L ooking back at 2 0 2 0
Tikanga in 2020 An interview with Natalie Coates For the Whakatāne based Kāhui Legal Partner 2020, hasn’t only been dominated by Covid. This year will be the one she remembers for the case she hopes will significantly progress the recognition of tikanga in our legal system. Natalie Coates was at the forefront of making New Zealand legal history this year when the Supreme Court allowed former Christchurch Civic Creche worker Peter Ellis’s appeal against charges of sexual offending to continue, despite the fact he died in 2019. What’s your experience of 2020 been like? 2020 for me has been a huge year of highs and lows for so many reasons – both professionally and personally. One of the highlights was being involved in the Ellis case that shone the spotlight on an issue that I have long been passionate
about – the intersection between tikanga and the state legal system. The fact that the Supreme Court asked for submissions on the relevance of tikanga and that the Crown accepted as a base proposition that it was relevant, shows how far we have come on these matters. In terms of the lows – Covid was a battle for everyone and has made this a remarkable year to live through. I also ruptured my achilles trying to relive my 18-year-old soccer self so I had a moon boot on for part of the year and am still going through a slow recovery period. It makes keeping up with my energetic three year old a challenge. Why was the Ellis case so critical? Although the Supreme Court have allowed the Appeal to proceed posthumously, the Court has not yet published their reasons. So we are still not sure what they are going
to say. But I think whatever happens, we’re on a journey and a nation-building exercise and the Ellis case is but one small part of that. Tikanga is the first law of Aotearoa. In the last 40 years we have moved on from the period of rejection and active suppression, have accepted that tikanga is part of the common law, and are now engaged in testing the bounds of that recognition on a case by case basis. The challenge going forward more broadly is how tikanga can inform the state legal system in ways that are genuine, meaningful and culturally safe. During the hearing earlier this year you used the analogy of state law and tikanga being like a whariki (woven mat) – can you explain what you meant? I drew on a well-quoted saying by Potatau Te Wherowhero who at his coronation as the first Māori King in 1857 said (in te reo) there is but one eye of the needle through which the white, the black and the red threads must pass. I invited the Court to conceptualise the law as a whariki (woven mat) and themselves as one of the kairaranga (weavers) that develop and add to this rich tapestry of law. I argued that when they are engaged in that task, not only can they draw on the thread of law as it derived from England 13
