Congratulations Hamish!

Hamish Taverner NZOM, Te Ārai Lived Experience Advisor

Te Ārai would like to congratulate Hamish Taverner on being named in the King’s honours list this weekend, as a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to people with learning disabilities. 

Hamish worked with us as an advisor on a recent project about end of life care with people with learning disability, sharing his extensive knowledge and guiding us to make sure that we engaged with people with learning disability in the right way.  Te Ārai team member, Nic McKenzie, has worked with Hamish on various projects over the years, and says “Hamish is a wonderful advocate for people with learning disability, and has committed so much of his life to improving things and speaking out about difficult issues.  He is a treasure, and it’s fantastic to that his contribution has been honoured in this way.”

Hamish has been a long-serving and active member of People First, Ngā Tāngata Tuatahi, the disabled person’s organisation for people with learning disability in New Zealand, where he is a past National President.  Hamish also has valuable roles with Standards and Monitoring Service, and Whakanui, where he is a part of teams that complete developmental evaluations of disability services.  He is an active committee member of the New Zealand division of the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability, and a Special Olympics member with many medals and awards.

Congratulations to Hamish on this well-deserved honour.