Helene Wong ONZM

Helene Wong is a third-generation Chinese and was born in Utuku then moved to Lower Hutt where her mother and father, a long time member of the Lower Hutt Rotary Club, had a fruit and vegetable shop. 

 

Helene was a pupil at St Oran’s College and was Dux of the school in 1965.  She attended Victoria University of Wellington and in 1972 graduated BAHons (First Class) in Sociology.

 

Her first post-university job was with the State Services Commission and in 1978 Helene was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Department for 2 ½ years as social policy adviser to Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon. She was the first woman to be appointed to the Advisory Group.

 

In 1986 Helene left the public service for a career in acting and directing for theatre, film and television. She worked for the New Zealand Film Commission as its first script development executive, and for New Zealand on Air as Programme Manager for Television.

 

In 1988 Helene worked as script and casting consultant on Illustrious Energy, Leon Narbey’s acclaimed 1988 feature about Chinese goldminers in Otago.  In 1994 she directed the television documentary about Chinese in New Zealand, Footprints of the Dragon, for the series An Immigrant Nation. The episode was among the 10 top-rating documentaries of 1995.

 

From 2000-2006 Helene was a Board member of the New Zealand Film Commission, representing the Commission at the Shanghai-NZ Film Festival in 2004.

 

As an actor, Helene appeared in the Court Theatre’s 2012 production of Lynda Chanwai-Earle’s Man in a Suitcase, in Christchurch and Beijing.

 

Helene is now a full-time writer and occasional actor. She was film critic for the NZ Listener for twenty years between 1996 and 2016, and has written feature film screenplays. 

 

Helene published her memoir, Being Chinese: A New Zealander’s Story, which made the long list for the Ockham Book Award in 2016, and in 2017 she collaborated with graphic artist Ant Sang to produce comic-book artworks for the Being Chinese in Aotearoa exhibition at Auckland War Memorial Museum during 2017.

 

In 2018 Helene became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM).

 

Helene is married to Newmarket Rotary Club member Colin Knox, and in February 2020 they celebrated their 48^th wedding anniversary.

 

I hope that you can attend this meeting as Helene has an interesting story to tell us.