Lecretia Seales Memorial Lecture in Law Reform

The Lecretia Seales Memorial Lecture is given in honour of lawyer and law reform advocate, alumna Lecretia Seales.

A group of people standing in front of an old wooden staircase. — From left: Shirley Seales, Larry Seales, Jeremy Seales, Catherine Marks, Lulu Marks, Māmari Stephens, Professor Geoff McLay (Dean at the Faculty of Law), Roger Shepherd, Professor Rawinia Higgins (Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Māori and Kaitiakitanga))

This year, the Faculty of Law had the privilege of hearing from Māmari Stephens, Reader at the Faculty of Law.

In her lecture, Neither dead nor lost—uncovering critical law stories at a critical time, Māmari reflected on tikanga Māori as a legal system. Her insights were informed by her experience leading the research project Te Rauhī i te Tikanga—a Tikanga Companion, which is generously funded by the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, and co-leading Te Kaupapa Reo-a-Ture—The Legal Māori Project.

She drew comparisons throughout her lecture between the hidden waterways beneath Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and tikanga Māori as a legal system with its own integrity. Both have been hidden from view and are now undergoing the beginnings of public restoration.

She says the job of law schools is not to teach students to become experts in tikanga Māori as a system of law, but to develop students’ awareness of this system.

What law schools can do is teach people to see the waters that have been hidden under their feet for so long… To see the fact that the system exists, to see the good things that it still holds, to understand that it has its own integrity, and to seek to protect that integrity, even though it’s hard.

Māmari Stephens

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of Lecretia Seales. Thank you to Lecretia’s family and friends, whose generosity and continued support allows this annual event to continue.