Welcome everybody to the very first Attitude Awards. (APPLAUSE) For the past 10 years, the Attitude Awards have celebrated the outstanding achievements of New Zealanders who live with disabilities and health challenges. Thank you. (CHEERING) In the 10-year history of the awards, more than 80 Kiwis have received the nation's applause as category winners. And the Attitude Hall of Fame has given lasting recognition to those who've spent their lives supporting the disability community. A upane, ka upane, whiti te ra! ALL CHANT: Hi! It's time to meet the finalists of the 2017 Attitude Awards. (WHOOSH!) (DRUMBEAT) (WHOOSH!) Sort of always wanted to know how stuff works. Catherine is a first-year university student who's passionate about physics. My big one's magnets, rotational mechanics ` that's fun ` and also the electrical conductivity stuff. Catherine became paralysed when she was a baby. She's had multiple operations, and complications like scoliosis has led to limited mobility. But it's created a fascination with science. One of the good ones was when I was younger and X-rays ` why do you have to stay still for X-rays? Why do you have to stay still for certain scans? You never necessarily know why. Two of her biggest accolades are the best overall exhibit at the Wellington Regional Science Fair and the 2016 Prime Minister's Future Scientist Prize. Though focused on her own career, Catherine gives up her free time to mentor other budding young scientists. My real passion is, like, teaching other people about the stuff that I like or teaching them how to do something, and especially taking the approach of, you know, I don't know, you don't know ` let's find out together. So come in now. Music provides a shoulder to lean on. And what I love about working with the boys that I teach through StarJam is they channel their own unique passion into those drums. Emma Cooper-Williams is still in the midst of her university studies, but she's already secured the Writer's Award at the Smokefree Rockquest and won the Play It Strange Peace Song Competition. Emma sees her disability as extra drive, not as a limitation. When I was born, I had a grade-4 brain haemorrhage. I had two brain surgeries. Also for the last four years, I've had Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Everything that I've dealt with, I find a way to channel that and to give it a purpose. Emma's community contributions extend beyond music ` she's the Co-Vice Chair of the Cerebral Palsy Youth Alliance and a tutor for StarJam. Her devotion to others has been recognised ` she's the youngest person ever invited to participate in the national Be Leadership programme. 'It's given me more of an eye for where I can make that difference.' And... whoo. All things considered, I think I'm pretty lucky. I'm able to do a lot. Cancer certainly affects my ability to do most things. Eva McGauley has terminal cancer and could be conserving her energy. Instead she's focused outward, driving a campaign to end sexual violence. She's called it Eva's Wish. Currently in New Zealand, one in three girls and one in seven boys will be sexually abused before their 16th birthday. I just think that is absolutely not good enough. Yeah, it was when those numbers started becoming my friends. They were real people who I saw the impact of what happened to them. Eva's a youth ambassador for HELP. It's raised nearly $60,000 for survivors of sexual abuse, and she's campaigned for a free online counselling service. The Eva's Wish Foundation is also working to get guidelines in place for schools to manage sex offenders and introduce compulsory education about sexual consent. This year even though Eva's faced ongoing treatment for her nasal cancer, she's put her next goal in place, making a series of videos explaining how young people can continue her legacy by becoming activists on matters close to their hearts. My goal is to... create a world where I can feel safe leaving my loved ones without me being there to look after them. (DRUMBEAT) What I love most about brain research is the fact that it's an unknown territory. Professor Louise Nicholson is an internationally respected neuroscientist who's dedicated her life to advancing medical outcomes of Kiwis. Her mission is finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. Which is what has driven me for the last 29 years ` I desperately want to make a difference. Louise helped establish the Spinal Cord Injury Research Facility at Auckland University and is on the board of the CatWalk Trust. The work that's being done here is highly innovative, which is a New Zealand characteristic, of course, and we're very, very fortunate to align ourselves directly with those that are going to benefit from the research. Louise helped create the New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge, which runs a competition for high schools. The goal is to motivate teenagers to consider a career in science and neuroscience. 