Contributions to culture have been recognised with a number of entertainers, filmmakers, designers, and foodies receiving New Year Honours.
Kate Sylvester
Designer Kate Sylvester is now an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit, but it comes with poignant timing as she prepares to close her business.
“It’s very much recognition of what we’ve achieved in the 30 years that we’ve been in business, and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve contributed to the culture and the economy of New Zealand,” Sylvester said.
“Fashion is equally as important as art, as sport, as music. It creates the New Zealand culture that we all love so much.”
After three decades of building her business she’s looking forward to a change.
“It’s really important to me moving forward. Although I’m closing down Kate Sylvester, my commitment to the industry continues.”
Sylvester plans to continue working for Mindful Fashion NZ, a group she founded with Emily Sharma, which works towards sustainability in the fashion industry.
“We unite it. We strengthen it. We champion it. And this year was quite a really big year for us. We did the first full-scale report on our industry. That’s the first one in decades.”
Suzanne Prentice
Entertainer Suzanne Prentice, now a companion of the NZ Order of Merit, has had a 50-year career in music.
“My genre has changed slightly as much as I started with country music when I was 12 or 13. My repertoire has become a lot larger,” she said.
“But I still do the country favourites that people do like to hear back home in New Zealand.”
It began with an audition for a TVNZ show called New Faces.
“I sang a song called Funny Face. And that song really launched everything.”
She went on to record albums, perform internationally, and win awards.
“It’s funny because I really never wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a vet or I wanted to be a policewoman.”
She said the honour was a delight to receive but also “it was a huge shock and I really questioned ‘has this been sent to the right person?'”
Robin Scholes
Also a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit, film producer Robin Scholes has a large catalogue of films and television series under her belt after 50 years in the screen industry.
“I’ve been able to adapt three of the most iconic New Zealand novels – Alan Duff’s amazing Once were Warriors, Witi Ihimaera’s Bulibasha, and Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip – and each of those has given me an insight. Those stories tell us a bit about who we are, and have introduced me to people who really have told me a lot about what it is to be a New Zealander,” she said.
“The standout experiences for me have been working with Andrew Adamson on Mr Pip, Lee Tamahori on the three films that we made together, and Julie Christie. We did a slate of film and TV together. And also Witi Ihimaera, working with him.”
Scholes said she’s seen enormous change in the industry across five decades.
“Women are now in really significant roles, and Māori are now financing and making their own stories with Māori on screen. And the industry’s developed into a multibillion-dollar industry. Now that’s a huge amount of change in that period.”
Telling New Zealand stories has been a priority for the producer.
“It’s never ever been easy to make New Zealand stories. It’s always been hard. No one ever says to you, ‘Oh my God, yes! Come along, I’ll give you the money’,” she said.
“I think that whilst there’s a lot of doom and gloom, there’s also never been more outputs, never been more possibility for selling your wares to the international market.”
Matthew Metcalfe
Newly appointed Officer of the NZ Order of Merit Matthew Metcalfe – who makes documentaries, biographies and dramas – described similar change since he started in the mid ’90s.
“It was such a different industry then. Xena was just starting, there was no Lord of the Rings, there was no King Kong, there was no Minecraft or Avatar,” Metcalfe said.
“Now it’s a global industry and we have multiple academy award winners who contribute on a global stage. I don’t think many people realise how important the NZ film industry is and how clever the people who work in the NZ film industry are.”
The New Zealand screen industry is now worth more than $3 billion to the economy. And Metcalfe agreed with Scholes that New Zealand stories should be a priority.
“We have to hold a mirror up to ourselves because if we don’t tell New Zealand stories, who are we? You know, we’re our own unique people, our own unique culture with our own take on the world.
“It gives us the opportunity to see the best in ourselves and that’s really important. A strong nation has a strong culture.”
His recent work includes Never Look Away, a film about Kiwi camerawoman Margaret Moth, who covered war zones for CNN.
Metcalfe is particularly proud of projects that reflected Kiwi stories.
“I’m proud of producing Whina about Dame Whina Cooper – that was a 13-year journey. I’m proud of doing McLaren about Sir Bruce McLaren; Beyond the Edge about the conquest of Everest. Those are my favourite three.”
Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie
Foodie Nadia Lim and her husband – food producer Carlos Bagrie – have worked together for 15 years. They’re both now Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Looking back on her career, Lim said: “Nutrition and dietetics was my bread and butter to begin with and then MasterChef”.
“Then we went into food retail, online food retailing and distribution and logistics and publishing and media and now farming. It’s always food,” Bagrie said.
“I’d like to say is a massive shout out to all the farmers, the food producers, anybody involved in the primary industries – massive, big thank you.”
Lim won MasterChef in 2011 and has since published 12 cookbooks. In 2013, the couple co-founded My Food Bag. They now run a farm committed to sustainability and ethically farmed food.
“I feel as if farming’s at this lovely confluence between information technology and marketing and biochemistry and geography and sort of understanding all of these bits and pieces alongside marketing to try to find where the customer is,” Bagrie said.
Lim said she sees their role as helping people understand how food is produced.
“The real, genuine, transparent story of how food actually gets to your plate and connecting the rural and urban audiences.”
