Posts Tagged ‘Quentin Hix’

Bringing tikanga Māori into the courtroom

“When I came to leave high school, the deputy principal called me into the office and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know’, and he said I should go into the army.”

But Quentin said he couldn’t be bothered getting up early in the morning and shining his shoes. The deputy principal asked what he did want to do, and his flippant answer at that young age was that he just wanted to make money.

“His response was to be a doctor or lawyer. I said, ‘I can’t be bothered getting up early in the morning and delivering babies, so I’ll go lawyer then.’”

He laughs about that little exchange now, with many years of success in the profession behind him. As one of the country’s newest judges, Quentin is now on a mission to bring his own personal style to the District Court.

Tūrangawaewae
Where do we stand?

In February the board of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu met at Te Kōawa Tūroa o Tākitimu in Jericho Valley, near Te Anau. This culturally significant site is in the heart of the takiwā of Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka, and the hosts took the opportunity to present to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (Te Rūnanga) about their land-based aspirations. For Ōraka Aparima, and many others, land is considered to be sacrosanct, valued for its intrinsic worth to the iwi as mana whenua, independent of its economic success.

Kā Manukura o Te Reo
Quentin’s journey

Quentin Hix (Kāti Huirapa) remembers a childhood where te reo Māori was only heard on formal occasions. His tāua and pōua, Rosina and Kaahu Selwyn, who had a hand in his upbringing, were native speakers of te reo Māori, but the language was not passed on to him.