Gisborne historian and 2026 King’s Service Medal (KSM) recipient Sheridan Gundry knows her region’s history but worries no-one will be available to research and record future events in Tairāwhiti.
“I’d love to mentor somebody – young people who would be keen to learn more about our history and keep researching and writing our local history," she told the Gisborne Herald.
“It’s already been 13 years since I wrote about the history of Gisborne [A Splendid Isolation, covering the period from 1950-2012].
“A lot has happened in that time. Who’s going to write the next 50 years?”
Gundry said she was embarrassed about her KSM honour in the New Year 2026 Honours List because of the number of other deserving colleagues.
She only told husband Mike Eriksen about the honour a few days ago “when something came up” after knowing she had been nominated for several months.
Being notified of her award came as “quite a shock”, and she considered declining the honour.
“I just feel there are so many other people who are probably more deserving than I am. There are so many amazing volunteers in our community.”
She used the Māori word – whakama – to explain her embarrassment, although she said “my parents would have been so proud”.
Gundry also thought of her supporters, including her husband and the late Bob Briant, who approached her about writing what became the book Making a Killing, A History of the Gisborne-East Coast Freezing Works Industry.
“You need people who believe in you.”
Gundry said another key supporter was a former Gisborne District Council chief executive, the late Bob Elliott, who she approached for support and funding for A Splendid Isolation.
She also expressed gratitude to members of Heritage Tairāwhiti.
The former Gisborne Herald journalist has written 15 local histories since 1998, including Isolated Lines, a History of the Poverty Bay Electric Power Board and Eastland Energy Ltd; and A Splendid Isolation: Gisborne-East Coast 1950 to 2012, written to follow on from Joseph Mackay’s Historic Poverty Bay published in 1949.
Gundry, who developed her own communications company after leaving the Herald, has, since 2001, played a prominent role in the New Zealand Historic Places Trust local committee, now known as Heritage Tairāwhiti.
The life member played a key role in developing the former Plunket Society building into a home for Heritage Tairāwhiti.
Sheridan said she did not have a lifelong passion for local history.
It developed after entering journalism initially at the Ōpōtiki News, following in the footsteps of her journalist parents, before moving to the Gisborne Herald, where she worked from 1987 to 1997.
Because Gundry was covering the electricity round while working at the Gisborne Herald, she was asked to write what became Isolated Lines.
“It all came from there.”
More work came to her from a wide range of organisations, including Gisborne District Council and the then-named Tairāwhiti Healthcare, “and all sorts of things for different people”.
“Gradually, I was doing more local history books.”
The late Shelia Robinson, former curator of history at the then-named Gisborne Arts and Museum Centre and ex-chair of Historic Places Tairāwhiti - “another person who believed in me” - asked her to write Historic Journeys, East Coast Driving Tours.
“Once I wrote that book, she said I’d better come on to the (Historic Places Tairāwhiti) committee.”
“I’ve been stuck there ever since, 25 years. I just fell into it – it was more about supporting my family, then you get hooked into it.”
If Gundry was not born with a passion for local history, she has it now.
All of her reporting, researching local history and hosting Heritage Tairāwhiti tours and events had been a privilege, she said.
“It has been a privilege being able to record people’s stories because so many of the people I have interviewed are dead now.
“We have those stories for posterity, for future research, to understand the social fabric of our community.”