Indigenous Law Speaker Series wraps up for 2015
The 2015 Māori Law Review Indigenous Law Speaker Series wrapped up recently with a seminar delivered by Victoria University Distinguished Fellow Sir Kenneth Keith on the Treaty of Waitangi and International Law.
Carwyn Jones, Senior Lecturer at Victoria’s Faculty of Law and Co-editor of the Māori Law Review, said the series was now a regular—and successful—part of the Māori Law Review’s activities.
“We’re thrilled with the opportunity the series provides students, faculty members, and practitioners to engage with some of our best and brightest scholars, advocates, lawyers, and judges on important issues of law and policy affecting Māori and indigenous peoples.”
The 2015 series began with a session jointly presented by Natalie Coates and Horiana Irwin, two inspiring young Māori women who have recently graduated from Harvard Law School’s LLM programme. The pair reflected on their experiences of postgraduate study and how that influences their approach to their legal practice.
The second speaker was Kim Workman, a well-known justice reform advocate and current holder of the J.D. Stout Fellowship at Victoria’s Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies. Kim talked about his book project, Criminal Justice, the State and Māori, which aims to document the history of Māori in the criminal justice system and examine the relationship between punitiveness and neoliberalism.
This year, for the first time, the Māori Law Review also held three Indigenous Law speaker events in Auckland, two of which were also delivered in Wellington.
Carwyn Jones said the success of the Auckland series was in no small part thanks to the support of Buddle Findlay, which has had a long association with the Māori Law Review, and the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland.
The first Auckland event featured Tracey Whare, who talked about indigenous peoples’ rights at the United Nations and her central role in the global indigenous caucus at the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. She was followed by Bernadette Arapere, Director at Wackrow Williams and Davies who spoke about her experience of engaging with the Waitangi Tribunal as a historian, lawyer, and iwi member.
At the final Auckland event, Buddle Findlay partner Paul Beverley spoke about recent developments in co-management and co-governance, particularly in the context of Treaty settlements. The session was successfully chaired by former Māori Law Review student editor, Erin Carr.