Pacific people recognised for their service in New Year Honours 2024

A Cook Islands community worker, health administrators, educationalists, an international sporting figure, journalist and arts practitioners are amongst at least 12 Pacific people who have been recognised in the New Year Honours 2024.

Dame Sarai Bareman received a damehood for services to football governance. PMN News interviewed Dame Sarai from her home in Zurich.

Dr Cherie Chu-Fuluifaga was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to education, along with Barbara Dreaver for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities. Barbara was interviewed by PMN News about the honour.

Auckland businessman Robert Holding also received an ONZM for services to Pacific literature and business. Holding established the Pasifika Bookshop and publishing company Pasifika Press in 1976.

The following is a summary of Pacific recipients and people receiving an honour for services to Pacific sectors, with a brief account of their background.

Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM)

Dame Sarai-Paea (Sarai) Bareman for services to football governance.

Dame Sarai Bareman has been contributing to football internationally and in New Zealand for a number of years.

Dame Sarai was initially the Finance Manager for the Football Federation of Samoa and then Chief Executive Officer between 2008 and 2014. In 2014, she became Deputy General Secretary of the Oceania Football Confederation. In 2015, she was appointed as the only female member of FIFA’s Reform Committee, advocating for increased numbers of women in leadership and the prioritisation of women’s football. The first FIFA Women’s Football Division was established in 2016 and she was appointed as FIFA’s first Chief Women’s Football Officer, overseeing the delivery of the Women’s World Cups, the development of the game across the 211 member countries and increasing the number of women at all levels of football. She was instrumental in hosting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, the most attended women’s sporting event in history with a record number of attendees in New Zealand for a football match, men’s or women’s. That record was broken three times during the tournament, with the final number sitting at 43,217 attendees. Mrs Bareman launched the first ever global women’s football strategy in 2018, encouraging empowerment through football and growing the game.

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM)

Dr Cherie Maria Chu-Fulifaga of Waikanae for services to education.

Dr Cherie Chu-Fuluifaga is a distinguished Pacific academic who has been contributing to tertiary education for 25 years.

Dr Chu-Fuluifaga has held various roles with Victoria University of Wellington since 2003, where she developed the Pacific education leadership cluster in 2005 with five students, growing it to more than 200 students in 2020. She was the Bachelor of Arts (BA) Programme Director of Education between 2009 and 2011, serving on the BA review panel. She has helped introduce a range of outreach activities, extended pastoral care in the wider Wellington region to encourage more Pacific and Māori students to enrol at the university. She has designed cultural training and education programmes for a wide range of professionals including lawyers, judges, midwives, doctors and teachers. In 2000 she founded the mentoring programme for the Humanities and Commerce departments and has been providing leadership training for Pacific students at Victoria University of Wellington. Dr Chu-Fuluifaga has been involved as a volunteer in the Graeme Dingle Foundation since 2016 and has led research projects for Ako Aotearoa and the Ministry of Education.

Ms Barbara Helen Dreaver of Auckland for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities.

Ms Barbara Dreaver is an award-winning investigative journalist who has dedicated her career to highlighting issues affecting Pacific communities for more than 30 years.

Ms Dreaver was co-owner of the Cook Islands Press from 1994 to 1998, before working for the New Zealand Listener and Radio New Zealand as a feature writer and reporter. She has been the Pacific Reporter for TVNZ 1 News since 2002, breaking stories uncovering social and economic issues affecting Pacific people living in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Her investigative journalism has exposed major fraud, drug smuggling, corruption and human trafficking, leading to multiple arrests and decisive government action. Her reporting of the 2019 Samoa measles outbreak won two major awards at New Zealand’s Voyager Media Awards. Domestically, her stories focus on advocating for vulnerable and marginalised Pacific communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she self-produced daily regional Pacific bulletins for distribution in the islands and exposed the inequalities experienced by Pacific people during the response, resulting in changes in governmental policy and partnerships with Pasifika providers. In 2020, she created a two-year training programme through the Pacific Cooperation Broadcasting Ltd to support new Pacific journalists across the Pacific region. Ms Dreaver was appointed as a member of the Establishment Board for the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media body in 2022.

Mr Robert George Holding of Auckland for services to Pacific literature and business.

Mr Robert Holding has contributed to the promotion and publication of Pacific literature through his Pasifika Bookshop store and publishing company Pasifika Press, established in 1976.

Mr Holding established the bookshop to continue to preserve and celebrate Pacific languages and cultures and to provide a safe inviting space for Pacific people to own their languages and culture. He established Pasifika Press to provide books by and for Pacific people, coordinating the expertise of many Pacific writers, academics and artists to publish more than twenty original works. He published his first book ‘Tala O Le Vavau: The Myths, Legends and Customs of Old Samoa’ which has sold more than 20,000 copies. The most significant project has been the English and Samoan translation of Kramer: ‘The Samoa Islands – Volumes 1 and 2’, of great cultural significance to the Samoan people. He has promoted Pasifika Press titles and Pacific books through library conferences, Frankfurt and London Book Fairs, Pasifika Festivals and through targeted media such as Tagata Pasifika. He has assisted in the establishment of bookshops in Samoa, American Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Niue, and assisted with the University of South Pacific regional training workshops for writers, publishers and booksellers. Mr Holding has developed joint publishing and distribution agreements to continue the publication of Pacific books.

