News

National Humanities Prizes for Writing Competition: “Being a New Zealander”

9 October 2007

Source:	Te Whainga Aronui The Council for the Humanities

Winners of a new humanities writing competition for Year 12 and 13 students were announced by one of the judges, writer and comedienne Jo Randerson, and Professor John Drummond, Associate Dean of Humanities Division, University of Otago, at a special assembly at Otago Girls High School on 9 October.

The winners were Phoebe Harrop, New Plymouth Girls High School, and Susan Smirk, Otago Girls High School. They will each receive a prize of $1,500. Highly commended were essays by Anna Wu, Epsom Girls Grammar, and Jess Fiebig, Papanui High School.

The topic was 'Being a New Zealander', and the judges were impressed by the sincerity, self-awareness and conviction expressed in all the essays.

Professor Ken Strongman, Chair of the Council for the Humanities, said "It was very pleasing that the values of free speech, independence of thought, and respect for other cultures and languages than English were strongly affirmed as defining attributes of New Zealanders, whatever their ethnic origin."

Susan Smirke evoked the voice of the land of Aotearoa New Zealand, addressing its peoples in their diversity of origin: "you must learn to share these unique lands. You must learn that I, New Zealand, do not belong to you - but you, all, can belong to New Zealand. Remember that all is a gift, and one meant to share."

Phoebe Harrop wrote, "I like to think of New Zealanders as making up one giant patchwork: each section of material is a different ancestry that maintains its pattern, but is stitched to other cultures with the thread of shared "kiwi" values. The result? A marvellous, intricate, diverse and simply beautiful quilt."

Writer and playwright, Lynda Chanwai-Earle, who also judged the entries, will travel to New Plymouth to meet Phoebe and acknowledge her achievement at the school end of year prizegiving on 15 November.

The Humanities Award is the result of collaboration between the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and Te Whainga Aronui The Council for the Humanities. Future topics will ask students to respond to a current issue from the perspective of what it means to be an informed and active citizen in a twenty-first century democratic society.

For further information, contact Glenda Lewis at RSNZ, 04 470 5758.