'If you give people an opportunity and access, 'then they really have a thirst for this and they really excel.' Louise and her husband, Jon, donated $1 million to PhD students researching spinal cord injuries. I'm taking a step back and have taken early retirement, because I have a brain tumour. I feel that everything is in very, very good hands, and we have a number of students who are doing amazing work towards finding a cure for spinal cord injury. (TINKLY PIANO MUSIC) (PHONE RINGS) Hello. Brian here. Southern police DCC. Senior Sgt Brian Benn has been guiding New Zealand's Special Olympics athletes for more than 25 years. A friend of mine has a daughter with a disability, and he asked if I'd come skiing for the weekend, and I've been coming back ever since. He's a coach of snow sports, team manager and mentor. In 2016 Brian led the New Zealand Special Olympics team to the World Winter Games in Austria. They returned triumphant with 18 medals. He'll be in charge again at next year's competition in South Korea, and Brian does all this on top of his day job. This is Special Olympics at his best. Here we've got Nathan. He's lost a ski. Do you know there's a group of skiers called One Ski In The Grave? (BOTH LAUGH) Brian runs training camps which take months of dedication and planning. He educates coaches and athletes and takes all the reins with the logistics, but Brian wouldn't have it any other way. They teach me courage. They teach patience ` if you fall over nine times, you get up 10 times. (CHEERING) (WHOOSH!) Supporting other families, for me, it gives me great satisfaction to see the family actually come through a problem, a crisis. Wendy Duff's a tireless champion of Kiwis living with autism. A lot of the mums, they don't know who to turn to. They're just stuck. And you get to a point where you've got mental burnout, and you can't think properly. You don't know where to turn. And to see a mum actually have a smile back on her face again and know that, you know, the family is functioning as they should be gives me great satisfaction. Wendy's son has autism, but she's devoted her life to raising awareness and money to support other families. A founding member of Autism New Zealand, she received national recognition in 2013 when she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Most recently, Wendy was a key force in establishing a much needed respite facility for young men with autism. The numbers are climbing ` there are gonna be more young people requiring residential. I have a fight ` if I think I'm on the right track and I think we're entitled to something, I will fight for it. (DRUMBEAT) (ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC) Because I can't see, I do have to rely on other people to do things. And I just found, you know, I'm quite good at selling stuff. Pic's peanut butter is so good, it's a household favourite in more than 12 countries. Even the world's top chefs use it ` high praise indeed. Entrepreneur Pic Picot has macular degeneration. He started losing his vision 10 years ago, but love of this peanut butter keeps spreading. But I think that's really important, you know, is to let go stuff. You can't just control every part of your business ` you have to trust people, and the business has really grown because of that. The business started in classic Kiwi fashion; the first batches were made in a concrete mixer in a garage. 12 years on, it's a $50 million brand,... and the company has been listed on Deloitte's Fast 50 list again this year. Four or five years ago, I started saying, 'Oh, we're selling as much as, you know, 'ETA or one of these other big brands that I grew up with.' And now we outsell all those brands three to one. (ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC) (ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC) We are gonna tell you a story today. Deaf from a young age, Victoria Lessing is a leader in her community, fighting for the rights of people who are hearing-impaired. She's now converted her passion into a business. Merge introduces New Zealand Sign Language to mainstream Aotearoa through workshops for children and adults. TRANSLATOR: Merge believes strongly in equality, of elevating New Zealand Sign Language to its rightful place alongside other languages, for New Zealand Sign Language to be considered both as something special and something everyday New Zealand. We want people to really appreciate it as one of New Zealand's official languages. This one? Kangaroo. Like this! He bounces up and down, doesn't he? Whether it's children, teachers, the Deaf community, organisations, businesses, we want to create the connections between them to support them to connect, communicate and share information and resources for a better result. (WHOOSH!) I learned to walk on this artificial leg. Because I couldn't say 'prosthesis' or 'artificial limb,' it just became known as Lucy Leg. Lucy Leg has carried Robbie Francis a long way in her 28 years. Raised in the Waikato,... Robbie's travelled the world seeking ways to make a difference for people with disabilities. Robbie's co-founder and director of the Lucy Foundation promoting inclusive employment. Their first project is in Mexico, where they're coaching locals in the growing and marketing of coffee beans. We wanna create training and employment opportunities for people with and without disabilities, where they can interact in a meaningful way, learn about each other while contributing to a shared goal. 12 Mexican families are reliant on the income they earn from Pluma coffee. You can buy it here too. Robbie's moved on to fresh challenges, studying towards her PhD, supporting asylum seekers and contributing to a variety of disability advisory groups. And I hope that by leading by example that, you know, other young people with disabilities growing up might think, 'I can be bold and bright and beautiful too.' 1 (DRUMBEAT) (ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC) Glen Terry is often seen around the streets of Hamilton, making his way from one meeting to another. He's