Four Southlanders have featured amongst the 182 Kings Birthday honours awarded this year.

[NOTE: The process required to formally rename and redesign both the Queen's Service Order and Queen's Service Medal to reflect King Charles III, means these honours will not change name until Kings Birthday 2024.]

Southland Girls High School Principal Yvonne Annette Browning becomes a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and youth.

Browning has been identified by the Ministry of Education for her innovative curriculums, which serve as a model for the implementation of the national curriculum in New Zealand.

She has taken the initiative to foster relationships between the school and the local iwi to incorporate Māori and Pacific peoples’ feedback in shaping the learning outcomes.

In 2008, she established an education partnership between Southland Girls’ High School and Tiwai Aluminium Smelter to encourage female students to consider engineering careers, resulting in more girls studying physics at the school and choosing to pursue engineering at university.

The partnership won the Community Initiative of the Year award at the 2018 Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards. She has been a founding member of the Invercargill Student Support Network since 2006, which aims to support vulnerable youth in the region by collaborating with all Invercargill secondary schools.

She was a Trustee of the Poppycock Trust from 2014 to 2019, a parent-focused initiative that raises awareness of issues affecting schoolchildren, such as cybersecurity.

Browning is also a founding member of the Education Southland International Student Coalition, which was established in 2005.

Swimming coach and official Robin Ethnye Jackson receives the Queen's Service Medal for services to swimming.

Jackson has had a life-long involvement with swimming.

She is a Life Member of Swimming Southland and has held close to every role with the club, including as President from 1992 to 1994.

Jackson was elected to the New Zealand Water Safety Council in 1990 and the New Zealand Swimming Education Board, later becoming Chair until 1997.

She successfully obtained $250,000 a year for two years for the Lotto Swim Safe campaign in the mid-1990s.

She was President of the New Zealand Swimming Federation from 1996 to 1999. She officiated at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland and the World Masters Swim Championships in Christchurch in 2002.

Jackson was Chef de Mission for the New Zealand Aquatics team at the 1998 FINA World Cup in Perth and officiated with the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team at Kuala Lumpar in 1998.

Jackson was awarded a Southland Swimming Honours Award in 1990 and a Swimming New Zealand Honours Award in 1999.

Marcia Rei Te Au-Thomson, JP, receives the Queen's Service Medal for services to seniors, Māori and health.

Te Au-Thompson (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) has worked to promote social inclusion, health and Te Ao Māori in her community for 30 years.

Te Au-Thompson supports seniors/kaumātua in the Invercargill area through the Nga Kete Matauranga Pounamu Charitable Trust (NKMP).

She has been involved with the kaumātua group at Te Tomairangi Marae in Murihuku for 14 years, which has included sharing waiata, establishing a ukulele group, helping with social media particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep the community connected.

She was Ngāi Tahu’s representative on the Southern District Health Board in the early 1990s and became Iwi Cultural Advisor for Southland Hospital.

She was instrumental in creating Te Whare Whānau family room and accommodation at Southland Hospital for whānau of critically ill patients from outside Invercargill.

She has led key changes to health care practices, incorporating tikanga and Hauora.

Te Au-Thompson has been a celebrant for weddings, tangihanga and funerals on a voluntary basis and a Justice of the Peace for more than 25 years. 

Te Au-Thompson was awarded the Age Concern Huia Award in 2022.

Invercargill Police sergeant Walter Wallace (Wally) Kopae (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāi te Rangi, Te Whānau ā Apanui) receives becomes a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to the New Zealand Police and the community.

Kopae joined New Zealand Police in 1987 and from 1989 served with the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) for more than 30 years, based in Southland.

Kopae has been a counsel for AOS leaders as well as Police canine training and development nationally. 

He is supervisor of the Invercargill/Southland Police Dog Section. 

He is one of six certifiers who evaluate dogs and handlers for deployment around the country and is on the National Working Group for the New Zealand Police Dog Section, setting policy and training initiatives.

He has trained dogs and handlers in specialist areas such as Search and Rescue and, outside of Police, in noxious weed detection. 

He has been deployed for international operations, including assisting the Solomon Islands Police Service from 2002 to 2003 and mentoring Afghan police trainers in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan in 2005. 

He is currently developing police patrol dog capability while deployed in Fiji.

He is well regarded for implementing a Te Ao Māori view within his policing, building relationships and connecting with whanaungatanga and use of Te Reo Māori to de-escalate situations.

Kopae has been involved with cycling in Southland for 15 years as a competitor, managing Southland Road races, coaching the Police corporate pursuit team, and providing road safety support for the Westpac Chopper Appeal ride from Queenstown to Invercargill.

He says he is extremely humbled to receive royal recognition.

“Clearly a number of people have got together to make this nomination, and I accept it on behalf of Dog Section, Police and my family,” he said.

“I’m mindful that there are many people in our organisation who are just as deserving or probably more deserving – I could name them off the top of my head – but I’m very appreciative of this award."

“It’s my job and I love doing it.”

Dunedin dance teacher Glenys Scandrett, who opened the Scandrett Dance Academy in Invercargill in 1997 also received a Queens Service Medal.

CLICK HERE to view the full list of 2023 Kings Birthday honours.