• April 2023: Éloïse Décoste ‘From legislated discrimination to systemic racism: Indigenous women and settler colonialism in Canada’

In April 2023, Te Wai Ariki hosted a lunchtime seminar by Éloïse Décoste, a visiting scholar with the Centre from the Université du Québec à Montréal, on the topic ‘From legislated discrimination to systemic racism: Indigenous women and settler colonialism in Canada’.
Holly Reynolds (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Maniapoto) provided initial commentary and questions on Éloïse’s paper, connecting its themes to the Aotearoa New Zealand context.
Éloïse Décoste is a LLD candidate at the Département des sciences juridiques of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) where she studies the right to reparation for settler colonialism in light of international standards, as well as a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and a Fonds de recherche du Québec scholar. Éloïse is also a pro bono lawyer and lecturer at UQÀM's International Clinic for the Defence of Human Rights.

Previously, Éloïse acted as a Law and Policy Analyst for Quebec Native Women, a grassroots indigenous women's organisation she has represented on a number of instances both domestically and internationally. She has also worked for the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and for the Court of Appeal of Quebec. She holds an LLM, summa cum laude from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, as well as a bijuridical law degree (common law and civil law) and a bachelor of arts (political sciences and environment) from McGill University. She has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 2014.

• August 2022: Webinar on Indigenous peoples’ Constitutions

In August 2022, Te Wai Ariki hosted a provocative webinar panel discussion on Indigenous peoples’ constitutions with panellists Dr Veronica Tawhai (Massey University and member of Matike Mai), Professor Kiera Ladner (University of Manitoba), Miriam Jorgensen (The University of Arizona, Harvard University) and Professor Megan Davis (UNSW).

• June 2022: Panel on High Court’s decision in Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei v AG

In June 2022, Te Wai Ariki hosted a panel event on the High Court’s decision in Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei v AG [2022] NZHC 843. The panel featured Emeritus Professor David Williams, Associate Professor Claire Charters and Maureen Malcolm, all from Auckland Law School.

The panel discussed the significance and implications of the decision for Tikanga, iwi history, Tiriti o Waitangi settlements and the role of the state.

• June 2022: Co-Host of Seminar on Prof Justin Richland’s book Cooperation without Submission

In June 2022, Te Wai Ariki co-hosted with the NZ Centre for Legal Theory, the University of Otago, and the Centre for Law and Society an online seminar on Professor Justin Richland’s book Cooperation without Submission: Indigenous Jurisdictions in Native Nation-US Engagements. Richland, who is a professor of anthropology at University of California Irvine, studies Native American law and politics in the contemporary moment – particularly the interface between Native Nations in the US and the US federal and state governments. He introduced the book and Māmari Stephens (VUW) and Mihiata Pirini (Otago) provided commentary on the book.

• October 2020: Seminar on ‘Tikanga and State Law: The Peter Ellis Case’

In October 2020, Te Wai Ariki hosted a seminar on ‘Tikanga and State Law: The Peter Ellis Case’ by Natalie Coates, Kingi Snelgar and Chris Merrick.

The relationship between tikanga and state law is an important and enduring topic of discussion and debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, brought to the fore again in the Supreme Court’s recent consideration of the Peter Ellis case.

The seminar provided an opportunity for guests to hear from Peter Ellis’s lawyers, Natalie Coates and Kingi Snelgar, about their experiences of advocating to the Supreme Court that Mr Ellis had a right to appeal his convictions after death on tikanga grounds and their reflections on the significance of this case for the evolution of law in Aotearoa New Zealand. Chris Merrick also joined the panel and spoke to his experience in the application of tikanga Māori as defence counsel both in submissions before the court and in the way he engages with clients.

• September 2020: Co-Host of Seminar Series on ‘Indigenous Peoples and COVID19 - Issues of Law and Justice’

Te Wai Ariki co-hosted with Victoria University’s Māori Law Review a seminar series on ‘Indigenous Peoples and COVID19 - Issues of Law and Justice’.

The seminar series examined issues of law and justice regarding Indigenous peoples and COVID-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Australia. It brought together speakers from Indigenous nations in each of these jurisdictions.

Aotearoa New Zealand Seminar: The speakers were Margaret Mutu, Julia Whaipooti, and Rhys Jones. The session was chaired by Māmari Stephens from the Māori Law Review. The seminar can be accessed here.

