Whangārei teen wins Prime Minister's Excellence Award

Arwyn Henare of Te Kapehu Whetu Navigating Māori Futures won the Prime Minister's Excellence Award. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A Whangārei young Māori entrepreneur has won the Prime Minister's Excellence Award and a $2000 grant.

The excellence award is just another feather on Te Kāpehu Whetū year-12 student Arwyn Henare's hat of accomplishments and principal Anne Henare says she has been consistently coming to kura, putting in the work, and taking leadership roles.

"As a principal, I had to write a recommendation letter highlighting why the student deserved the grant.

"Arwyn reflects our school's values and ideologies.

"Towards the second half of the year, she was leading karakia and waiata and encouraging other students to take part as well.

"She was consistently handing in all her work, along with working part-time over the weekends. She is also very committed to her whānau events and community work."

Arwyn was surprised to learn of the award and said she did not believe it at first.

"I wasn't even paying attention to the speech and then all of sudden I heard my name being announced."

Arwyn's business enterprise recently won the Rangatahi Māori Company of the Year from The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme.

The 15-year-old is part of a four-member team that sells rongoā Māori gummy lollies.

Arwyn said rongoā Māori was commonly used in balms and other healing methods for external use, however, it also had a lot of internal healing properties.

"We wanted to do something that shows the beautiful and important aspects around rongoā Māori and te ao Māori, so we came up with rongoā Māori gummy lollies.

"The lollies were initially aimed to cater for the elderly because of the soft texture and good effects, but they turned out great among people of all ages."

Their business was launched as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) Foundation and Arwyn said the team did not quite expect to win the award.

"When we won it, we were surprised, I may have screamed too. Then it was an even bigger 'Oh my God' moment when we saw how big the trophy was."

Arwyn wanted to become a veterinary nurse and said she would probably be the first Māori vet nurse in her Ngāti Hine rohe.

"One day, I hope to open my own little vet clinic and be a little bit more affordable for families out there. I know vet care can be quite expensive and not all families can afford it.

"I have pets of my own and one of my dogs, well he's a big dog, cannot get a lot of stuff done because of the expenses. We do a home-based treatment, which is working fine for us, but there will be others who do not have the knowledge and cannot take proper medical care of the pets by themselves.

"I just love animals really and it goes back to as far as I can remember.

"I do feel like there are not many Māori vets in New Zealand and none really in my Ngati Hine rohe."

Arwyn planned to do a veterinary nurse course from Hamilton, gain a few years of experience before she moved to Palmerston North for higher studies in the same field from Massey University.

Her advice to all the young Māori girls was: "Grab on to every opportunity that presents itself, just go for it and don't let anyone stop you."