Social Work students commended for their leadership legacy

Merv Hancock and Whaea Ephra Garrett were both founding members of the Social Work degree at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. The two significant awards established in their names honour their contributions as pioneers in the field and continue their legacy through acknowledging rising leaders.

The awards recognise notable student leadership coupled with a dedication to the wellbeing of their fellow students. Recipients are selected through nominations submitted by their peers and School of Social Work staff.

Bec Hancock – Merv Hancock Award

Bec’s journey into the Bachelor of Social Work was a result of the encouragement, support and inspiration offered by Dr Jean Hera while she was working for Te Hā o Hine-ahu-one in Palmerston North. She says her experiences highlighted the significant health, economic, social and cultural disparities women and Māori were, and still are, fighting.

“The journey I have taken over the last few years in this degree has been one of growth. It has been a deeply personal experience but one that I have felt inherently privileged to share with my family, my peers and my lecturers. A pivotal moment for me was noho marae with Dr Paulé Ruwhiu and Deacon Fisher. Through their generous gift of time and knowledge, they supported my personal growth, encouraging me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and to accept and acknowledge my history and really feel the journey. If we can’t do this authentically, how do we expect the people we work alongside to?”

Bec’s award citation regarded her as a respected leader, with her classmates viewing her as reflective, nurturing and an advocate for their self-empowerment. She has been regarded as exemplifying what it means to be a social worker and has been commended for her growth in the past four years.

Bec says she was taken back when she heard she was nominated.

“It’s an incredible feeling to have my lecturers and peers recognise the values I hold true to my life, both personally and professionally. My aspiration for my practice is to be a person I would want working with my own whānau. To be gifted this taonga and remembering our very own pioneer of social work Merv Hancock, who through his personal and professional life demonstrated kindness, compassion and genuinely authentic relationships, is an incredible honour and one I feel truly humbled to receive.”

For her final placement, Bec found herself outside of her comfort zone working in the Department of Corrections. Despite her initial concerns around how to work authentically and genuinely with those considered ‘offenders’, Bec says her placement meant she met with many people and learned to see both their potential and the barriers that kept them from fulfilling it.

“I am now employed full-time with Corrections as a bail support officer, where I’m able to use my skills and knowledge to support our people through life-altering situations. The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem. With support, advocacy, manaaki, understanding and holding onto hope even when it feels diminished, they can unleash their own potential. I look forward to seeing our people thrive, not just survive.”

Bec says she has a love for learning and wants to take her knowledge further with a master’s in the future, but will let her family have some quality time with her first.

Tracy Edwards – Ephra Garrett Award

For Tracy, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Ruanui, Tāngahoe, Taranaki, Te Arawa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngā Puhi, becoming a social worker was never inherently the goal, but instead a result of her life experiences setting her on this path.

“I don’t see it as a career, I see it as one more set of hands that assist in the pursuit of equality by influencing change from within the system. For social work students who are tangata whenua, reconciling individualistic environments within institutional and placement statutory bodies creates complex challenges to assert our collective cultural roles and responsibilities.”

Tracy says she was fortunate to grow up in Hāwera in South Taranaki, surrounded by her whānau at Taiporohēnui marae.

“Our whakapapa connections and relationships were always strong with our marae and whanaunga throughout Taranaki. It is because of our people that I learnt relentless strength, courage and resilience. They are leaders from the front and from the back, not at all to garner recognition, power, status or money. It was and always will be ‘about the people’.”

It was the passing of close whānau members interweaved with the births of her tamariki and mokopuna that Tracy says reinforced her ‘why’.

“My responsibility is to contribute and ensure my mokopuna and our people can potentialise the aspirations our tūpuna had for us. Given the recent movements in the political landscape and what may lie ahead, this is as important now as it has always been.”

In Tracy’s award citation, she is described as an incredible pillar, an inspirational leader and exuding the essence of mana wāhine. Tracy says it has been humbling and overwhelming to be both nominated and awarded the Ephra Garrett Award.

“Whaea Ephra was a formidable force within the academic and social work world, who left a legacy reinforced and protected by her whānau, friends, colleagues and Massey University. Subsequently, my study journey has been with a tremendous amount of support from my whānau, marae, hapū (Ngāti Manuhiakai) and iwi (Ngāruahine, Taranaki and Ngāti Ruanui), Te Rau Puawai whānau, Massey staff, my peers, friends, colleagues and the countless people who have assisted me personally and professionally, who all have my deepest gratitude.”

Having spent the past 15 years working in the mainstream disability sector in Aotearoa and Australia and currently working as a Service Coordinator for One2One Aotearoa Trust in Palmerston North, Tracy says she is looking forward to new opportunities in 2024.

“Following the completion of a three-month, fourth year student placement in a kaupapa Māori mental health and addictions specialist service, I realised moving to a kaupapa Māori work environment is a natural and much-needed next step. Completing the Bachelor of Social Work degree has been a critical tool to consolidate my professional skills while providing opportunities to network with dynamic, awe-inspiring and knowledgeable people. Looking even further ahead, postgraduate study at Massey is definitely on the cards.”