president of the Hamilton People First and vice president of the Midland region. He's also on the government's Enabling Good Lives leadership programme. I consider myself... as a leader to disabled people. You can start reading. READ: It is changing. Glen's developed his own business translating documents into easy read formats and language. Well, if my name is Glen and it's not verbal by me, it's not verbal by disabled people. You two, keep passes. Go! When he's finished with the paperwork, you'll find him coaching kids' basketball. I like giving back to the community, because I like helping people. (WHOOSH!) My main goal is to make sure people with learning disabilities have the right to have their say and treat the same as other people. Hamish Taverner has been speaking out about the rights of people with learning disabilities for more than 20 years. Hamish has been the Central Region president for People First twice and has just finished a four-year term as the national chairperson. OK. Another day up to the airport. (BOTH CHUCKLE) A long-standing member of Special Olympics, he's a global messenger. He's a board member of the Association of Study for Intellectual Disability, a senior evaluator of Disability Support Services and chairperson of IHC Rangitikei. Yeah, doing good, Catherine. Hamish lobbied over the minimum wage exemption and helped protect disabled people from bullying by writing it into the cross-government action plan. Now if I get more courage to speak to the government, then I can speak up supporting the people with learning disabilities. Pass. Good catch, Steph. OK, go, go! Go! Graeme Porter strives to be one of Nelson's great leaders. Winner of a previous Attitude Sporting Spirit award, he now inspires others. He's captain of the Nelson Special Olympics Basketball Team and chairs the National Athletics Committee. One, two, three. ALL: Away! Graeme's taken his leadership skills nationwide as a global messenger and board member for Special Olympics New Zealand. (WHOOSH!) (DRUMBEAT) (JAZZ MUSIC) Jared Flitcroft is a Deaf Maori film-maker. With co-director Jack O'Donnell, he produced Tama, a short film about a Deaf Maori boy striving to do the haka. Despite his skill and passion, Jared has struggled to make it in the hearing-led film industry. So he's creating his own inclusive projects. (JAZZ MUSIC) TRANSLATOR: Jack and I collaborated well. And I felt I had equal input into the sound aspect. For example, I described what sound felt like for me,... that it really is like listening underwater. Jared's perseverance has paid off ` the film's been shown in festivals across the world. And it's kicking off the 2017 Deaf Short Film Festival, which Jared chairs. I would love to work with students, seeing them make films and sharing their stories. I would like to teach them to become even better film-makers or whatever else they might aspire to be. Andrew McMillan planned a career as a saxophonist. Now quadriplegic, he's using digital technology to compose using instruments he can no longer play. (BRASS MUSIC, BIRD CALLS PLAY) Just before my accident, I was just possibly starting to make some progress on my sound and what I was doing with the saxophone. I think that's important is to have something that can emulate that. I mean, I can still even hit things. (ALL PLAY DISCORDANTLY) Andrew's compositions have been used in theatre and dance, film and TV nationally and internationally. He's chairman of New Zealand's Audio Foundation. Andrew's passing on his knowledge through teaching and coordinating evenings where artists improvise and learn from one another. My aim to get more of it played and listened to as much as possible and explore that and to push it further, so that I'm not having the same experience each time. (ALL PLAY DISCORDANTLY) Argh! (WHOOSH!) When I grew up, I was a victim of bullying, mostly because of my disability. And books were the place where I went to hide. Born with limited vision and colour blindness, Steff is legally blind. Alienated by other kids, she withdrew into a child's fantasy world. Reading led to writing. Writing enables me to visit new and exciting worlds that I wouldn't usually get to visit outside of my own home. I get to slay demons. I get to vanquish dragons. I get to fall in love a thousand times. It's pretty much the most fun you can have with a computer. After facing endless rejection when trying to get a job, she took to self-publishing her books. Today her books are on the New York Times bestseller list. Steff's written and published 18 novels,... poems, creative guides... and a staggering 3000 online articles... under her pen name, Steffanie Holmes. Diversity in literature is exceptionally important to me. Anyone who reads my books, whatever colour their skin is, whatever disability they have can find themselves in one of my characters. 