{"id":257,"date":"2017-01-27T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hub.findingsimple.com\/nz\/posts\/toitu-te-whenua-toitu-te-mana"},"modified":"2023-03-13T02:41:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T02:41:14","slug":"toitu-te-whenua-toitu-te-mana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.co.nz\/legal\/posts\/toitu-te-whenua-toitu-te-mana","title":{"rendered":"Toit\u016b te Whenua, Toit\u016b te Mana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renay Taylor, Thomson Reuters NZ  Senior Product Development Manager, attended University of Otago Professor Jacinta Ruru’s Inaugural Professorial Lecture<\/a> (IPL).  This is her account of the event. She writes…<\/p>\n

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This has been a stellar year for Jacinta Ruru<\/a> (Raukawa, Ng\u0101ti Ranginui me Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto), Professor of Law at Otago University.<\/p>\n

On 1 January 2016 she commenced her appointment as co-director of Ng\u0101 Pae o te M\u0101ramatanga, New Zealand’s M\u0101ori Centre of Research Excellence<\/a>, followed closely by her official promotion to professor \u2013 the first professor of law of M\u0101ori descent \u2013 on 1 February 2016.<\/p>\n

Then, on 17 \"ProfessorAugust 2016 she was not only named one of 12 tertiary teachers to receive the national Ako Aotearoa Sustained Teaching Excellence Award<\/a>, but was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister\u2019s Supreme Award<\/a> for tertiary teaching excellence.  This recognition is awarded to only one teacher each year and acknowledges her commitment to creating a voice for M\u0101ori in the New Zealand legal system, through both teaching and research.<\/p>\n

Celebrating being appointed professor<\/h2>\n

As a celebration of Jacinta\u2019s appointment as professor the Faculty of Law hosted her Inaugural Professorial Lecture (IPL) on 12 September 2016.  An IPL is an opportunity for new professors to be introduced to their colleagues and like minded people in the community, to showcase their research and expertise.  For Jacinta, it was a time for the Dean Professor Mark Henaghan and the University to present her to the wider university and community as \u201cte pounamu o t\u0101u kaupeka t\u0101tai ture\u201d \u2013 \u201cthe jewel of the faculty\u201d.<\/p>\n

Toit\u016b te Whenua, Toit\u016b te Mana<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"PosterThe title of her IPL Toit\u016b te Whenua, Toit\u016b te Mana<\/em> is a whakatauk\u012b (proverb) that can be translated loosely as \u201cthe land remains, the authority remains\u201d.  The lecture brought together the law and the whakatauk\u012b representing what land is to M\u0101ori poetically embracing the meaning of land to M\u0101ori and bringing alive the endurance and ‘foreverness’ of the M\u0101ori world in Aotearoa New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Jacinta\u2019s lecture was remarkable in that it pinpointed her first recollection that something was amiss in the way the majestic Ng\u0101i Tahu lands she grew up exploring were only seen by the public by their \u201coverlaid English names and the Department of Conservation\u201d.  This \u201cunease\u201d she felt at a young age eventually led her to an LLB at Otago, \u201ceventually dreaming for a better, more respectful law to acknowledge indigenous people’s rights, responsibilities and interests to remain governors and stewards of lands and waters essential to cultural identity and survival”.<\/p>\n

The journey towards an LLB itself was not simple; as the overarching message to law students that the law is \u201cobjective and just\u201d could not be reconciled with the korero of her father\u2019s Raukawa family about dispossession from ancestral lands in the 1860s on, through \u201cinsidious legislation and local government rules\u201d.  This perplexing disconnect led to her finding the subject of law as \u201cboth shocking and fascinating\u201d and doubtlessly formed the foundation of her teaching pedagogy and passion to support M\u0101ori law students.<\/p>\n

Through the time of her childhood and days as a law student the acknowledgement of M\u0101ori land rights was changing.  From the infamous hiko\u012b march chant of \u201cnot one more acre\u201d in 1975;  through the 1980s extension of the Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction back to 1840; the enactment of the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986 which was the first legislation to expressly state that decisions must not act inconsistently with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi;  and the eventual conclusive overturning of the Treaty of Waitangi as a \u201csimple nullity (Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington<\/a> <\/em>(1877) 3 NZ Jur (NS) 72 (NZSC)) in Ng<\/em>\u0101<\/em>ti Apa v Attorney-General <\/em><\/a>[2003] 3 NZLR 643 \u2013 M\u0101<\/em>ori were speaking and the government was listening.<\/p>\n

At the heart of Jacinta\u2019s journey has been the protection of M\u0101<\/em>ori land and water, the retention of M\u0101<\/em>ori land for M\u0101<\/em>ori and Aotearoa New Zealand.  Amazingly, she can pinpoint her career and research to just three legal events:<\/p>\n