Event Details
Unity Day has a focus on Community Development. It recognises outstanding contributions from groups and individuals and informs the wider Napier community on important initiatives taking place in and around Napier.
Admission is free of charge, koha is welcomed, the doors open 8.30am and the programme starts at 9am.
2026 Unity Day will have a focus on “Developing Community not Prisons” and Toi Matarua will once again be the Masters of Ceremony.
Professor Khylee Quince, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Te Roroa, Dean of Law, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) will present the 2026 John Robson Memorial Lecture. XXXX
Activist and 2006 Pilot City Unity Award recipient Mereana Pitman, Ngāti Kahungunu MNZM will follow.
We will pay tribute to three former Pilot City Trustees who recently passed away : Maaki Kururangi, Roger McNeill and Ross Duncan.
The 2026 Unity Award recipients: Naomi Eunson, Lisa Hardie, Christine Hubba Harrison, Gracyn Moana-Poi, De Murphey, Sarah Pihema, Shyann Raihania, John Wise, Manawa Ora Hub, Orange Sky will receive their awards from Kaumatua Matiu Eru, Prof. Quince and Whaea Mereana. Their citations will be read by Mayor Richard McGrath.
To close, Whatever it Takes Trust (WIT) and Hawkes Bay Restorative Justice will present on their work and Āhuru Mōwai, Moving Forward, He Mana, He Pōti and Tangata Tiriti Aotearoa will give an update on their initiatives..
