Dame Anna Crighton, of Christchurch, DNZM for services to heritage preservation and governance
Dame Anna Crighton was appointed a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 2005 for her services to arts, culture and heritage.
Since then, Dame Anna has gained her PhD, subsequently publishing a book titled “English, Colonial, Modern and Māori: The Changing Faces of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1932-2002”. She has been Director of the Canterbury District Health Board for the past 12 years. She has continued in the voluntary role of Director of the Theatre Royal Charitable Foundation since 2001, and established the Christchurch Heritage Trust in 1996. She has been Chair of the Christchurch Heritage Awards Charitable Trust since 2009. She was a Board member of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust from 2003 to 2010, President of Historic Places Aotearoa from 2010 to 2013, and the Chairperson of the Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Buildings Fund Trust from 2010 to 2014. When the New Zealand Historic Places Trust’s Regional Branch Committees were announced to be abolished as part of a review of the Historic Places Act, she organised for the committees to come together in Wellington and helped to establish Historic Places Aotearoa Inc. Dame Anna has been Chair of Christchurch Heritage Trust and Limited since 2012, Director of the Art Registry Company Limited since 2003, and member of the Parkinson Memorial Trust Board since 2016.