~ Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame 2023 ~

Hall of Fame Inductee 2023

Gurunathan Krishnasamy

Gurunathan Krishnasamy, former New Zealand politician and journalist, and two-term Mayor of the Kāpiti Coast District (2016–2022), was inducted into the Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame in 2023.

Born in 1952 in Malaysia, he moved to Wellington in 1974 with $200 and began building a life in New Zealand from the ground up.

During his university years, he became active in student politics, co-founding The New Times Monthly and engaging with Māori activist group Ngā Tamatoa. He also worked as a journalist in Malaysia before returning to New Zealand in 1995.

In local politics, Krishnasamy became Kāpiti’s first Asian councillor in 2010. In 2016, he was elected Mayor, becoming the first non-Pākehā to hold the role in the district. He retired from local government in 2022.

Alongside public service, he has worked as a columnist and has been active in writing on Māori issues and multicultural communities.