 2003 world championship win in Jamaica as the best memory of her career - it was the Ferns' first world championship after a 16-year drought.
After leaving the Silver Ferns, she served as the director of Netball Coaching New Zealand from 2011 to 2013.
She moved to Singapore in 2013 and coached their national team to victory at the Asian Championships and South East Asian Games.
Aitken said a good coach is someone who "understands their own strengths and identifies the areas where they need further support", is "driven to help others achieve their best", "cares for the athletes as people first," and "knows when it's time to work hard and time to have fun".
She returned to New Zealand in 2016, and has been a member of the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand since 2017 and a life member of Netball New Zealand in 2021.
Looking back on her career so far, Aitken didn't think she would change anything.
"I think that all my various life experiences ... have provided me with wonderful learning opportunities and a great foundation for life.
"The benefits I have received from living in a small town with wonderful family and community support have been invaluable."
Aitken's message to those wanting to make a career like hers was clear: "whatever your passion – pursue it".
"It's amazing what can be achieved when no one cares who takes the credit."
Walter Ngakoma Ngamane
For services to Māori and tourism
Thames resident Ngakoma Ngamane was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and tourism.
He has been the chairman of the Ngāti Maru Runanga Trust since 1999, and is a trustee of the Matai Whetu Marae.
Ngamane was initially reluctant to accept the honour, because he said he knew "other people who deserved it more than me".
He decided he would accept to bring honour to his family, including his wife Kath and his late sister Liane.
"Without them, I most likely wouldn't have done it [his work]. Without their support."
Ngamane has been a co-negotiator for Ngāti Maru on their treaty settlement since 2009.
He said the experience of treaty negotiations has taught him "perseverance" and "pragmatism".
He is most proud of his work in education, including teaching at several schools throughout Hauraki.
He described his own time as a student as "a bit of an ordeal from go to woah", and said he "always felt that we could make it [schooling] better for our kids".
"If you see something you think you can improve, don't be shy to get in there and do it."
Dr Miriam Edna Saphira
For services to the LGBTQIA+ community
Also honoured was Dr Miriam Saphira of Matatoki, who became a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the LGBTQIA+ community.
As an author and advocate, she has been speaking out about child abuse, gay and lesbian rights, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and other issues for over forty years. She was also an initial trustee of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.
She too had to consider whether she would accept the honour.
"I don't like a lot of pomp and ceremony."
Saphira said she decided to accept to honour those who she had known and lost through her work.
"I've been witness to a lot of tragedy ... and so I felt for their sake it would be good to accept the honour."
Her willingness to speak out for marginalised communities and on taboo subjects has not always been honoured - her first book, the now seminal work The Sexual Abuse of Children, earned her "a lot of flak from the straight media ... it [the response] was pretty nasty".
She started her career as a 26-year-old mother of two going to night school to get her University Entrance, and says she wouldn't change a thing.
She wanted to encourage people the "compassionate and caring and help the others around you".
"If everybody helped their neighbours, it would help."
In 2007, Saphira established the first museum in New Zealand dedicated to lesbian culture, the Charlotte Museum. She remains its secretary.
Denise Messiter
For services to Māori and health
Thames woman Denise Messiter has become an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Māori and health.
She is the current general manager of Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki Māori Women's Refuge, and was instrumental in its creation.
Messiter said she accepted the honour "for my whānau, for my hapū, for my iwi, for the ones that do the hard yards every day".
"This honour belongs to every individual, whānau, hapū, iwi, professional colleague and my indigenous peers from international jurisdictions who have and continue to be part of my personal and professional life."
She is currently involved in advising government agencies on the elimination of sexual and family violence.
"Everything I've been part of ... has been about finding solutions to the systemic and structural impediments that prevent whānau, hapū and iwi from being recognised as change-makers, as entrepreneurs, as the solutions to the myriad of disparities that our people live with."
Mrs Makareta Mamoa Willow Desai
For services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the community
Makareta Desai initiated the establishment of the Manaia fire force and first response unit, having required assistance from the Coromandel Volunteer Fire Brigade for a fire in 2002.
Mrs Desai identified prospective recruits and put together a fundraising team of village supporters in 2002. This led to the establishment of what is now the Manaia-Hauraki Volunteer Fire Brigade in 2003. She was involved in fundraising to build the Manaia Fire Station, which opened in 2013. She oversaw a smoke alarm installation campaign in 2020, which saw alarms installed in 143 properties over eight days.
She was active with St John Coromandel from 2002 to 2005 and 2014/2015, during which time she helped build relationships between the organisation and the Māori community. She initiated establishment of Manaia River and Landcare in 2002 to provide ongoing slip prevention and biodiversity restoration to the river. She was a major contributor and Secretary from 2003 to 2009 and continues to be involved with working bees.
She supported a partnership leading to creation of the Manaia River Restoration project with funding from Waikato Regional Council. She was Trustee and Secretary of Wiremu Tekou Trust from 1995 to 2014. Mrs Desai's other community service included youth recreational coordinator, Helensville Māori Wardens, Citizen's Advice Bureau and Manaia School during the 1980s and 1990s.
Mr Ian Wright Carter
For services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the community
Ian Carter has been a member of Hahei Volunteer Fire Brigade since its inception in 1974 and has been Chief Fire Officer since 1996.
Mr Carter was part of a group that lobbied the council for better local fire protection, leading to the acquisition of second hand fire equipment and the establishment of the Hahei Brigade. He was Officer in Charge of the Brigade from 1976 to 1982 and in 1996 Hahei became a standalone Volunteer Fire Brigade and he became the inaugural Chief Fire Officer.
He is one of the foundation members of the Fire and Emergency Peer Support group and has been a member from the early 1990s until 2021. He helped establish and maintain an ongoing working partnership between Fire and Emergency, local Surf Lifesaving and St John Ambulance. He qualified as a lifeguard in his teenage years, becoming a member of the Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Service in the early 1990s, where he has remained active as a mentor and member of the committee. He has been involved in the local body Emergency Management Committee.
Mr Carter established a walking track through his farm to Cathedral Cove, providing a link from Whitianga to Hahei for walking tourists and emergency responders.
As the year draws to a close, Waikato Herald is taking stock of 2024.