2024 New Year's Honours recognition

We were very pleased to share that our Board Co-Chair, Dr Hana O'Regan (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha), was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the 2024 New Year's Honours List.

Hana was recognised for her contribution to the revitalisation of Te Reo Māori and servies to education over the past 30 yeats. The citation stated:

"Dr O’Regan has held positions at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu as Manager of the Māori language unit, General Manager of Oraka – Wellbeing, and was one of the founders of her tribe’s language revitalisation strategy, Kotahu Mano Kāika. She worked at Ara – Te Pūkenga for 14 years, first as a lecturer and Head of Māori Department, and later in the role of Director of Māori and Pacific and Student Services. During this time, she helped lead the establishment of Māori and Pacific Trade Training following the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes. She was a lecturer at the University of Otago and was a member of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s Māori Advisory Board, where she shared her knowledge on identifying and addressing inequities in education.

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She has been the CEO of Tātai Aho Rau – Core Education since 2020, and has helped to drive the campaign alongside iwi and key education agencies to remove the practice of streaming in education in New Zealand. Dr O’Regan was a New Zealand Fellow of the International Centre of Language Revitalisation and member of the Mātauranga Iwi Leaders Group for the National Iwi Leaders Chairs Forum."