Tūmatakahuki - National Māori Law Students' Association, Auckland (2026)

Tūmatakahuki - the National Māori Law Students' Association is the representative body unifying the six Māori law rōpū across Aotearoa (Te Rākau Ture, Te Aro Ture, Te Whakahiapo, Ngā Rangahautira, Te Pūtāiki, and Te Rōpū Whai Pūtake).

15/10/2025

✨ ELECTIONS ARE OPEN ✨ Kia ora e te whānau it’s that time again!
Tūmatakahuki’s 2026 Executive Elections are officially open. This is your chance to step up, represent our Māori law tauira, and help lead our kaupapa into the new year.

AGM & Election Day: Thursday, 16 October AUT City Campus, Room WF411/Zoom  Link in bio to apply or nominate!

16/12/2024

🌟 Celebrating the 2024 Kaupapa Māori Negotiation Competition 🌟

Continuing our celebration of the Kaupapa Māori Legal Competitions, today we turn our focus to the 2024 Kaupapa Māori Negotiation Competition, where tauira Māori showcased exceptional negotiation skills grounded in tikanga Māori principles. These focuses make for a distinctly Māori way of navigating conflict resolution, relationships and matters.

The competition began with regional rounds held across Aotearoa, hosted by tauira Māori roopū at the six law schools. These rounds gave tauira the opportunity to practice their negotiation techniques, engage with complex legal issues, and incorporate tikanga Māori into their strategies. The regional rounds were a vital part of the process, enabling competitors to refine their skills and build confidence ahead of the national final.

Following the regional rounds, one representative from each university was selected to compete in the National Final at Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa’s Hui-ā-Tau in Whakatāne. This year’s national final was set in the context of a negotiation between Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Moana and Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Roto, two (fictitious) iwi seeking to find common ground on their overlapping customary marine title and protected customary rights claims under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011. The negotiations focused on whakapapa, ahi kā, tikanga, and environmental stewardship, requiring both creativity and a deep understanding of te ao Māori and the legal framework.

In the final, the Ngāti Moana team included Jean Su’a (Waipapa Taumata Rau), Kaea Williams (Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato), and Rireana Laauli (Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha), while the Ngāti Roto team was represented by Lauryn Tokana (Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau), Aria Ngarimu (Te Herenga Waka), and Ariana-moe Brown (Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka).

After an intense and closely contested negotiation, the team representing Ngāti Roto emerged as the winners of the 2024 Kaupapa Māori Negotiation Competition. A special congratulations to Ariana-moe Brown, from the winning team, who was awarded Best Negotiator for her outstanding contributions.

A massive mihi to all 6 of our national competitors and all those who participated in the negotiation regional rounds for their incredible mahi and for representing their whānau, roopū and law schools with pride!

Stay tuned as we continue to celebrate the successes of Tūmatakahuki and its people in 2024.

12/12/2024

Acknowledging Our Sponsors: Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS)

As we continue to celebrate the incredible achievements of our people throughout 2024, we want to take a moment to acknowledge the support that made some of these successes possible. 👏

Tūmatakahuki extends its heartfelt gratitude to our Major Sponsor for 2024, Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS) for their unwavering support of our kaupapa. IPLS played a pivotal role in sponsoring both our National Kaupapa Māori Moot Wānanga and Tūmatakahuki Rūnanga Wānanga. 🙌

The Moot Wānanga was instrumental in preparing our 6 tauira Māori mooters for the challenges of the National Kaupapa Māori Moot Final. It was the first time in history that the competitors of the National Kaupapa Māori Moot Final were brought together before Hui-ā-Tau to whakawhanaungatanga and receive bespoke coaching. 👩🏽‍⚖️👨🏽‍⚖️

The Rūnanga Wānanga was an equally important feature of the Tūmatakahuki calendar. It brought together the tumuaki from the six Māori law student associations across Aotearoa. 🎓 This provided the chance for our rangatahi leaders to whakawhanaungatanga, receive some professional development and collaborate on joint initiatives. IPLS were also generous enough to organise for gifts to be delivered to Hui-ā-Tau for our law student tumuaki.

We would like to especially thank Bernadette Wilson (IPLS National Director), Kelly Tecke (Marketing & Communications Manager), Alex Murden (Communications Coordinator) and Daisy Hood-Edwards (former Communications Coordinator), for establishing and maintaining the special relationship between IPLS and Tūmatakahuki.

Stay tuned throughout December as we continue to celebrate our people, highlight their achievements, and honour the many contributions towards Tūmatakahuki in 2024 that helped uplift our Māori law students and kaupapa Māori initiatives.

11/12/2024

✨ As we approach the end of 2024, we want to take some time to celebrate our people, their contributions and their achievements. ✨

Over the next couple of weeks, Tūmatakahuki - the National Māori Law Students' Association - will be sharing a series of posts to recognise our Kaupapa Māori Legal Competitions, our rangatahi rangatira, and our sponsors.

🎓 To kick things off, we’re starting with the 2024 Kaupapa Māori Moot Competition.
This annual competition started with six regional rounds, hosted by the tauira Māori roopū at each law school across Aotearoa. These rounds provided a platform for tauira to demonstrate their mooting skills, seamlessly incorporating tikanga Māori and te reo Māori into their arguments.

