March 13, 2024
Māori lawyers keen to learn constitution
The winner of a Borrin Foundation Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga scholarship says she’s keen to acquire skills and knowledge that can help accelerate constitutional change in Aotearoa.
University of Auckland law student Amelia Kendall from Te Rarawa has received $80,000 to study towards a masters in law from Columbia University in New York.
She will major in international constitutional law.
“So it’s really just gathering the tools, understanding how pākeha law operates and works – and then be able to bring that home so that we can continue te whawhai,” Ms Kendall says.
She will start at Columbia in August.
A second Borrin Foundation postgraduate scholarship went to Auckland barrister Pita Roycroft of Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and Ngāti Hāmoa – Moata’a.
He has applied for places at Columbia, New York and Harvard universities in the United States.
Mr Roycroft says he wants to look at how Native American territorial laws work beside state and federal laws, and to what extent principles of indigenous or customary law (such as tikanga Māori) can influence the development of tort law.
“I think that’s a great comparator to New Zealand. That’s really what I want to go investigate – and to spend a year studying, come back and hopefully contribute my findings back to Aotearoa, ” he says.