Young grandmother defies the odds with law degree

At 40, Rahema (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungungu, Ngāi Tūhoe) is graduating with a law degree, a qualification she first dreamed about as a teenager.

In the years between leaving school and walking across the graduation stage, she became a mother at 17, raised her three children as well has her brothers, built a career and put university on hold more than once.

Now a young grandmother, Rahema graduated from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, on 24 September with hopes to advocate for whānau who have spent years navigating the justice system.

“I want to bring my tohu back to Northland and make a difference, while showing that it is possible to break cycles,” she says.

Born in Kawakawa and raised in Te Rāwhiti in the Bay of Islands, she grew up surrounded by strong personalities, academics and whānau who had attended university.

"Higher education was always part of the future I imagined for myself," says Rahema.

While at Bay of Islands College, she received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Massey University, giving her an early indication that university was within reach.

But she did not go straight there.

“I am a grandmother,” she says proudly. “A young one too, because I started my family as a teen mother.”

Rahema had her first child at 17 and largely raised her children on her own, with support from her parents, while working and continuing her education through other pathways.

She completed a legal executive diploma and a tourism diploma while working full-time. But a law degree remained a goal for another day.

In 2016, Rahema faced the sudden passing of her much-loved brother Teina and took on the responsibility of helping raise his children alongside her own.

“I had to put my aspirations on hold for longer while our family attempted to heal from the trauma of losing my brother so suddenly,” she says. “I have no regrets; it was the right thing to do.”

Her Nanny Helen was a constant influence and driving force to keep her going.

“My Nanny Helen was a passionate advocate for education,” Rahema says. “She had planted the seed early and continued to believe in my potential even as life took me in different directions.”

“When I was at college, for example, she would drive all the way from Auckland to Northland to help me study for my exams. Her belief in me to succeed has always stayed with me.”

Years later, at 35, Rahema found herself in a comfortable job at a luxury coastal estate in the Bay of Islands. But she knew she wanted something with a purpose and decided it was time to pursue the career she had wanted since college.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘That’s it; I’m going to go to law school.’”

Seeing the system from the other side

Rahema’s experiences growing up shaped the way she understood the justice system, while studying law gave her the knowledge to question the structures behind it.

“I saw many of my whānau and loved ones move in and out of prison or experience the effects of the justice system, including while I was studying for my degree,” she says.

“I had watched whānau trying to navigate the criminal justice system without having the knowledge or tools to understand what was happening – nor did I have the knowledge to advocate for them.

“I didn’t even know my own rights and all I could see was overrepresentation of Māori.”

At Auckland Law School, learning about colonisation helped Rahema connect what she had witnessed in her own whānau with the wider forces that had shaped their circumstances.

“I grew up seeing the effects of poverty and a lack of resources within my whānau, but I did not understand where those disadvantages came from.

“I understood poverty and a lack of resources as circumstances my whānau simply had to deal with, but studying gave me the correct language to identify what I was really going through – the impacts of colonisation.”

She says law school gave her a broader historical and structural understanding of colonisation, systemic racism and the ongoing impacts of Crown decision-making on Māori whānau. That knowledge is now something she wants to take back to her community.

“There’s legal information that many people do not know are available to them. So now, I can confidently go back and put people onto the right pathways or give them a better start to engage in their own justice.”

Coming to university later in life also meant Rahema could connect her studies with experiences she had already lived through.

“I believe my life experiences and being a witness to whānau impacted by the criminal justice system gave me perspective to understand what I was actually studying for.

“My experiences gave me fuel, sometimes heartache, but also the motivation to get the degree done.”