Te Apa Mareikura Award goes to outstanding Maori scholar

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Every year, a select number of applicants to the Ministry of Health’s Hauora Maori scholarship programme are awarded the prestigious Te Apa Mareikura Award. Te Apa Mareikura Award, worth $10,000, was established under the Ministry’s Hauora Maori scholarship programme to commemorate four prominent Maori community leaders, Rongo WiRepa (Ngati Porou, Te Whanau a Apanui), Anne Delamere (Te Whanau a Apanui, Te Arawa) Denis Simpson (Ngati Awa, Tuhourangi) and Bill Katene (Ngati Toa), and their contribution to Maori health gains.

Te Apa Mareikura Award recipients demonstrate leadership in community health, have strong connections to and involvement with their communities, and are achieving academic excellence in the year in which they are awarded.

This year’s Te Apa Mareikura Award went to Wairarapa-based Peter Flynn (Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu) who is in his fourth year of study at the New Zealand School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) towards a Bachelor of Health Studies (Acupuncture), and Diplomas in Tuina (TCM Massage) and Qi Gong.

Peter already has many years experience as a pharmacist which he will combine with his new knowledge of acupuncture, Tuina and Qi Gong and awareness of the wider Maori health issues in the practice he intends to establish in 2013 as an acupuncturist, working close to his local marae Papawai and Greytown.