World Class New Zealand Awards Dinner
I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the evening (Sign)
I specifically greet you: Sir Stephen Tindall, co-founder of KEA and member of the KEA Global Board and Lady Margaret Tindall; Professor David Teece, co-founder of KEA; Dr Sue Watson, Global Chief Executive Officer of KEA; Hon Tim Groser, Minister of Trade; Your Worships Len Brown and Celia Wade-Brown, the Mayors of Auckland and Wellington respectively; Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser and other past winners of World Class NZ Awards; former Prime Ministers Rt Hon Jim Bolger and Rt Hon Dame Jenny Shipley and former Ministers of the Crown; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and gentlemen.
It has been a great pleasure for my wife Susan and I to accept the kind invitation to be here for the Kiwi Expats Association’s World Class New Zealand Awards ceremony as KEA celebrates its 10th anniversary.
As Governor-General, I particularly want to welcome the many international guests here this evening. I trust many of you will have an opportunity to see a little of our country beyond the cities before you leave.
As a nation isolated in South Pacific and whose only physical border is roaring surf, what is known to New Zealanders as the “big OE” has long been a recognised part of New Zealand life. My wife Susan and I particularly enjoyed an OE, of sorts, in the early 1970s, travelling to India and then to Europe a few years after our marriage and before our children were born.
But the “big OE” also has another frequent consequence, namely that many New Zealanders become ‘expats’. New Zealand writer Robin Hyde, in her 1938 novel The Godwits Fly, spoke of her own generation when she wrote: “Most of us here are human godwits; our north is mostly England. Our youth, our best, our intelligent, brave and beautiful must make the long migration under a compulsion they hardly understand.”
New Zealand remains vividly with those who have made that ‘long migration’. This is perhaps most clear in the case of Katherine Mansfield, who wrote her Wellington stories in the last couple of years of her life, while living in France in the early 1920’s.
Likewise, John Mulgan, whose novel Man Alone has sometimes been described as ‘the great New Zealand novel’, wrote the following in his later autobiographical book, Report on Experience: “If you try to forget the country of your youth, as I did for a long time, you will lose the fight and wither internally of homesickness.”
The Kiwi Expats Association, I am pleased to note, similarly exhorts New Zealanders abroad “not to try to forget” the country of their youth.
It is estimated there are now about one million Kiwi expats. Given that New Zealand only has a population of 4.4 million, this “Kiwi diaspora” can be said to be proportionally one of the largest diaspora of any developed country.
As is obvious at this gathering tonight, many expats have become highly successful, making impressive contributions in many fields. That contribution extends beyond their individual pursuits, to lend weight to the phrase that New Zealand and New Zealanders punch above their weight in many areas.
Business journalist Rod Oram, who has had an active involvement with KEA, has pointed out that the New Zealand community has another group of people, those who also want to be part of what he terms “global New Zealandness”.
As he puts it, “New Zealand is a state of mind as well as a fact of geography. Being a New Zealander is about how you relate multi-culturally—how you understand that four or five million people can make a distinctive contribution to a world population approaching seven billion.”
I am very pleased to have been given the privilege of handing out the Friend of New Zealand Award and the Supreme Award this evening.
I am particularly pleased because of what I understand happened as a result of this awards evening last year.
As may be generally known, last year’s Supreme Award was given to Professor Richard Faull from the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. The inaugural ‘Friend of New Zealand’ Award was given to Julian Robertson, the leading New York investor whose businesses in New Zealand include world class golf resorts and wineries.
I understand that immediately after the ceremony, Julian Robertson went up to Professor Faull and made the offer of a significant donation, which has enabled the brain research centre to offer senior postdoctoral fellowships for the first time, and accordingly extend its research programme. Professor Faull has rightly commented that this was “the closest networking you could ever imagine!”
It also demonstrates a striking example of one of the ways in which KEA, the Kiwi Expats Association can work to benefit New Zealand, and much more.
On that note I would like to close and in our country’s first language Māori, by wishing everyone good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.