Awards honour volunteers

• Published date: 09 December 2021
• Publication title: Guardian, The

The awards recognise people who have carried out outstanding and innovative voluntary service. Since the awards were introduced in 1988, 151 people have received this honour

Mayor Grant Smith says Palmerston North values its volunteers, and this was seen through a record number of nominations this year.

“New Zealand has been facing the challenges of Covid-19 that has pressured people, communities, organisations and businesses like never before. Our volunteers have played such a huge role during this time.”

Raised in Feilding, Tennant made Massey University’s Turitea Campus her home, specialising in the histories of social policy, New Zealand women, and the non-profit sector.

During decades as a professional historian and in retirement as a “born-again local historian”, Tennant has championed the accessibility and study of local history, encouraging and advising regional researchers and writers as they explore the histories and heritage of Manawatū.

In 2003, she was invited to be the inaugural chairperson of the Palmerston North Heritage Trust and continues in that role. Through the trust, in 2005, she initiated the Manawatū Journal of History as a way of increasing community engagement in and awareness of the region’s rich history. She’s been on its committee since 2015.

She obtained funding for the transcription of oral histories held by Manawatū Heritage and instigated the local historian and local history publication of the year awards, along with the highly sought-after themed annual Heritage Trust calendar.

Tennant initiated, sought funding for, managed, co-edited and contributed to 2020’s City at the Centre, the first major history of Palmerston North in 50 years.

She has been a long-standing supporter of and contributor to the Te Manawa Museum Society, and a committee member since 2019.

“Through her insight, experience, leadership and dedication to making local histories known, Margaret has made an invaluable contribution to Palmy’s sense of place,” the citation reads.

“It’s particularly apt that the presentation of a Civic Award to our foremost local historian is made in Palmerston North’s sesquicentennial year.”

Born in Bhutan, Ghimire worked as a school teacher before being deported, along with tens of thousands of Bhutanese with Nepali heritage, by the government. In 1994, he continued teaching but in a crowded refugee camp on the border between India and Nepal, and it wasn’t until 2008 that third-country resettlement began.

Ghimire and members...