The many people praised at this year’s New Year’s awards are not surprising – their names are well known.

One of them is a musician Dave Dobbyn, whose classics are well-known to many and will likely be on the playlists of many New Year’s gatherings tonight.

Dobbyn is one of four people who will become the Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

• READ MORE: New Year’s Awards: Full list

Then there is public health expert Professor Michael Baker who frequently appears in the news offering his expertise as the Covid-19 crisis hits New Zealanders throughout the year. Baker has been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to public health sciences.

There are also names like Rob Fyfe, former chief executive of Air New Zealand, publisher Roger Steele, and Burton Shipley – husband of former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley.

However, there is another name that many people have never heard of. Many of the 154 people currently respected are not household names. Two people – members of the Defense Force – cannot even be named.

So far, the largest number of awards have been given for contributions to community, voluntary and local services.

They include men and women from every region of New Zealand.

On top of today’s awards were Maori health leaders and visionaries, Professor Emeritus Sir Mason Durie from Feilding, and Dame Anne Salmond from Auckland.

Both have been members of the New Zealand Order, joined by Richie McCaw and Helen Clark. Previous members include Sir Edmund Hillary and Dame Whina Cooper.

Durie and Salmond have earned accolades in careers for decades. Their accomplishments cover many areas, and space quickly runs out when describing their work.

Salmond, a Pākehā who studied Te Reo Māori in the 1960s when it was far from being fashionable to do so, was a mold breaker.

Maybe Dobbyn too. Its musical output has spanned decades and different genres, providing soundtracks to some of Aotearoa’s brightest and darkest moments.

Dobbyn told the Herald that his famous 1986 hit song, Slice of Heaven, didn’t really belong anywhere when it was released.

Even though the song went against convention, Dobbyn remained confident.

“I know it’s a winner.”

Dan Salmond, who has praised his New Zealand colleagues, said our achievements as a country this year should make us all proud.

Defying the destroyers, the Kiwis of 2020 are determined to lock in, and embrace the concepts of kindness and aroha as a brutal pandemic looms.

That success made Salmond hope for around 2021.

“In many ways when I think about the future, I am very optimistic about what we can do here at Aotearoa.”

Rise up Sir Dave, faithful knight

David Joseph Dobbyn, KNZM
For music services

Songwriter Dave Dobbyn thinks he’s at a loss for words. It’s not the glamor in Rhythm and Vines or the frantic rockstar lifestyle that baffles her.

He had just arrived from the motel in his van, he was sober and, nearly an hour before he played, he was chatting on the phone from a house near the Gisborne festival stage.

It was an upcoming knighthood title that confused him. Will his arm be cut off in an ancient royal ceremony? Will he be given war horse knights to replace the van?

“I don’t know what to say. It’s all new territory. I’m not really sure because I don’t believe what I’m reading. So I have to ask my wife to interpret it.”

Together with politician David Carter, broadcaster Ian Taylor and reo and tikanga professors William Te Rangiua Temara, Dobbyn will become a Knight Friend of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

That’s a wordy way of saying you can now call him Sir Dave.

Dobbyn said his children responded to the news with joy and appeared incredulous.

“Then I started ordering them – but it didn’t work.”

Dobbyn sounds like an old friend you meet after a few years, or your favorite uncle, who you only see once every few Christmas but immediately disarms you with hilarious anecdotes.

He said tonight he would be removed from the stage before 8pm like some “old man” the organizers didn’t want.

“They want to make us a cup of tea before 8.”

He joked that he would then be replaced with “doof-doof music” and the crowd waved their hands in the air.

For some boozers, this month is No Remember December. Last year, Dobbyn quit drinking during an alcohol-free cancer fundraising campaign called Dry July.

He’s stepped away from the turps, and 15 months later said throwing out alcohol was the best thing he’s ever done.

“You can finish sentences and structure them better and stop beating yourself up. I kind of hate who I am and how reactive I am and how insane I am.

“I limit myself to beer – it’s one way of trying to pretend I’m not a drinker or alcoholic. The whole circle of binge and drinking and so on, it just blocks the music.”

Many New Zealanders likely have a favorite Dave Dobbyn song, even if they don’t know.

Given her huge contributions over the decades (with Th ‘Dudes, with DD Smash, with Herbs, and during her solo career), you may hate some of her songs but adore others.

