𝔻𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕁𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕒 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕓𝕖 𝕓𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕓𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕥𝕠 ℕℤ 𝕡𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕔 𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕖 — ℍ𝕚𝕡𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕤

𝕃𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣 ℂ𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕤 ℍ𝕚𝕡𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕝𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕒𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝔻𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕁𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕒 𝔸𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕟 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 ℕ𝕖𝕨 ℤ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕'𝕤 𝕡𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕔 𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕖, 𝕦𝕣𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕘𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕒 𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕪'𝕤 𝕔𝕒𝕦𝕤𝕖.

Jacinda Ardern Damehood investiture. file: 𝕵𝖔𝖍𝖓𝖓𝖞 ᴴᴰ

T

he former Kiwi prime minister received her damehood from her friend Prince William at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle overnight.

For her five years as prime minister, she received one of the country's highest honours: the New Zealand Order of Merit.

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Dame Jacinda won global plaudits for her response to New Zealand's worst modern day mass shooting, the 2019 Christchurch mosques terror attack, and the Covid-19 pandemic, during her tenure.

https://t.co/3rkqkFlIhV pic.twitter.com/bvsPTTEp87

— PHIL😎of humerus bones (@phil86537482) October 17, 2024

Since leaving office early last year, handing over to Hipkins who lost the October 2023 election, she has offered little public comment on domestic issues.

"I've had my time... I'm ready to be a sister and a mum," she said last year.

Hipkins, one of Dame Jacinda's closest friends in politics, believes she is being held back.

"The frustration that I have is I think that there's a very small, very vocal, very angry minority of people who make Jacinda's participation in New Zealand's public dialogue at the moment quite difficult," he told AAP.

"I don't think that reflective of the views of the vast majority of New Zealanders.

"But it's just really nasty, and I can kind of understand why she doesn't want to subject herself to that."

It has been noted by many in New Zealand that Dame Jacinda received her damehood in the UK, which she put down to scheduling.

While Dame Jacinda enjoyed a near-saintly international reputation, at home, her legacy was more contested.

She was loathed by anti-vaxxers for her government's Covid-19 mandates, and was blamed by many on the right for New Zealand's post-pandemic economic downturn.

Post-parliament, she was retained as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call — a foreign policy initiative which aimed to unite countries and tech companies to eliminate online extremism — until the Government made the organisation a non-profit venture this year.

This year, she has been US-based, as a fellow at Harvard University, speaking at events including the Democratic National Convention.

She is also a trustee for Prince William's Earthshot prize, working on a book on leadership, and supporting conservationism.

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Hipkins said the New Zealand Government needed to bring her back into the fold, advocating for Aotearoa.

"I think the current Government are mad, to be honest, in the sense that Jacinda has this enormous international following, and why would they not embrace that as an asset to the country?" he said.

"We're a small trading nation, our international reputation is really important to us, and Jacinda has got the best international reputation of any New Zealand political leader potentially ever.

"Why would we not try and find ways to use that?"

Speaking to reporters at Windsor Castle overnight, Dame Jacinda said she was honoured and humbled by her damehood, saying her overall mission was now to "support others who want to practice empathetic leadership".

"I would sum it up with sort of just trying to spread a little kindness in the world," she reportedly said.

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