In October 2025, Indigenous judges from Canada, the United States, the Pacific Islands, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand gathered in Kirikiriroa Hamilton for the inaugural International Indigenous Judges Conference. Ngā Kaiwhakawā Māori: A Brief History of Māori Judges commemorates this occasion, offered by the authors as a koha to the judges of Aotearoa and to those who travelled to be part of that historic event. 

It is also an important contribution for everyone working within the contemporary legal system. 

In this bilingual text, Harvey and Warren demonstrate care and respect for their subjects, striking a thoughtful balance: they neither reduce individual judges to symbols of progress nor avoid the broader institutional questions that their careers inevitably raise. We learn about the Māori rangatira who served as assessors to the Resident Magistrates Court and the “native assessors” appointed to the Native Circuit Courts in the mid-1800s, and those who sat in the 1862 Native Land Court. 

The book then traces a line from Judge Harold Carr (appointed to the Native Land Court in 1923), through to far more recent milestones: the appointment of the first wahine Māori judge, Hon Dame Lowell Goddard, in 1995, and the first judges of Māori descent in the Environment and Employment Courts in 2023. This historical record is enriched by the authors’ decision to seek the perspectives of Māori judges themselves, and to include their reflections on how they balance their role in the state legal system with te ao Māori.

This thoughtful and accessible book rewards close reading and reflection. It then deserves a place on your bookshelf, to be freely lent out as inspiration for the many more Māori who will come to study and practise law, and to consider a judicial career.

The book has been added to the collections of the Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury Law Libraries.