“Sadly, he was a part of that generation who didn’t speak te reo Māori to their tamariki, to their kids, when they were being brought up and we all now understand the reasons for that.”
She began to learn te reo Māori at high school but her odyssey started in earnest when her son was born. At the time she had just gotten her law degree and was working at the Māori Land Court in Whangārei as a case manager.
“I had started pursuing my journey in te reo Māori and was getting more confident and more fluent in te reo Māori,” she said.
Early on in her career, Thomas’ work as a litigator in te ao ture [the judicial system] showed her that resourcing and kaupapa to promote the use of te reo Māori within the law was largely lacking.
“In 1987, te reo Māori was made an official language but 30-plus years later we’re not actually seeing te reo Māori being used regularly within the court.”
Get-togethers with like-minded friends on the same mission quickly revealed many legal terms - such as “cross examination” - had no te reo equivalent.
“We spent a few years having wānanga [open discussion] and kōrero and discussions about what these things mean and coming up with a list of words.”
This led to Thomas and her good friend Corin Merrick penning Kia Kākano Rua te Ture: A te reo Māori Handbook for the Law. The book focuses on Māori language and protocol to equip legal practitioners, law students, government departments and the judiciary with the tools they need to take a step towards a more equitable justice system.
Seven years ago, Thomas, then a Waitangi Tribunal Māori Land Court lawyer running her own firm, made the decision to stop speaking English in the courts. However, today as a judge she uses both Māori and English equally for natural justice reasons.
Thomas said the majority of her clients started coming to her for this reason.
“They needed their issues argued in te reo Māori for it to be executed in a way that they understood and that was really connected to the kaupapa.”
She saw people who, like her father, had English as their second language and it was harder for them to be a part of a justice system that didn’t represent who they were.
“When they’re in this legal system that’s a bit foreign to them, they’re unsure about how they’re giving evidence and all of a sudden they have to do it in a language that doesn’t, and can’t, express the true meaning of the kōrero they are giving.”
Thomas said providing them with the opportunity and ability to tell their story in their own language had many benefits, making them more comfortable in an alien setting being one.
Additionally, her unprecedented move caused the court to reflect on how it supports te reo Māori, the resourcing and services in place, which ultimately highlighted where the system lacked.
But Thomas’ efforts to promote the language have not been bound by courtroom walls.
Noticing that Tai Tokerau whānui did not yet have its own kura reo (full immersion course), Thomas decided seven years ago to found Te Taumata Wānanga Reo in a bid to add to the revitalisation efforts of northern reo.
“We had a few wānanga reo that different hapū would do or specific rohe but I thought look why don’t we have a Tai Tokerau wide wānanga reo just for the iwi of the North with a bit of a Northland spin,” she said.
All of the Tai Tokerau iwi were welcomed onto the course which debuted at NorthTec | Te Pūkenga’s marae, Te Puna o Te Mātauranga, to be guided in their love of the language by kaiako [teachers] and “real exponents of te reo Māori” such as Quinton Hita, Julian Wilcox, Moe Milne, Aperahama Kerepeti-Edwards, Te Kurataiaho Kapea, Tatai Henare and Peter-Lucas Jones.
“That’s grown. That kaupapa has just taken off and really seeing within our hapū and our iwi of Tai Tokerau how much hunger there is for our specific dialect in the north,” Thomas said.
Karina Cooper is deputy news director and covers breaking and general news for the Advocate. She also has a special interest in investigations.