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM)

Mr Tevita Filisonu'u Funaki of Auckland for services to Pacific health.

Mr Tevita Funaki has been CEO of The Fono Trust since 2010.

Mr Funaki has transformed The Fono from a primary health practice in Henderson with 30 staff and some limited public health contracts to the largest Pacific community-owned organisation with more than 150 staff, offering primary, oral and public health, social services and training and employment services. He is Chairperson of the Ministry for Social Development Pacific Steering Group, Oceania Career Academy, and ProCare Health (PHO). He is former Chair of the ProCare Community Engagement Committee, ProCare Pacific Board, and Unitec Council Fono Faufautua Pacific Board. He was a member of the Board and Chair from 2019 to 2022 of the Pacific Business Trust. He holds a range of Pacific Advisory roles with Auckland Council, New Zealand Police, and Northern Region District Health Boards. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led The Fono to set up drive-through testing, triage and vaccination marquees at clinics and in the community, and distribution of more than 3,000 support packages from Waiuku to Warkworth. He led his team to provide additional support and information to the Pacific community. Mr Funaki has promoted getting tested and vaccinated, addressed misinformation and set up vaccination events to help the Pacific community reach the 90 percent vaccination target.

Ms Christine Mary (Kira) Hundleby of Wellington for services to Pacific arts

Ms Kira Hundleby is a multifaceted artist, creative producer, and social justice advocate for Melanesian and Pacific Peoples.

Ms Hundleby is Co-Chair of the Melanesian Steering Group to the Ministry for Pacific Peoples and has helped achieve national recognition of the Solomon Islands Pisin and Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin Language Weeks to be included in the Pacific Language Weeks 2024. She has been an elected member of Wellington City Council’s Pacific Advisory Group for six years. She co-founded Hundleby and Chalmers Productions in 2012 and has worked in creative production of community and national arts projects and festivals. This has included the annual Wellington Pasifika Festival, Waitangi Day, WOMAD and CubaDupa festivals. She is a member of the Public Programmes Team (Pacific) with Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand. She co-founded Melanesian Women and Friends and was instrumental in organising the Wellington organisation’s dinner with the New Zealand Police in 2018, to encourage more Melanesian people to be recruited to the Police. She was Co-Founder and creator of the World Peace Day Festival 2015, working in partnership with local iwi, government partners, community organisations and Pacific communities in Dunedin. Ms Hundleby has been active in promoting African, Melanesian, Māori and Pacific indigenous communities through music, dance and creative methodologies throughout New Zealand.

Ms Philippa Agnes Laufiso of Dunedin for services to arts and the community

Ms Philippa Laufiso has been an Education Adviser for Priority Learners with the Ministry of Education for Southland/Otago since 2015 and has volunteered as a Committee member, Trustee and Co-Chair of the Otago Early Childhood and Schools’ Māori and Pacific Island Festival, also known as Otago Polyfest.

Ms Laufiso was Co-Chair for the 25th Otago Polyfest in 2018, one of the biggest volunteer-run community events in New Zealand. She was involved with a collaborative project with the Art and Design Schools at Otago Polytechnic to produce banners for Otago Polyfest in 2012. She was a Trustee on the Board of the Otago Community Trust from 2013 to 2021, supporting the Trust to fund charitable purposes and provide grants to not-for-profit community groups. Ms Laufiso is an adviser on the University of Otago’s Secondary to Tertiary Transitions Project team and is involved with Dunedin City Council’s Ōtepoti Creative Workshop Development Committee, which aims to simplify and strengthen vocational pathways for secondary and tertiary students who want to work in the arts in Dunedin and Otago.

Ms Tupe Lualua of Wellington for services to the arts

Ms Tupe Lualua is a dancer, choreographer, actor, director, producer and arts educator.

Ms Lualua helped establish Waka Ura Cultural Dance Company, who were awarded the Emerging Artist Award at the 2007 Creative New Zealand (CNZ) Arts Pacific Awards. From 2009 to 2019 she taught Samoan Performing Arts at Whitireia New Zealand, creating live works for performances in New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America. In 2013, she founded Le Moana and created works such as ‘Fatu Na Totō’, ‘1918’ and ‘Purple Onion’. These works toured internationally and won several awards at the San Diego International Fringe Festival. As a performer she featured in ‘PolyZygotic’ (2009), ‘The Factory’ (2011), Regine Chopinot’s ‘In Situ’ (2011 to 2013), ‘Marama’ (2014), ‘The White Guitar’ (2015) and ‘A Boy Called Piano’ (2022). From 2020 to 2022 she was the tutor for Movement and Creative Practice at Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. In 2013 she established the ‘Measina Festival’, which today serves as an integral springboard for cutting edge theatre by emerging Artists. She produces for an award-winning artist and manages production for Te Kiwa Nui Festival for secondary schools in the Porirua region. Ms Lualua was awarded the CNZ Sāmoa Artist in Residence in 2019 and created a dance work on the importance of culture on Samoan ecology.