1 (DRUMBEAT) Being a good employer is understanding your staff. Located on the busiest corner in Christchurch, Espresso Carwash grooms more than 100 cars each day. Craig actively encourages people with disabilities to apply for jobs here, and he says that's created a win-win situation. Totally not difficult, employing people with disabilities ` just being a good listener and understanding their needs. The rebuild of Christchurch has resulted in record low unemployment, but Craig's inclusive approach to employment means he has no trouble finding loyal staff. They value Craig's understanding and respect. Craig's such a good boss because he really respects his workers and he's really fair and equal. When you're turning over staff, it becomes a bit of a cost. We've just built a team environment where they're all very happy and they've become friends and mates. They come here, and they're happy to be here. Actions speak louder than words here at Fairfax, one of New Zealand's leading multimedia companies. Fairfax actively drives diversity ` its coffee shop is run by Deaf baristas. Posters guide staff to order in sign language. It's important for staff in Fairfax. We represent all our communities. We report on it. We reflect our communities, so why don't we reflect that in our organisation ourselves? Since the coffee co-op was launched in December 2016, they've served thousands of coffees and encouraged 350 staff to use basic sign language. TRANSLATOR: I really enjoy working here and having that rapport with other people. I'm learning a lot about coffee, and I'm sharing my Deaf culture with them while I do it. Fairfax continues to grow its Creative Spirit programme, providing jobs for people with a range of disabilities. Hey, Lucia. Hey, Mel. The intellectual disability or the physical disability is not important at all. It's the ability to do the job and be passionate about the job ` that's all we're interested in. What makes a good employer is treat people how you'd like to be treated, be very clear and honest about your expectations ` just remember it's a privilege to have people that work with you and for you and as part of a team. Hattrick Services manage the retail of 16 Z Service Stations in Christchurch and actively hire staff with disabilities. And always pass the handles up. Look at that! Like a master. Their Z in Schools initiative provides a pathway into employment for students with disabilities. It's really important for us as employers to give back to all our employees and either move up inside our business or excel into the next challenge. The programme's become a recognised NZQA qualification, giving some staff their first taste of success. It's my first NZQA certificate. I love it, and I wouldn't mind doing` doing stuff like this again. Anton wants other employers to adopt this blueprint and team up with their local schools. It'd be amazing to have a greater pool of employers so kids could have more options and avenues to start an internship programme. (DRUMBEAT) TALKLINK: I have desires,... dreams and aspirations,... like any other person my age. As I am non-verbal,... many people often make the assumption that I must be mentally disabled. This really motivates me to lead a successful life. Geneva Tino was born with athetoid cerebral palsy. Despite living with complex physical challenges and being non-verbal, she's chosen to undertake a communications degree. Just months from graduation, she's chasing agencies for a job. TALKLINK: I'm here for a meeting with Deborah. It might seem a tough career choice, but Geneva's emphatic. She's a young Maori woman with a unique voice and strives to model what people with disabilities are capable of. TALKLINK: It's about changing assumptions of people within society about disability and letting them know that even though we have a disability,... we're just like our able-bodied peers. She's also keen to be a voice on the marae and represent the views of disabled men and women in a way they've never been heard before. Geneva's already an ambassador for the TalkLink communication device. She's consulting with developers in a redesign that will ensure the device communicates in a New Zealand accent and in Te Reo Maori. This would be a first in the world, where disabled people of a minority culture communicate in their native tongue. TALKLINK: He's hot. (ALL LAUGH) Tane purotu. (ALL LAUGH) (WHOOSH!) I believe no matter no matter what situation you're in, there's always something there that you can hold on to and grab and nurture and grow to get yourself out of that situation. It's hard to imagine the childhood that Daryl Brougham experienced ` 83 foster homes and years of horrific abuse. He received a formal apology, but lingering memories led to a personal mission to protect all vulnerable children. I believe that every family... have the resources in order to put whanau with whanau, rather than remain in state care. Daryl's trained as a social worker, completed a master's degree and now works for the Ministry For Children, Oranga Tamariki. Following the publication of his book, the impact of foster care on children, he's presented all over the world. Helping people with PTSD is enormous, especially in foster care. How can I manage the flashbacks? But more so, how can I accept that this is a health condition? And often I use the backpack theory ` if I don't own something that happened to me, I take that out of my backpack. In judging his personal success, Daryl looks to his family ` he strives to be the best father and husband he can be. Allyson Hamblett is a writer, painter and art tutor. Her autobiography, A Life Lived Twice, tells her journey to self-acceptance. Art has been her way to explore and express her identity as transgender. For the past seven years, Allyson's served on the advisory committee for CCS Disability Action and the board of OUTLine NZ. Now you've met all the finalists. Next week we bring you the winners. See all the tears, laughter and magic moments from the event in a one-hour special. Tune in at the earlier time of 8am next Sunday for coverage of the 2017 Attitude Awards. Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017.