Inaugural Founder’s Medal Awarded to Trailblazing Alumna
Each year Rangi Ruru pays homage to the school’s history with the Founders’ Day Assembly. This year, a new tradition was added as alumna Liz Alden Wily (class of 1961) was awarded the inaugural Founders’ Medal for her work as an internationally recognised land economist.
Throughout her career Liz has focused on one of the most important justice issues of our time: Ensuring that Indigenous and customary communities have the legal right to their own land and resources. For more than four decades, she has been at the forefront of land rights reform, helping communities across Africa, Asia and beyond secure legal recognition of their customary lands, forests and natural resources after conflict.
An internationally respected researcher, author and adviser, her work has spanned grassroots community engagement through to constitutional and legislative reform in more than 20 countries. She has played a pivotal role in advancing community-based land ownership, strengthening governance of shared resources, supporting post-conflict land reform, and developing practical approaches to resolving land rights disputes. Her work has shaped laws and policies in places such as Uganda, Kenya, Nepal and Afghanistan.
The Founder’s Medal was launched this year by Rangi Ruru Girls’ School Principal Tracy Herft to honour inspiring alumna who have lived the school values and uplifted others through their work.
“Liz has had significant impact on the lives of many, many people,” says Ms Herft. “What stands out most is not just the scale of her work, but the heart behind it. She truly embodies the spirit of Rangi Ruru: using knowledge for good, leading with humility, and working tirelessly to make the world more just and equitable.”
Recognising a Life of Impact
“On Founders’ Day, we always honour the vision and courage of the women who shaped Rangi Ruru into the kura we know and love today,” says Ms Herft. “This new tradition honours our past, celebrates our present and inspires our future. The legacy of our mana wāhine continues to guide us, and this new annual award recognises alumnae who inspire us as visionary leaders, trailblazers in their professions, champions of community service or innovators in arts and culture.”
The Extraordinary Life of Liz Alden Wily
Liz, who attended Rangi Ruru from 1961 until 1965, says she was humbled to receive the Founders’ Medal. The assembly coincided with a trip home from Kenya, so she was even able to accept it in person.
“It’s an incredible honour, I really am genuinely grateful,” she says. “I’m sure there are hundreds of other old girls doing wonderful things, and I feel very grateful that somebody back home has recognised that I’ve been doing something—perhaps not always doing it well but always doing my best.”
Liz attended Rangi Ruru with her twin sister, Jennifer, and her older sister, Susan (who jointly nominated her for the award). Their mother, Helen, was a Teacher of Mathematics at the school, then later a Board Member.
She says she met her first ‘community’ outside the family at Rangi Ruru, making several lifetime friends, one in particular, Kate Edge, who also nominated Liz (without knowing her sisters had as well). She loved sports and despite a severe eyesight issue, enjoyed learning across all her subjects.
“Only with hindsight did I realize that nobody at school made fun of the binoculars I had to use in those years to read. Kindness came naturally to Rangi girls”.
After graduation, Liz was excited to travel outside of New Zealand.
“When I left school, my only interest was outward: I wanted to see the entire world, which was rather a big ask, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
And that she did. After completing an Bachelor of Arts in English Literature she set off hitchhiking to London, taking boats when necessary. When London didn’t appeal, she decided to become a teacher in Ghana, then travelling down to Botswana a year or so later where she set up the first school in the Kalahari Desert for hunter-gatherer children.
It was there that she leaned the importance of secure community land ownership for hunter-gatherers, as their ancestral lands were being taken by governments or other settled communities.
Defending those rights ignited her decades-long career for changing land laws over much of Africa to allow for community land titles. Liz and her husband, John, moved to Tanzania for some years where she spent time doing field work for her doctorate in the political economy of property awarded by the University of East Anglia, UK. They also lived in Kenya, where their children, Hanna and Thomas, attended school.
Among Liz’s many achievements are the establishment of Africa’s first land rights programme for San communities in Botswana, the development of community-owned forest reserve models in Tanzania, and contributions to land and governance reforms in countries including Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sudan and Liberia.
Liz, a grandmother of four, continues to work with policy, legal drafting and assisting post-conflict states like Uganda, Afghanistan, Liberia, and South Sudan helping rural communities own their land, including their forests and rangelands. She also advises for global human rights agencies in Netherlands, Washington and Kenya.
Standing Up for What’s Right
Underpinning all of Liz’s formidable work is a strong sense of justice.
“I feel strongly that if you can’t fight for justice and people’s rights—rights that really shouldn’t even be questioned—then what are we doing? The right to education, the right to water, shelter, and the right to hold onto your land if you’re a community that depends on it,” she says. “That has been my life.”
Liz recalls this unwavering belief making an appearance when she was a student at Rangi Ruru.
“I was rather difficult at school, actually I’m beginning to realise I was a little bit of a rebel. Thank goodness reports weren’t typed and stored digitally back then, I often wonder what the teachers said to my mother. I remember one teacher who came into a classroom where we were all talking and making a terrible noise. She got very frustrated and said, ‘Everyone sit down unless you have something to say’. Well, I stayed standing. She asked what I had to say and I replied, ‘I think you’re being unfair’. She didn’t really know how to punish me for that.”
Inspiring the Courage to Grow
Today, Liz continues to influence global conversations on land rights through research, advisory and governance roles with leading international organisations and institutions. Her work remains focused on ensuring affected communities—which equal around 3 billion people—have both a voice in, and legal rights to, the lands on which their livelihoods depend.
During her visit to Rangi Ruru, Liz spent time with some of today’s ākonga and was impressed with their ambitions for their own futures.
“They all seem so together, so organised, so happy in themselves. That’s an incredible tribute to the school.”
Her advice?
“Don’t rush into making decisions: Take opportunities, see things, keep your eyes open and find something that matters deeply to you. I think it’s important for all of us—men and women alike—to find something we feel strongly about.”
Meaningful Design
The significance of the medal extends into its design, as it was created by another alumna, artist Amelia Pascoe (Class of 1984).
Her works are held in Te Papa, the Dowse Art Museum, and private collections, with many pieces reflecting her science background, as she also works as a Principal Advisor at the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The Founders’ Medal, and its accompanying brass pin, is no exception. The front of the medal is based on the school’s Whaia To Te Rangi wooden carving, with the word ‘Behold’ engraved on the back to depict the school’s four pillars. The blackened brass pin accompanying the medal, intended to be a more wearable element, is a visual reference to the school’s name, Wide Sky Shelter. Its five pin points reflect both the Southern Cross star constellation as it appears on the metal cladding of Atawhai and the five school values.
A single central pin allows the brooch to rotate freely, reflecting the ever-changing night sky across the seasons. As it turns, glimpses of the wearer’s clothing beneath speak to the many facets of the individual being celebrated.