Rotorua-born Tina May Barrett has received a King's Service Medal in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours for her services to the community. Photo / Supplied
Rotorua-born Tina May Barrett has received a King's Service Medal in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours for her services to the community. Photo / Supplied
Following in her late mother and grandmother’s footsteps Rotorua-born Tina Barrett JP has received a King’s Service Medal for decades of community service.
Tina May Barrett, 57, of Te Arawa, Tūhourangi Ngāti WāhiaoandNgāti Rangiwewehi descent has been recognised for her 25 years of services to Te Rōpū WāhineMāori Toko I te Ora [the Māori Women’s Welfare League Inc].
She joined in 1999, and was Rotorua branch’s secretary and treasurer from 2000 to 2008, regional vice president for time and made a life member in 2014.
Barrett has been a Victim Support volunteer for 8 years and a member of St Faith’s Anglican Church for more than 30 years, including serving as a church warden and secretary of the church’s management committee.
She became a Ministerial Justice of Peace [JP] in 2014, and in 2016 joined the Rotorua and Districts Justice of the Peace Association Council, and a member of the organising committee for the 2017 Royal Federation National Conference.
In 2017 she was granted a Judicial JP warrant and has presided over arrest courts, bail hearings and minor traffic offence cases in the Rotorua courts since.
Since 2018 she has been the Rotorua and Districts Association’s Registrar.
Barrett told the Rotorua Daily Post she was “very surprised and humbled” to receive this honour.
“I very much try to stay under the radar, and don’t like receiving accolades for volunteering. I just love helping people and serving the community very quietly.
“There are lots more deserving people in our community. It’s very rewarding to be able to give back to our community in any way I can.”
Ani Rolfe and former Governor-General Jerry Mateparae at her QSM ceremony in 2013. Photo / Supplied
Barrett said she was following in the footsteps of her late mother Ani Rolfe who received a Queen’s Service Medal in the 2013 Queen Birthday Honours.
“My grandmother Rangiatuhi Morgan was a foundation member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL) in Rotorua, followed shortly by my mum.
“Joining the MWWL and learning from our kuia gave me a deeper appreciation and first-hand experience of how Māori values are practiced in the community.
“And I have been able to contribute to initiatives that have improved wellbeing for Māori women and their whanau in our community.”
In fact, at age 13 she began helping serve meals to residents of a local retirement home and patients at the then-St Andrews Hospital in Rotorua
“I just loved it and I love giving back to our community in any way I can.”
Barrett has worked full-time for PGG Wrightson for almost 39 years, managing its agOnline Livestock website, and said the company was “very supportive” of her voluntary work.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
