Ngapo Wehi, Auckland, QSM
For services to Māori. Mr Wehi is a prominent figure in Māori arts and music, with a special interest in the performing arts. For 29 years he has guided thousands of Māori youth through the group Te Waka Huia, fostering a sense of pride, self worth, and individual identity. He and his late wife are the only people to have won the Aotearoa Traditional Māori Performing Arts Festival six times. They led performance groups representing New Zealand at four South Pacific Festivals, the opening of the 1988 Seoul Olympic games, and the closing of the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada. Mr Wehi was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Massey University in 2001.