Special Media Peace Awards

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Media Peace Awards the Peace Foundation is honouring two men who have been part of the media scene in this country for a considerable time. The Awards have been sponsored by Bob and Barbara Harvey. Bob Harvey was very instrumental in the establishing of the Media Peace Awards in 1984.

Peace Foundation Director, Marion Hancock says “Whilst the Special Award winners have worked in different fields, the overall impact of their work has been to prompt reflection and to inform our thinking about a broad range of issues that help to create or destroy peace”.

The first is photographer and cameraman, John Miller. He has been photographing aspects of social and political protest since the late 1960’s. He has documented numerous demonstrations - against the Viet Nam war, South African sporting contacts and was present at the first protests in ‘71 of the newly emerging Maori activist group - Nga Tamatoa.

His work covers events such as the 1975 Maori land hikoi and numerous Waitangi protests. In the early ‘80s the nuclear ships debate and the Springbok tour also received his coverage. More recently he has been capturing protests against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq by another generation of protesters for whom the Viet Nam era is beyond personal recall. The second special Award goes to a man whose work we are probably all familiar with. Malcolm Evans came from the same town as fellow cartoonists Tom Scott, Garrick Tremain, Murray Ball and David Henshaw - what is it about Feilding?! He has been an editorial cartoonist for most of his working life. Drawing first for the Bay of Plenty Times and later while on OE in England, for the Express and Star in Wolverhampton then latterly for the NZ Herald. He has twice been named NZ Cartoonist of the year and twice runner-up.

His cartoons have captured insights, ironies and observations about most of the major issues confronting our country and world over many years. The Peace Foundation says “Humour has a way of breaking down our defences and getting to the nub of an issue so cartooning can be a potent tool for peace and certainly, in the hands of Malcolm Evans, it has been”.

Malcolm goes to stage, cert. and uses mike.

John Interesting that the special awards, both this year, and in the past, have greatly leaned towards those people who capture moments and truths in still images. The old truism about a picture being worth a 100 words.........

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