Mr Lemalu Silao Vaisola Sefo of Auckland for services to Pacific health

Lemalu Silao Sefo has been Chief Executive of South Seas since 2016, having joined the Executive in 2013 from the Counties Manukau District Health Board.

Mr Sefo’s ability to gather wide support from the community and Government has enabled the expansion of support for the Pacific community during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the affected South Auckland Pacific community. He established the first Pacific Community Based Assessment Centre (CBAC) at Otara shopping centre, which included a permanent doctor to assist those without access to a GP. The Otara CBAC has since grown to include a COVID-19 testing station, food bank, and later a vaccination centre. He helped establish a Pacific Hub for Flood and Cyclone Relief, providing essential support to families who were impacted by the adverse weather events through food parcels, Pacific partners and services. Through South Seas, Mr Sefo helped establish an 0800 Helpline with operators fluent in Pacific languages to remove communication barriers for families needing support and advice.

Dr Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni of Auckland for services to education

Dr Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni is a Samoan academic who has contributed to the New Zealand academic and wider Pacific research and evaluation community since 1994.

Dr Suaalii-Sauni is currently an Associate Professor in the Criminology Programme at the University of Auckland. She has held lecturing and senior research fellow positions within the University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), Otago University and the Waitemata District Health Board. She has held a number of university leadership roles, including as Deputy Director of Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland from 2007 to 2008, Programme director of Samoan Studies at VUW from 2014 to 2016, and Major Specialisation Leader in Criminology at the University of Auckland in 2023. She currently serves as a Commissioner in the New Zealand Criminal Cases Review Commission, as a kaitakawaenga for and member of the Pacific Reference Group of the New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, and as a member of the Peter McKenzie Project Committee of the JR McKenzie Trust. Dr Suaalii-Sauni has published widely in the areas of Pacific Indigenous research methodologies, Pacific cultural frameworks, Pacific mental health and addictions models, Pacific sexual violence research, Pacific jurisprudence, Pacific custom, and Pacific youth justice.

Professor Yvonne Jasmine Te Ruki Rangi o Tangaroa of Auckland for services to tertiary education and Pacific development.

Professor Yvonne Underhill is a Pacific development geographer, undertaking research and teaching Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland, and was Director of Development Studies from 2007 to 2014.

Professor Underhill served as Deputy Chair of the Inaugural Pacific Performance Based Review Fund (PBRF) Panel from 2015 to 2018, and was appointed inaugural Deputy Moderator (Pacific) for PBRF 2026. Since 2016 she has led the establishment of ‘Tok Save’, the Pacific Gender Research Portal Reference Group, initially with the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University and now with SPC (The Pacific Community). She served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Research Group for Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development between 2017 and 2019. Since 2020 she has contributed to the establishment of the Pacific Feminist Fund, an innovative investment and grant-making initiative to address gender inequality in the Pacific. Professor Underhill has contributed to the establishment of Oxfam in the Pacific since 2015.

Ms Makerita Urale (Vaosa ole Tagaloa Makerita Urale) of Wellington for services to Pacific arts.

Vaosa ole Tagaloa Makerita Urale has worked as a writer, documentary director and arts producer in New Zealand and internationally for more than 20 years.

Ms Urale’s play ‘Frangipani Perfume’ (1998) was the first Pacific play written by a woman with an all-female cast and was listed in the Top 10 Plays of the Decade by the New Zealand Listener. This play became a key text in theatre studies and toured nationally and internationally to Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. She directed ‘Children of the Revolution’, a political documentary which explored the 1970s and 1980s protest movement, following six key activists and their children. This documentary won the Best Māori Programme at the 2008 Qantas Awards. She directed and produced ‘Savage Symbols’ (2002), which looked at the traditional art of Samoan tattooing (pe’a) for men. A Fulbright New Zealand alumni, Ms Urale led the development of Creative New Zealand’s inaugural Pacific Arts Strategy.

The Queen's Service Medal (QSM)

Ms Rai Vaeruarangi of Wiri For services to the Cook Islands community.

Ms Rai Vaeruarangi has contributed to the Wiri community since the 1980s through various organisations.

Ms Vaeruarangi was a committee member of the Wiri Whānau Support Group between 1984 and 2008, which included time organising the Wiri Neighbourhood Police Team. She established a Cook Island language nest, initially from her own home in 1991, which later operated from the Wiri Community House until 1996. She has been Cultural and Arts Community Trustee of Akatokamanava Mauke Enua Inc since 2009. She has been involved in a range of displays and performances, including organising the Cook Islands Mauke cultural group’s performance at 2022 Te Toki Māori festival and co-organising the Te Mekameka O Toku Ipukarea Treasure of My Homeland display at Auckland Museum in 2021. She is a Community Champion for the Wiri Neighbourhood for The Cause Collective’s One Love South Auckland initiative. She volunteers on the Board of Iramoko Marae and the committee of Mataatua Marae Mangere. Ms Vaeruarangi was on the Wiri Central Board of Trustees from 1988 to 1995, including time as Chair, and President of the Manukau Central Kindergarten Committee from 1988 to 1996.