New Zealand Geographical Society Distinguished Service Awards

In 2009, the additional category of Distinguished Service was added to recognise those members who make an outstanding contribution to the Society, through their branch activities or to the activities of the Society as a whole.The award recognises contributions to service in activities and roles directly or indirectly under the auspices of the New Zealand Geographical Society by a member of the Society. The award specifically cites the nature of the service contribution.

Distinguished Service Awards 2011

Dr Garth Cant

Dr Cant has given long and outstanding service to geographical education in this country's high schools, research in rural studies, assiduous promotion of indigenous studies, respect for the Treaty of Waitangi in university teaching and research programmes, and unstinting service at all levels within the New Zealand Geographical Society.

Roger Baldwin

Roger has contributed to geography and geographical education in New Zealand for over forty years.  Since graduating from the University of Canterbury and training at the Christchurch College of Education he has been a geography teacher and Head of Department at a variety of schools, in New Zealand, Niue Island and the United Kingdom. He recently served for ten years as a Geography and Social Sciences advisor to schools, based at the University of Canterbury, until his retirement in 2010.

Murray Fastier

Murray is a geographer who has been involved in geography over a long period of time and has had a close association with the New Zealand geographical community in a number of capacities. These have included his roles in secondary school and tertiary education institutions, voluntary roles in regional and national subject associations, as well as Ministry of Education and New Zealand Qualification Authority initiatives. As a teacher and curriculum leader in schools Murray was responsible for driving the direction of geography at the secondary school level over many years. He has fully participated in a number of curriculum and assessment reforms that have been influential in shaping the nature of geography being taught in schools today.

Distinguished Service Award 2010

Associate Professor Lynda Johnston

Associate Professor Johnston has made major contributions to the life and vitality of New Zealand geography. As Head of the School of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning at the University of Waikato in recent years she ensured that feminist geography has remained highly visible in the New Zealand university system. She has been a key contributor to BRCSS (Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences), a major social science initiative to which geographers have been prominent contributors.

Annette Lanigan

Annette has Chaired the Society’s Board of Geography Teachers for several years, providing crucial leadership in the secondary school sector that has ensured Geography as a school subject has retained its strong place. She has managed the Board’s contract with the Ministry of Education over assessment and curriculum development and has been a powerful voice in lobbying on Geography’s behalf in Wellington.

Professor Eric Pawson

Professor Pawson received the Award for his role as Managing Editor of the New Zealand Geographer, his pre-eminence as a geographical educator and his organisational capabilities, for which New Zealand geography has been a primary beneficiary. Most recently his strategic skills and organisational acumen were a major factor in the highly successful joint New Zealand Geographical Society/Institute of Australian Geographers 2010 conference in Christchurch in July. He is also currently a co-Chair of the influential International Network of Learning and Teaching in Geography in Higher Education.

Margaret Williams

Margaret has been a long serving Otago region member of the New Zealand Board of Geography Teachers, like many secondary school geography teachers, making involvement in New Zealand Geography Society branch activities a priority. This led to her taking on national responsibilities within the Board framework. She was for a number of years the Ministry of Education Geography Adviser for the South Island. In recent years this has included the Maatangi Whenua competition for Year 11 geography students.

2009 recipients

Distinguished Service Awards
Mrs June Logie, Executive Manager, New Zealand Geographical Society
Dr Paul Sirota, Department of Geography, Otago University