The 2007 Humanities Award

2007 Competition Question:

“Being a New Zealander”

Sponsored by New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, the Royal Society of New Zealand and Te Whāinga Aronui The Council for the Humanities

Winning entries

• Phoebe Harrop
• Susan Smirk

Highly commended entries

• Anna Wu
• Jess Fiebig

Media release
Judges' comments

Media release:

Winners of a new humanities writing competition for Year 12 and 13 students were announced by one of the judges, writer and comedienne Jo Randerson,  and Professor John Drummond, Associate Dean of Humanities Division, University of Otago, at a special assembly at Otago Girls High School on 9 October. 

The winners were Phoebe Harrop, New Plymouth Girls High School, and Susan Smirk, Otago Girls High School. They will each receive a prize of $1,500. Highly commended were essays by Anna Wu, Epsom Girls Grammar, and Jess Fiebig, Papanui High School.

The topic was “Being a New Zealander”, and the judges were impressed by the sincerity, self-awareness and conviction expressed in all the essays.

Professor Ken Strongman, Chair of the Council for the Humanities, said  “It was very pleasing that the values of free speech, independence of thought, and respect for other cultures and languages than English were strongly affirmed as defining attributes of New Zealanders, whatever their ethnic origin.”  

Susan Smirk evoked the voice of the land of Aotearoa New Zealand, addressing its peoples in their diversity of origin: “you must learn to share these unique lands. You must learn that I, New Zealand, do not belong to you – but you, all, can belong to New Zealand. Remember that all is a gift, and one meant to share.”

Phoebe Harrop wrote, “I like to think of New Zealanders as making up one giant patchwork: each section of material is a different ancestry that maintains its pattern, but is stitched to other cultures with the thread of shared “kiwi” values. The result? A marvellous, intricate, diverse and simply beautiful quilt.”

Writer and playwright, Lynda Chanwai-Earle, who also judged the entries, plans to travel to New Plymouth to meet Phoebe and acknowledge her achievement at the school end of year prize giving on 15 November.

The Humanities Award is the result of collaboration between the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and Te Whainga Aronui The Council for the Humanities. Future topics will ask students to respond to a current issue from the perspective of what it means to be an informed and active citizen in a twenty-first century democratic society. 

For further information, contact glenda.lewis@rsnz.org 04 470 5758, 027 210 0997.

Judges' comments 

Phoebe Harrop writes with clarity and passion as a member of a new generation of New Zealanders for whom cultural diversity is the most important factor in twenty-first century Aotearoa New Zealand. Her essay posed well researched, assertive and very relevant questions, arguing persuasively that national identity is made out of both differences in ancestry, culture and language, and what is shared by living in this country. She used the metaphor of the quilt for our cultural diversity in the most articulate way. Her confidence that cultural diversity is increasingly accepted is qualified when she critically considers the uni-lingualism of most New Zealanders. She argues strongly for multilingualism: language is the “stitching” by which the quilt of national identity is held together, and knowledge of other languages is the key to international cooperation and tolerance.

This is an admirable essay, thoughtful, observant, perceptive and showing an excellent command of language and argument.

Susan Smirk achieves a powerful critical perspective on what it means to be a New Zealander by placing the present in the long perspective of the land of Aotearoa New Zealand. One of the considerable achievements of this essay is the evocation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s voice – grave, dignified, eloquent, affirming the energy of a young nation. In this voice, responding to questions about what it means to be a New Zealander now, New Zealand people are praised for their achievements and critiqued for their shortcomings. At the heart of the essay is a conception that good relationships between the land and its peoples, and between the diverse cultures of its people, are based on a gift: just as the land gives to all who have made their home here, so those who come must share their diversity and in this way weave the evolving story of Aotearoa New Zealand.

This poetic interpretation of the central question demonstrated mastery of the argument in the most creative way.

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