With help from the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, the pilot stage of a project is under way to design and develop a digital resource to assist people to be able to explore tikanga Māori concepts and their applications in teaching and practice.
The Faculty’s leadership group for the project, “Te Rauhī i te Tikanga—A Tikanga Companion”, includes Aohunuku—Reader Māmari Stephens (Te Rarawa) and former Associate Professor Dr Carwyn Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu and Te Aitanga a Māhaki), now teaching at Te Whare Wānanga o Raukawa in Ōtaki.
Ms Stephens says the need for educating the broader law profession about tikanga Māori has never been so pressing.
This project, based at the Law School, is “at its heart, an undertaking to understand how Māori legal norms drive behaviour”, she says.
“Developing a digital resource ‘companion’ will help practitioners, students, researchers and teachers of law in Aotearoa understand how those norms of tikanga Māori operate in Māori communities and how they connect with, and stand in tension, with the general legal system.
“A nuanced understanding of core concepts and practices is badly needed now that Parliament and courts are recognising that tikanga Māori comprises law in its own right and may be the appropriate avenue through which to resolve disputes between Māori.
“It is now becoming more widely understood that tikanga Māori can also be of relevance to all peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, not just Māori. Things are changing.
“When I graduated with my law degree in 2003, I could never have imagined this threshold on which we now stand. It’s scary and exhilarating to be a part of this work now.”
It is expected that from 1 January 2025, all law schools in Aotearoa New Zealand will be required to include substantial and compulsory tikanga Māori content in their degrees.
Ms Stephens hopes this resource can help create greater understanding, but also create appropriate care and caution, when dealing with Māori concepts.
It should assist those in the legal profession to ask the right questions and to be mindful of tikanga Māori, without exploiting, distorting, or misunderstanding it, she says.
The Borrin Foundation has given the project team $220,000 for the pilot phase of the project, due to be completed in mid-2023. Further phases of the project are expected to take at least another two years to develop.