The journey culminated in the prestigious National Final, hosted by Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa at Mataatua Marae, where one representative from each law school competed on the grand stage. Arabela Boatwright, Manawa Te Ahuru-Quinn and Blue Simpkins-Jones represented the appellant, with the respondent being represented by Shannon Mihaere, Christie Wallace and Isabella Smith. All 6 finalists exemplified incredible advocacy skills, making it a truly remarkable showcase of talent and Māori legal excellence.

🏆 In a rare and extraordinary outcome, the very distinguished judges were unable to separate the teams and decide on a single winning team. For the first time in recent history, co-winning teams were announced, which is a testament to the exceptional calibre of all the finalists.

Similarly, the judges could not determine a single best speaker, leading to Manawa Te Ahuru-Quinn and Christie Wallace being named co-best speakers for 2024 🥇🥇 . Christie Wallace was also recognised with the Best Te Reo Māori Speaker Prize, reflecting her outstanding use of te reo Māori in the courtroom.

Tūmatakahuki would like to thank all those who participated in the 2024 Kaupapa Māori Moot Competition and extend a special congratulations to our national finalists and award recipients. We can’t wait to see more inspiring advocacy through the Kaupapa Māori Moot in 2025!

27/08/2024

Tūmatakahuki were proud to host our Inaugural Kaupapa Māori Competitions Wānanga in Tāmaki Makaurau over the weekend. This brought together the 12 tauira who will be competing at Hui-ā-Tau 2024 in Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa’s National Kaupapa Māori Negotiation Final and National Kaupapa Māori Moot Final.

The 12 finalists received tailored support and professional development for their respective competitions through training provided by experienced legal practitioners. This included skills workshops, developing submissions and team strategies, and exploring the influence of tikanga and te ao Māori on the two kaupapa Māori legal competitions.

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou to the tuakana who ran these workshops - Chris Merrick, Baden Vertongen, Kingi Snelgar, Warren Alcock, and Matthew Nathan. This wānanga was made possible thanks to their generosity and tautoko towards uplifting te ao Māori and tauira ture Māori within legal spaces. We are also extremely grateful for Meredith Connell (MC) kindly hosting the wā at their amazing offices and ensuring the finalists were well looked after during the workshops.

The weekend was also a great opportunity for the 12 finalists to whakawhanaungatanga and meet each other before competing on the national stage. This aspect of the wānanga was crucial, as our finalists are made up of representatives from each of the 6 law schools across Aotearoa.

A massive thank you to the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (2024 Moot Finalists Sponsor), and to Kāhui Legal (2024 Negotiation Finalists Sponsor), for making this a possibility. Your continued support is integral to providing various opportunities for Māori law students.

02/08/2024

On Saturday 20th - Sunday 21st July, tumuaki from the six Māori law student associations across Aotearoa gathered at Ngāti Whātua О̄rākei Whāi Māia in Tāmaki Makaurau to wānanga on ‘Tūmatakahuki - the National Māori Law Students’ Association’. Kindly sponsored by nstitute of Professional Legal Studies, this was an opportunity for our leaders to whakawhanaungatanga after months of online communication and kōrero about the future of Tūmatakahuki.

Organised and facilitated by Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa tauira representatives Jamal Fiso and Manawa Te Ahuru-Quinn, we were joined by two rangatira from each of the rōpū Te Rākau Ture, Te Aro Ture, Te Whakahiapo, Ngā Rangahautira, Te Pūtāiki, and Te Rōpū Whai Pūtake.

We kickstarted Saturday 20th July with a mihi whakatau from our hosts at Ngāti Whātua О̄rākei and were joined by the Honourable Justice Christian Whata who offered an insightful kōrero on the intersection between tikanga and the law. His Honour’s whakaaro inspired our rōpū and led to interesting pātai and discussion. It was a memorable way to open our inaugural hui and we felt extremely grateful for his support of this kaupapa.

We then took a hīkoi around Ngāti Whātua О̄rākei whilst receiving a history lesson on the rohe. Learning about its whakapapa whilst standing at Takaparawhau and about all that has been achieved by this iwi was a privilege we will not soon forget.

We opened our Tūmatakahuki kōrero with a further whakapapa lesson from some of those involved in its early stages. We learnt that the idea for a national representative body of Māori law students emerged in 2022 and were fortunate to be guided by those involved in the kaupapa from the get-go. This set our wā into motion, where the tumuaki further discussed the purpose and structure of Tūmatakahuki, and how we can best serve Māori law students. Our tumuaki are working hard to finalise a proposal to take to tauira at our upcoming AGM taking place at THRMoA Hui-ā-Tau in Whakatāne.

On Sunday 21st July, we wrapped up with a reflective session. Everyone felt an immense sense of gratitude for the opportunity to gather kanohi kitea. This wānanga would not have been possible without the kindness of Ngāti Whātua О̄rākei and IPLS - and our tumuaki are looking forward to gathering all their tauira at our Hui-ā-Tau next month.

Address

Auckland

Website

https://maorilawsociety.co.nz/en/for-students/

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