Rihanna’s song ‘Shine bright like a diamond’ is what comes up for me when thinking about the women I’m blessed to be surrounded by and working with.
Today I want to acknowledge the women who are shining bright in Aotearoa (New Zealand).
The last few weeks have been all about awards and accolades. What fills my heart is to see women being recognised for the work they do tirelessly every day. I’m also very aware that there are so many women who are behind the scenes doing amazing work every day and this is for you too!
Left to right – Kiriwaitingi A Rei, Mere Kingi, Anne Thorp, Me, Christina Leef, Bella Takiare-Brame
Westpac and Fairfax Women of Influence awards 2016 celebrated 100 New Zealand women across ten categories this week. The calibre was high and it was encouraging to see more Māori, Pacifica and indigenous women nominated. Mavis Mullins took out the Rural Category award as the chairwoman of Rangitane Tu Mai Ra Trust, a post-settlement governance entity established in 2014. In 2005 Mavis became the first woman to manage a New Zealand shearing and wool handling team and she also chairs the Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation, a 42,000-hectare agribusiness with 7000 shareholders.
It has been inspiring to see a number of friends nominated this year and would like to acknowledge Teresa Tepania-Ashton, Parekawhia McLean, Katerina Bennett, Sandy Burgham, Alexia Hilbertidou, Katherine Corich, Jo Cribb, Melissa Clark-Reynolds and Mary Fenwick for being exceptional women of influence and mana.
Highlight for me in this year’s awards was being amongst the finalists in the Global Category. Our category winner Lynn Provost is a formidable winner with seven years as auditor-general, Provost has worked with other auditor-generals around the world and has been instrumental in improving auditing across the smallest Pacific nations. Read more about the category winners HERE.
Next magazine also celebrated 30 women as part of their 2016 Women of the Year awards. Amongst the overall Sport category winner was a young Māori woman and gorgeous friend Trina Tamati. As the CEO of the successful Rugby League 9’s Trina is changing the face of this male dominated industry. She goes on to say “I’m still often the only woman in the room. Across cricket, rugby and league in this country, I’m one of very few female senior managers. And I’m the only Māori female senior executive. So we’re very under-represented.”
Photo credit: NZ Womens Weekly
In writing this week’s blog I’m reminded of the question posed by Stacey Shortall winner of last year’s Community and Not-for-profit category for Westpac Women of Influence – “Who did you help today?”.
So as we pause to celebrate I would ask that each of us who have the privilege of being acknowledged and recognised as leaders in our field to think about the younger generation of women coming through the ranks, aspiring to shine bright like a diamond, ask yourself a new question – “Who will you bring with you?”
Through the RISE coaching and leadership programme for 100,000 indigenous women we are enabling and empowering women to lead positive change in all areas of society. We’d love you to join our movement, find out more HERE.
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