Website Editor Wins Qantas Award

He was selected as a finalist in the senior feature writing section and won the Te Puni Kokiri Award for a series of articles on Maori issues relating to the Rangitane people in his home area of the Manawatu.

The Minister of Maori Affairs, Dr Pita Sharples, said that for a generation Maori leaders had realised the importance of the media in creating a climate of public opinion that supported and welcomed Maori progress.

"It makes all the difference for people who have little personal contact with Maori and who rely on media reports to form their own opinions," he said.

"I am proud of Te Puni Koriri's sponsorship of four awards for print journalism because I think it is important to acknowledge, celebrate and reward journalists who set standards of excellence for others to aspire to."

The 2009 award ceremony was held at the TSB Bank Arena in Wellington and was to New Zealand journalists what the Academy Awards are to actors.

Instead of an Oscar, Mervyn Dykes took home a certificate from Qantas and a handsome koru, hand-sculpted in pounamu-green glass and mounted on a block of crystal.

He is a member of the Palmerston North Ward (congregation) in the Palmerston North Stake (similar to a diocese) where he serves as a high councillor and as advisor to the Public Affairs Activities Committee. The articles which led to the award were written during his employment as a senior feature writer at the Manawatu Standard newspaper.