In what is believed to be unique in New Zealand
Rotary, John Bethwaite of the Whakatu Rotary Club has been honoured with
Kaumātua status.
John was instrumental in setting up the Nelson city
breakfast club just over 11 years ago and guided the formation of its
philosophy and traditions, including that it would not follow the path of
traditional Rotary clubs.
“He encouraged us to break all the rules and be
different,” fellow charter member, Phil Gully, told the gathering of current
and former club members at the special meeting on Friday, 10 October. “When questions of Rotary protocol and rules
came up, he urged us to break them.
Under the system John forged, we continue to grow, do our own thing and,
most importantly, have fun.”
Assistant Governor Anna Gully said the idea of
making John the club’s Kaumātua, or elder, was to recognise his role in
preserving the club’s traditions and knowledge, providing leadership and
nurturing new and younger members.
She said John, a retired police officer, had an
ingrained ethos of building strong communities and had steered the club’s focus
towards helping young people. “His favourite projects include delivering
dictionaries to school children, providing books for new-born babies in partnership
with the Nelson Public Libraries, teaching young drivers about road safety, and
cooking breakfast for Nelson Intermediate’s biennial mothers and daughters, and
fathers and sons celebrations,” she said.
The ceremony opened with a mihi and waiata led by
club member Hugh Gully, who then handed the proceedings over to local Kaumātua
Andy Joseph. In Te Reo, Matua Andy likened
the role of Kaumātua to that of a sheltering rata tree, dedicating one’s life
to protecting all people. A true leader
also stood tall as a totara, steadfast as a rock, steering straight and true as
a waka, he said. Your job, he told John,
“is to ensure the Club remained strong and its members proud, and that its
symbols, icons and status were respected, maintained and enhanced”. He also
commented on the appropriateness of the name of the Club, which in addition to
being the Māori word for Nelson, also meant to support, construct, or raise up.
He said John Bethwaite had ticked all the boxes of
leadership during his many years of contributing to the Nelson community. He
said John was worthy of the status of Kaumātua and could now be called Matua
John.
To mark the occasion, Whakatu Rotary Club president
Steve Kelso presented John with a taonga in the form of a sapphire pin.
Photos taken by Martin de Ruyter, Nelson Mail.
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