Pati Umaga, QSM, Lower Hutt
For services to the Pacific community. Mr Pati Umaga is Chair of the Wellington Pasefika Disability Network, Chair of the ACC National Serious Injury Service Advisory Group and a member of the Health and Disability Commissioner’s Consumer Advisory Group, along with other advisory groups. He was involved in the establishment of the Tu Tangata programme and co-founded the Contemporary Music Programme at Whitireia Community Polytechnic. He co-ordinated and directed the Pacific component for the Firestone Fireshow, which was part of the celebrations around Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, in 1995. In 2005, as a result of a fall, he became a permanent wheelchair user and formed the Wellington Pasefika Disability Network. In 2009 he was a lead organiser for a Tsunami Benefit Concert. In 2010 he organised a series of hui aimed at changing attitudes towards disability for Māori and Pacific Island disabled. Mr Umaga has been a judge for the Pacific Music Awards and the Central Region Secondary Smokefree Pasifika Beats Competition.