Catherine Mair, of Katikati, New Zealand, has been given a Queen’s Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to poetry and to the community. She conceived and has managed the building of the “Haiku Pathway” in a park setting along a river in Katikati. The pathway features large stones carved with haiku by poets from around the world, and is one of the region’s stellar contributions to a celebration of the new millennium. The Haiku Pathway has recently been expanded, and there is a booklet of the poems available.
Seems like Catherine, with a lot of help from members of her community—as she gracefully acknowledges—has turned “haiku” from an unknown to a household word where she lives. We should all be proud of her, not for this award in itself, but for her achievement on behalf of haiku everywhere.
For a local news story on the award, see “Medal an ode to crafter of poetry” on the Bay of Plenty Times web site, here. For more information on the Haiku Pathway itself, check out this link.
A Haikai Pub toast to Catherine Mair!
Bill
This is great news. I throughly enjoyed visiting Catherine in 2001 and being shown around the pathway. I recently did an update post on Ackworth born.
Thanks, Gerald (England), for the link to this wonderful view of the Haiku Pathway! Rich with information from your visit and your many correspondents, and a marvelous set of photos.
Thanks also for including my stone among them! <grin>
Bill
PS: I like it if people identify themselves in their comments, usually by signing them. Web names welcome. Here, “Ackworth born” serves a triple purpose, being both Gerald’s blog’s name, and a name he uses for himself; it’s also a link to that blog. Since he’s identified there as the blog’s author, I hope he’ll forgive me for putting his “real” name in my comment!
Hi Bill,
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the official opening of Katikati and meet up with many of the N.Z. and Australian poets including Janice (Bostok) back in May 2000.
It was an amazing project then, and is an incredible achievement. Thanks Cath (Mair)!
My Area 17 blog has a post about the latest Katikati Haiku Pathway haiku anthology, a useful weblink to Janice’s website, plus an image of my very own haiku river boulder! 😉
all my best,
Alan
Alan Summers, Area 17:
http://area17.blogspot.com
http://www.withwords.org.uk
Area 17 Katikati Haiku Pathway posting:weblink
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