Tupapa – Our Stand. Our Story’ wins overall honours in Local Government New Zealand EXCELLENCE Awards

‘Tupapa – Our Stand. Our Story’, a project undertaken by the four Turanga iwi, Ngati Oneone, Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngai Tamanuhiri and Gisborne District Council, has taken out the overall award in the 2019 Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) EXCELLENCE Awards.

The bilingual, multimedia heritage experience which tells the stories of tangata whenua within the local landscape was announced the winner of the Fulton Hogan LOCAL EXCELLENCE Award in Wellington last night, Monday 8 July.

The EXCELLENCE Awards, now in their sixth year, recognise and celebrate excellent performance by local councils to promote and grow the well-being of their communities.

Tupapa was also highly commended in the Creative New Zealand EXCELLENCE Award for Cultural Well-being section.

“Tupapa tells local iwi and hapū stories from their own perspective. It provides a balance to the celebration of our region’s culture,” said Mayor Meng Foon.
“We entered this project into the awards because we are proud of our people and our stories, and because of the social, economic and cultural benefit it promotes.”

Gisborne District Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann said Tupapa represents one of the many voices of our community and a significant point in time for our district and indeed our country.

“It’s the product of an iwi group that came together to share their stories and enrich the wider narrative of our community. Its success lies in its authenticity, the telling of the real stories by the real people of Tairawhiti.”
Fulton Hogan, the sponsor of the overall award, praised the project for making a significant contribution to Gisborne’s sense of place and pride.

The judges of the Creative New Zealand EXCELLENCE Award for Cultural Well-being were impressed by the council’s collaborative approach to telling the story of the region’s dual heritage, and for demonstrating broad community engagement, including working with four iwi.

LGNZ President Dave Cull said the judges commended all the finalists in the awards and said there were more high quality entries in the LGNZ EXCELLENCE Awards this year than ever before.

“Overall the judges felt the strongest entries demonstrated strong leadership and proven results over long periods of time, and particularly noted those with a strong strategic vision and a focus on delivery. The winners and highly commended entries are exceptional projects which are having a profound effect on the well-being of their communities.”

The winners and finalists incorporate best practice criteria from LGNZ’s CouncilMARKTM excellence programme which is designed to improve the public’s knowledge of the work councils are doing in their communities and to support individual councils to further improve the service and value they provide.
LGNZ EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2019

Winners
• Fulton Hogan LOCAL EXCELLENCE Award: Gisborne District Council, Tupapa – Our Stand Our Story
• MartinJenkins EXCELLENCE Award for Economic Wellbeing: Wellington City Council, Wellington Waterfront
• Creative New Zealand EXCELLENCE Award for Cultural Well-being: Wellington City Council, Wellington on a Plate festival
• EXCELLENCE Award for Social Well-being: Palmerston North City Council, Festival of Cultures
• Air New Zealand EXCELLENCE Award for Environmental Well-being: Taranaki District Council, Riparian Management Programme
Highly commended
• EXCELLENCE Award for Social Well-being: Hurunui District Council, Taking the Plunge – the story of HDC and the Waiau Pool; and Napier City Counci, new Andersen Park Playground
• MartinJenkins EXCELLENCE Award for Economic Well-being: Waitaki District Council, H20OurHealth – Waitaki Water for Connected Communities
Individual awards
• Te Tari Taiwhenua Internal Affairs EXCELLENCE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Local Government: Penny Hulse (West Auckland councillor); John Forbes (Opotiki Mayor)

ENDS

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