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David Williams | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | law |
| Institutions | University of Auckland |
| Main interests | Treaty of Waitangi |
David Vernon Williams FRSNZ is a professor, [1] and former deputy dean of the University of Auckland's Faculty of Law. He comes from the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand,and was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School.
His formal tertiary education qualifications include undergraduate degrees in history and in law (BA/LLB) from Victoria University of Wellington,a graduate degree in law (BCL) from the University of Oxford,England,where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College,and a doctoral research qualification from the University of Dar es Salaam,Tanzania (PhD) that included an analysis of colonial legal history in New Zealand,and a Diploma in Theology from the University of Oxford (DipTheol).
He is a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and holds a practising certificate to act as a barrister. He was employed as a legal academic at universities in England,Tanzania,and New Zealand from 1971 to 1991,and during that time he wrote numerous published articles and book chapters on issues related to colonial law,indigenous law and the Treaty of Waitangi.
From 1992 to 2000,his primary occupation was as a consultant contracted to research on law in history and on Treaty of Waitangi-related legal issues. He has acted in a variety of capacities in contracts with the Crown Forestry Rental Trust,the Law Commission,and Te Puni Kōkiri. He was responsible for the Māori Land Legislation Manual (and Database) which was published in two volumes by the Crown Forestry Rental Trust in 1994 and 1995. He is the author of Te Kooti Tango Whenua':The Native Land Court,1864–1909 published by Huia Publishers in 1999.
Williams made front-page-news in 1978 when he walked into an Auckland Police station and asked to be arrested for stealing a pen from his employer. This was a protest against police racism;police had two days earlier had arrested a Pacific Island migrant for stealing a comb from his employer. [2]
He has acted as an arbitrator in respect of Māori-owned forestry land. He is the honorary legal adviser to Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa (Anglican Church) and a member of the Anglican Church's General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui. In 2001,he was appointed an associate professor in law at the University of Auckland,and in 2005 was promoted to full professor.
In 2018,Williams was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. [3]
The Treaty of Waitangi,sometimes referred to as Te Tiriti,is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand,its constitution,and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the treatment of the Māori people in New Zealand by successive governments and the wider population,something that has been especially prominent from the late 20th century. The treaty document is an agreement,not a treaty as recognised in international law. It was first signed on 6 February 1840 by Captain William Hobson as consul for the British Crown and by Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. The treaty's quasi-legal status satisfies the demands of biculturalism in contemporary New Zealand society. In general terms,it is interpreted today as having established a partnership between equals in a way the Crown likely did not intend it to in 1840. Specifically,the treaty is seen,first,as entitling Māori to enjoyment of land and of natural resources and,if that right were ever breached,to restitution. Second,the treaty's quasi-legal status has clouded the question of whether Māori had ceded sovereignty to the Crown in 1840,and if so,whether such sovereignty remains intact.
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Dame Judith Mary Caroline Binney was a New Zealand historian,writer and Emerita Professor of History at the University of Auckland. Her work focussed on religion in New Zealand,especially the Māori Ringatūreligion founded by Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and continued by Rua Kenana. She also wrote extensively on the history of Ngāi Tūhoe.
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Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia,who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation,these settlers developed their own distinctive culture,whose language,mythology,crafts,and performing arts evolved independently from those of other eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to the Chatham Islands,where their descendants became New Zealand's other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group,the Moriori.
Margaret Shirley Mutu is a Ngāti Kahu leader,author and academic from Karikari,New Zealand and works at the University of Auckland,New Zealand. She is Māori and her iwi (tribes) are Ngāti Kahu,Te Rarawa and Ngāti Whātua.
The New Zealand Māori Council is a body that represents and consults the Māori people of New Zealand. As one of the oldest Māori representative groups,the council exerts pressure on New Zealand governments to protect Treaty of Waitangi rights.
Women in New Zealand are women who live in or are from New Zealand. Notably New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world where women were entitled to vote. In recent times New Zealand has had many women in top leadership and government roles,including three female Prime Ministers,most recently Jacinda Ardern.
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Peter Adds is Wellington-based academic,treaty negotiator and former head of Victoria University of Wellington's Te Kawa a Māui/School of Māori Studies. He is of Te Āti Awa descent. With a background in anthropology and archaeology,he has interests in Treaty of Waitangi settlements,indigenous astronomy,Māori development,and international indigenous issues.
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The Native Lands Act 1865 was an Act of Parliament in New Zealand that was designed to remove land from Māori ownership for purchase by settlers as part of settler colonisation. The act established the Native Land Courts,individualised ownership interests in Māori land replacing customary communal ownership and allowed up to 5% of Māori land to be taken for public works without compensation.
