Eighteen new citizens were welcomed to New Zealand and to the Whakatāne District in a ceremony held at the Whakatāne Civic Centre on Tuesday, 13 June 2017.
The new citizens hailed from:
- Britain
- India
- Fiji
- The United States
- Germany
- Taiwan
The ceremony was hosted by Mayor Tony Bonne, Deputy Mayor Judy Turner and Councillor Andrew Iles.
Each new resident spoke of the journey that had brought them to New Zealand, and after formally receiving and taking the Oath of Allegiance, they were presented with a Kowhai seedling to symbolise the grounding of their new roots in New Zealand.