Kuini Reedy MNZM
Kuini Reedy, of Gisborne, received the Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori. Ms Reedy is a manukura of note in the ceremonial and contemporary expressions as a composer and teacher promoting the survival of Te Reo Māori through the Kohanga Reo movement and Wananga Māori. In 1999 she was the kaikaranga, or ceremonial caller, for Sir Douglas Graham in Geneva and in 2007 she was kaikaranga for Prime Minister, Rt Hon Helen Clark, when opening the New Zealand Embassy in Cairo. She has been involved in Te Reo Māori, composition, and kapa haka for more than 40 years in the East Coast and Auckland regions and in the 1980s she was the Manager of the Te Kōhanga Reo resource unit. She was a leader in indigenous language revival education and worked as an educational consultant to the First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia in Canada from 1989 to 1992.