Without Dobbyn, there would be no Bliss, Be Mine Tonight, no Loyal, no Slice of Heaven, no Devil You Know, no Whaling.

For 40 years, he’s been interwoven with some of New Zealand’s most poignant and divisive moments.

She was blamed for inciting the Queen St riots. 1984, later cleared of error.

Loyal was used in an early 2000s America’s Cup campaign, in which New Zealanders were urged to buy a $ 10 car air flag of the same color.

In 2004, he joined musicians to raise money for the Algerian refugee family, Ahmed Zaoui.

After the Pike River tragedy, he recorded the tribute This Love with Orpheus Choir of Wellington and Wellington Young Voices in 2014.

Returning to R&V, Dobbyn says that writing a song drives it, just like the pursuit of happiness – in his words, creates something really great and makes people happy. He said the same chase prompted a craftsman to make custom furniture.

Wanting your creation to stand the test of time is one thing. But how do you know when you are successful? When Slice of Heaven was released in 1986, did he know how good it was?

Yes, that’s right, said Dobbyn without hesitation. He can feel it.

Other people can feel it too.

Da da da, this, this da da, this da da this, this, da da da.

Dobbyn says Slice of Heaven doesn’t fit into any of the prints. It stands out. He said one radio show host who had a selfish grudge refused to play it for six weeks. The song was in the trailer for the box-office smash hit Footrot Flats, and massive popular demand forced the DJ’s hand.

Dobbyn is playing at more festivals this summer and isn’t worried about going abroad any time soon.

He knows it is difficult to say how the global Covid-19 pandemic might have come and after hearing from relatives in California, he is in no rush to go to the United States.

“I would love to just play in New Zealand for the rest of my life. I get a lot of joy from him.”

Meanwhile, the desire for another slice of heaven motivated him, as did the smiles on people’s faces as they sang together.

“You always want a goal bigger than yourself.”

Optimistic scholars about New Zealand

Honorable Professor Dame Mary Anne Salmond, ONZ
For services to New Zealand

Much of the world was unraveling when Dame Anne Salmond picked up the phone at her sanctuary outside Gisborne.

Covid-19 attacks dozens of countries, including many of the richest countries in the world. Some are in the third wave of mass death and chaos this year.

But anthropologists, historians and TV hosts are optimistic ahead of 2021.

Together with Professor Emeritus Sir Mason Durie, Salmond has become a member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest tier in the country’s royal awards system, where he will join forces with Richie McCaw, former prime minister and Murray Halberg.

Sure, he’s excited about the big New Year’s awards, but New Zealand’s response to the pandemic excited him.

Aotearoa is one of the few places where crowds can safely cheer up a fireworks or laser show, and where the next day, the red-eyed can dance and sing along at a festival.

Salmond said the country must consider how it can share its lessons with the rest of the world.

He said our ability to temper the neoliberal philosophy was one of the reasons New Zealand was successful this year, be it in assessing the epidemic or its economy.

“Since the 80s we have had a cult of economics towards individuals. In New Zealand we were very strong with that philosophy for a while and you see the effect it has on our current level of inequality. But at the same time, we ‘We always had fair values -Go very strong. “

Salmond also praised the Māori concept of aroha.

“Aroha is a beautiful concept because it is really about feeling fellow, caring for others. I think it’s about looking after other people but also taking care of other life systems and life forms.”

He said that a worldview benefits people not only during a pandemic, but can help us overcome the ecological crisis facing the world and 7.8 billion people today.

Over the years, the University of Auckland’s Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology has been recognized for his work on intercultural understanding.

He seems genuinely interested in how to make this country better, and how learning te reo Māori can help us better understand the past, present and future.

Salmond said enthusiasm to learn te reo is now very important. It was a different story in the 1960s.

“When I was young and very fascinated by te reo and started studying it … it was not uncommon for Pākehā to be attracted to te reo or Māori tikanga or those things.

“In fact, it’s considered quite eccentric and not always great.”

Some fanatics, he said, harshly ignored Te Reo even though they knew so little about him.

But Pākehā culture is not static, and views about our native language have increased.

As Salmond and his Tairāwhiti neighbors prepare for the first rays of the sun in 2021, he hopes New Zealand can learn from this wild and brutal year and build a better future.

“In many ways when I think about the future, I am very optimistic about what we can do here at Aotearoa.”