Canada Seminar: The speakers were Courtney Skye, John Borrows, Jess Housty, and Jeff Corntassel. The session was chaired by Carwyn Jones from the Māori Law Review. The seminar can be accessed here.

USA Seminar: The speakers were Aliza Organick, Kelsey Leonard, and Miriam Jorgensen. The session was chaired by Claire Charters from Te Wai Ariki. The seminar can be accessed here.

Australia Seminar: The speakers were Alison Whittaker and Larissa Behrendt. The session was chaired by Fleur Te Aho from Te Wai Ariki. The seminar can be accessed here.
 

• September 2019: Hon Justice Dame Susan Glazebrook ‘The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Courts’

In September 2019, Te Wai Ariki hosted a public lecture by the Honourable Justice Dame Susan Glazebrook on the topic ‘The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Courts’.
In her lecture, Justice Glazebrook examined how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples had been used by the courts, both here and overseas. She positioned this jurisprudence in the context of te Tiriti o Waitangi, tikanga and human rights in New Zealand law as well as in international law.

Justice Susan Glazebrook has an MA (1st Class Hons), an LLB (Hons) and a Dip. Bus (Finance) from the University of Auckland and a DPhil from the University of Oxford in French legal history. Justice Susan Glazebrook was appointed to the High Court in June 2000, the Court of Appeal in May 2002 and the Supreme Court in August 2012. Before being appointed to the Bench, she was a partner in law firm Simpson Grierson and a member of various commercial boards and government advisory committees. She served as the President of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association in 1998. Since becoming a judge, Justice Glazebrook has served as a member of the Advisory Council of Jurists for the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions from 2002 to 2010 and from 2007 to 2012 chaired the Institute of Judicial Studies, the body responsible for judicial education in New Zealand. She is currently the President-Elect of the International Association of Women Judges. In 2014 Justice Glazebrook was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the judiciary.

Justice Glazebrook’s lecture was published in the 2020 edition of Te Tai Haruru: Journal of Māori and Indigenous Legal Issues and is available for free download here:

• July 2019: Hon Justice Christian Whata ‘Equality before the Law and Criminal Justice’

In July 2019, Te Wai Ariki hosted a public lecture by the Honourable Justice Christian Whata on the topic ‘Equality before the Law and Criminal Justice’.

In his lecture, Justice Whata examined the substantive equality and formal equality debate at a jurisprudential level, but with an eye to what is happening to Māori in the justice system and how that system is responding.

Justice Whata was appointed a High Court judge in 2011. He has adjudicated on a wide range of subject matters, including major common law, commercial, public, environmental, Māori and criminal matters. While in practice, Justice Whata specialised in Māori legal issues and public and environmental law. He is from Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Tamateatūtahi - Kawiti of Te Arawa.

Justice Whata’s lecture was published in the 2020 edition of Te Tai Haruru: Journal of Māori and Indigenous Legal Issues and is available for free download here:

• February 2018: Symposium on Supreme Court’s Wakatū decision

In February 2018, Te Wai Ariki hosted a one-day symposium on the judgment of the Supreme Court in Wakatū v Attorney-General [2017] NZSC 17.

Wakatū is a groundbreaking decision on Māori rights. The Court found, for the first time in New Zealand, that the Crown was subject to fiduciary duties to Māori customary owners of land with respect to land dealings that took place in the early 1840s.

Participants in the symposium included Auckland Law School colleagues together with national and international visitors, including Professor Dwight Newman from the University of Saskatchewan. It was especially enlightening to have kaumatua Rore Stafford present as well as other senior members of Wakatū Incorporation.

There are a number of connections between Auckland Law School and the Wakatū case including that Kerensa Johnston, now CEO of Wakatū Incorporation, was a former lecturer here, Professor David Williams provided expert evidence on historical dimensions of the case, and Claire Charters supported the litigation team in the Supreme Court on the international and constitutional dimensions of the case.

Papers from the workshop were published in a special edition of the New Zealand Law Review in 2019, which can be purchased online from the Legal Research Foundation. Te Wai Ariki celebrated the launch of the special edition with an event in 2019.

Event review: Wakatū Journal Launch