Transcript
Singer and songwriter Annie Crummer has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit this year. Ms Crummer says she is thrilled to see her music career get acknowledged in such a prestigious occasion. She says that music is a gift that has been passed down in her family.
"Well I know that there is something in there, but was just passed on from my father and then from my grandmother. She used to sing hard-out in the church in the Cook Islands and then the gifts were passed down to me, so I've just gotten some leftovers, but I've managed to make a career out of it and it's been wonderful."
The achievement is something she attributes to her Pacific community.
"I want to share this honour with my people because of the content if you like that is in my music and that's where the DNA comes from. When you thank me, you are thanking all my ancestors, so this just also bounces out for everyone that is a part of what I do and why you may know who I am and what I do."
Annie Crummer says she is proud to be Cook Island and to represent her Pacific nation on the honours' list .
"Growing up there's some things that I just did naturally that were very Polynesian. I didn't get it until I actually went to the Cook Islands and it all made sense to me why my parents eat the way that they do and the stuff that they do eat."
Former Manu Samoa and All Blacks legend Sir La'auli Savae Michael Jones has been granted a knighthood for his services to Pacific youth development. Mr Jones says Pacific people in their respected roles before him have led the way and he only wants to continue that.
"A lot of the work has been around youth development and just putting programs in place and you know, ready to honour a lot of the Pacific leaders who have gone before me and probably pioneered and paved a lot of the work around changing our lot in society here in Aotearoa because like any new migrant immigrant community there's been a huge amount of challenges."
Sir Michael opened the first secondary Pacific partnership school in New Zealand called Pacific Advance Senior School. He says there's still much work to be done for the Pacific community.
"For us we've done a lot of good things and we've made some real positive contributions, but there's no doubt that we sort of lag and at times referred to as the brown tail of society where with Maori unfortunately we might be in the wrong end of those socio-economic and health and education indicators etc, so a whole lot of good people and our mission in life is being to shorten that brown tail."
Sir Michael hopes that with the work he does with PASS will see more positive outcomes for Pacific youth.
"Putting in place programs and initiatives where we see gaps and needs to scaffold particularly young people from maybe being particularly disengage from education and we see the potential in all of them, but we need to help them on their journey to get reengage in education particularly and then move successfully into positive outcomes and successful outcomes so they can get real jobs. Hopefully move into maybe tertiary education."
Hamish Crooks who is on the PASS advisory board with Sir Michael was also made a member of the New Zealand's Order of Merit.
