Maori Lawyers - a threatened species?

Shortly before I arrived at the marae this morning, I was talking with our own Member of the Northern Territory, Hone Harawira, who was telling me about the significance of this day, the 7th September, for our Australian brothers and sisters.

Today in Australia, is National Threatened Species Day – a national event held every year to encourage Australians to conserve their unique native fauna and flora.

And I wondered whether the gathering I was attending today, was extending the close relationship with Australia even further – by honouring our national threatened species – Maori Lawyers.

Because one of the most startling papers that has come across my desk in recent days has been one by Hon Justice Baragwanath addressing the Law Commission’s 20th Anniversary seminar. He said:

“The current review of the Auckland Law School has illustrated an awkward tension ….

Outstanding performance within the School by Maori students and their teachers; yet despite much effort by the University including the provision of special places, disturbingly few Maori are able or willing to obtain entrance and thus able to join the legal profession”.

So when we come to this Hui-a-Tau for 2007, focussing on the strengthening of Maori communities through the collaboration of lawyers we have to take very seriously this challenge – why is it that disturbingly few Maori are able or willing to join the legal profession?

What is going on?

The need that Maori communities, our whanau, hapu and iwi have for gaining legal advice and representation, legal information, and access to the due process of law is great.

The programme for this Hui-a-Tau illustrates the huge scope of that need.

The call for specialist legal expertise in economic growth; in natural resource developments; in environmental advocacy; in social services and health representation, in family law; in criminal justice, in the Youth Court; or in respect of Te Ture Whenua Maori are but a taste of the huge demands placed upon your profession.

And so I come back to that core question - why is it that Maori are opting out of joining the legal profession?

Perhaps it is in actually looking at those needs amongst Maori communities that we will find the answers.

A report issued in 2004 by the Law Commission, Delivering Justice for All, summarised the concerns that confront this profession:

“Many of the concerns of Maori were not dissimilar to those of other groups in our society:

the system is mysterious and often unfriendly;
basic information is hard to get;
legal representation is expensive and often not satisfactory;
and the mode of operation is almost exclusively mono-cultural and alienating to those whose cultures are not derived directly and recently from the United Kingdom”.


I could say that the Westminster system of Parliament is but the ultimate expression of these concerns.

Maybe that is why Parliament has attracted more than its fair share of Maori lawyers – people such as Winston Peters, Georgina te Heuheu, Clem Simich, John Tamihere, Metiria Turei and of course Sir Apirana Ngata.

Going back then, to this threatened species.

A couple of years ago, there was another threatened species that came through the gates of Parliament. Someone called them haters and wreckers. The same person who refused to meet with leaders of the largest movement of political momentum this nation has seen in decades – opting instead to pose with a merino sheep, because, as she so infamously said, “Shrek was good company."

Indeed, the system is mysterious and often unfriendly….but all is not lost.

As Winston Churchill once said “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”.

When I think of the theme of this Hui a Tau – and I think of the concepts of Koanga, Tangata Tahi, Ngahuru, Puta Noa – I know that the answers are here.

E puāwai ana nga putiputi i te kōanga.

And what better time to be doing this than spring?

This Hui provides an opportunity for us to tackle these difficulties and see solutions.

It is through working together, through our collective pursuit, that we can expect to see a change in our fortunes.

This week at Parliament, a familiar debate has been raging, about One Law for all. Often ignored in the debate is the concept that one law for all only works in the context of equal treatment under the law. The impact of institutional bias and racism clearly undermine the rule of law.

We must be awake to the challenge that Justice Baragwanath issued – and we must also be alert to the institutional racism that our key legal and constitutional institutions perpetuate.

The first step is to be aware and then to act on our knowledge by consolidating together our collective strength.

The next step is what we will do about it – and that is one of the challenges of this Hui.

How can we facilitate whanau in accessing services?

What are the strategic relationships that may help people to know their entitlements, to know the law and their rights before they become entangled in issues requiring resolution?

Will outreach clinics at marae make the difference?

How is Maori media encouraged to bring the law to the front door?

The words of the late John Rangihau set out in the report to the Minister of Social Welfare in 1986 lay out the challenge;

“It is imperative that the wishes of the people who promote a philosophy of self help - Tama Tu, Tama ora, Tama moe, Tama Mate’ ‘You stand, you live, you sleep you died - be fulfilled. The people are now ready”.

Whether as lawyers, as politicians, as barristers and solicitors, as community outreach workers, as legal advocates – we are charged with the responsibility of being able to advance rangatiratanga.

The collective unity I talk of, is a key strategy to support each other, to strengthen our professional networks, to ensure Maori graduates make it through to practice.

But that spirit of whanaungatanga also extends outside of our paid work, towards encouraging each other, supporting our whanau, to do what is right in caring for themselves.

We must not be satisfied with being dependent on the so-called benevolent state; on fighting for justice by automatically reverting to adversarial practice in court rooms or bitter debates in parliamentary debating chambers.

Justice for all, is also about ensuring our children have the right to a violence free future; a future unscathed by alcohol and drug abuse, by addiction, by gambling, by hunger, by ill health.

If we are truly to collaborate to strengthen Maori communities our expertise as professionals means we are also in an excellent position to advance whanau awhina; Manaakitia a tatou tamariki.

Justice for all is also about collective responsibility – all of us having a role in the upbringing and care for children.

It is really important and restorative for us all to be talking about responsibilities – rather than blame and shame.

One of the bizarre twists of our current child policy, is that while the Child, Young Persons and their Families Act states that family, whanau, hapu, iwi and family group shall make their own decisions for the welfare and well-being of their tamariki and mokopuna, agencies of state still continue to place the majority of Maori children in out of whanau care, what we have defined as stranger care.

The key point in whatever area of legal practice you are engaged with, is that your over-riding qualification for being part of this esteemed gathering is through the rights of your whakapapa.

The birthright to which we are entitled, the collective roles and responsibilities of that genealogy, are a precious reminder of our unity as people.

I am not saying that you, an individual lawyer, suddenly becomes responsible for every custodial decision, every childcare arrangement that takes place within your whanau.

But I am saying, as Maori lawyers, you are in the best position to know the power that whakapapa brings to every situation.

You, as Maori lawyers, have many opportunities to make a difference just by being who you are.

As a son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew –

while you are working in the kitchen at your marae,
while you are mowing the lawns at your urupa,
while you are helping to put up the marquee for the hui,
while you are smoothing out the mattresses,
while you are gathering up the pillowslips to take home to wash,


In all these settings and so many more – you have unique opportunities to be cause champions, to make a difference in strengthening Maori communities, simply by taking up your role as a member of that whanau.

And when on Monday you go back to work, it will be the experiences you have had with your whanau, that will make your capacity to be brilliant lawyers even more so.

So to me, the concept of lawyers collaborating – is about collaboration within your networks, certainly, but also about collaboration within your whanau, hapu and iwi.

That is your distinctive strength – that is how you can best serve Maori communities – by being of and about those communities in all that you do.

That is the strength of Maori communities – knowing that our greatest strength lies within our own solutions, our own experiences, our own proud and independent voice.