Baby Kahu's parents have high mana with Maori

By CATHY ARONSON

The parents of abducted 8-month-old baby girl Kahurautete Durie are a rich and powerful duo considered the most influential couple in Maoridom.

The baby's father, Justice Eddie Durie, is the Waitangi Tribunal chairman and a Wellington High Court judge.

Her mother, Donna Hall, is a prominent Wellington Maori lawyer. In fact, her legal fees from several years of high-profile Treaty of Waitangi claims was one reason she was chosen for the National Business Review's 2000 rich list, which claimed she could have earned about $10 million.

The couple worked for their profiles, leaving their tribal homes to pursue careers in Wellington.

Justice Durie, born Edward Taihakurei Durie, has continued a long family tradition in Maori affairs and law.

His grandfather, Te Meihana, was one of the first Maori to attend law school. His grandmother, Kahurautete, was the founding patroness of the Maori Women's Welfare League. Both apparently had a big influence in his upbringing at Aorangi Marae in Feilding. His father, Matawha, was a kaumatua of the marae and his mother was a fifth-generation descendant of Fletcher Christian, the Bounty mutineer.

Justice Durie completed his law degree at Victoria University in the 1960s, and his Rotorua practice quickly became successful. In 1974, the then 34-year-old became the first Maori appointed to the Maori Land Court and in 1980 he became its first Maori chief judge. In 1981 he was appointed Waitangi Tribunal chairman at a time the treaty was becoming law and the Government's settlement process was beginning.

He quickly became a legal authority on Maori customs and laws and was well known for balancing the two cultures.

As chairman, he oversaw key reports, including the Manukau Harbour, Te Atiawa, Motunui and the Muriwhenua fisheries.

Act MP Donna Awatere Huata said his work on Motunui gave him a lot of respect, and calmed many activists.

"He changed the nature of race relations," she said. "He was never confrontational but offered a scholarship of compelling arguments.

"He taught many activists, including myself, that there was a more constructive forum for our grievances. I can't imagine he has made any enemies."

But after the tribunal's Muriwhenua report on northern fisheries in 1989 he received obscene letters and phone calls at his family home, and had his phone number removed from the telephone directory.

In one of Justice Durie's rare interviews, in 1989 with the Listener, he said he and Ms Hall were worried about their three children hearing the obscene calls.

"They were very harsh. I'd pick up the phone and just hear swearing at the other end." He said he did not feel beleaguered, but "personally encouraged".

In 1998 he became the first Maori appointed as a High Court judge. His high-profile cases included giving a six-year sentence to step-aunt Rachealle Namana, who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Wairarapa 2-year-old Hinewaoriki Karaitiana-Matiaha, known as Lillybing.

As his profile increased, Justice Durie removed himself from the public eye and declined interviews.

Meanwhile his wife, Donna Hall, continued to be vocal.

After becoming the first Rotorua woman from the Arawa tribe to be admitted to the Bar in 1982, when she was 23, it did not take long for her to become a well-known treaty lawyer. She was heavily involved in fisheries claims and was not afraid to personally criticise the Waitangi Fisheries Commission.

In September 1998 she threatened legal action after the police raided her office and the office of Waitangi Fisheries Commissioner Shane Jones. A district court judge issued the warrants to the police at the request of a private investigator hired by the commission. A High Court judge ruled the warrants were invalid. At the time Ms Hall said the commission was out of control.

"They have been behind an orchestrated campaign of bullying and intimidation," she said. "They have threatened anyone who has spoken out against them with legal action in an attempt to gag them."

The following year she led action against the fisheries commission on behalf of 25 tribes who opposed its model of dividing the fisheries assets. She helped stop the commission from recommending an allocation model to the Crown when the High Court at Auckland granted an injunction.

After the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the model, Ms Hall was the lawyer for the Maori Council, which filed a Privy Council challenge.

She supported an inquiry into the commission and was vocal against it.

"The quicker this old commission is booted out and a new broom put in there the better, because you've got people in there with vested interests," she told the Herald at the time.

Despite the separate careers of Justice Durie and Donna Hall, the close links between their areas of speciality has prompted accusations of conflicts of interest.

In 1992 they were cleared of accusations they had shared information. The Minister of Justice at the time, Sir Douglas Graham, appointed retired High Court judge Sir Peter Quilliam to investigate allegations made during evidence in an Employment Court case involving a former staff member of Donna Hall.

The inquiry cleared any member of the tribunal of unethical behaviour, which was used as a defence in 1999 when a former director of the tribunal, Buddy Mikaere, suggested Justice Durie may have helped his wife prepare briefs for her treaty claims. Chief Justice Sian Elias defended the judge.

Donna Awatere Huata, a cousin of Donna Hall, said they were the most influential and respected couple in Maoridom.

"You just hate to think how that poor family are feeling. You hate to think it could happen to anyone in New Zealand, let alone a couple who are well respected and have done so much for others."

She said the couple had "hunkered down with their whanau" while they anxiously awaited news of their baby.

The professor of Maori studies at Auckland University, Dr Margaret Mutu, said Justice Durie was held in the highest regard in Maoridom.

"He's done an incredible amount of good work and no one in Maoridom would have a bad word to say about him."

Ms Hall took on some odd and unpopular causes and sometimes got Maori backs up, Dr Mutu said.

"But that's only on a political level, it's not personal. Donna is a political animal, Eddie is not. I can't think of anyone who would want to harm them. It would have to be someone who's totally unbalanced."

Full coverage: Baby Kahurautete kidnapping

Picture: Kahurautete Durie

Picture: Kahurautete's clothing

Picture: the car being sought by police

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