Mrs Sunita Narayan, of Wellington, ONZM, for services to language education and the Indian community
Sunita Narayan has been a teacher, fundraiser, budget manager, administrator, resource creator and operations manager for the Wellington Hindi School. She has supported others in New Zealand to set up Hindi schools or classes. She initiated a Hindi Ambassador programme for students and, with the Indian High Commission, a Hindi Youth Leader Award. She is President of Community Languages New Zealand. She has organised conferences, written submissions and articles, and developed frameworks and strategies to raise the profile of heritage languages. She led development of a curriculum and teaching guidelines for migrant children and heritage language teachers. She co-founded the Indian Languages and Research Foundation and has assisted AFS, AsiaNZ and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Mrs Narayan has initiated cross-cultural Hindi celebrations, including Wellington’s first Holi celebration.