Waiariki – Annette Te Imaima Sykes

Waiariki – Annette Te Imaima Sykes

Posted on October 16, 2011 by admin in Mana Candidate Profiles

Annette Te Imaima Sykes

Tribal Affiliations

Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Makino descent, two of the confederated tribes of Te Arawa Waka Ngāti Hikakino, Ngāti Hokopu, Ngāti Rangihouhiri, Taiwhakaea of the peoples of Ngāti Awa, Hamua of the peoples of Tūhoe.

Educational Background

  • Rotoiti Native Primary School
  • Kawerau North Primary School
  • Kawerau Intermediate
  • Kawerau College – School Certificate
  • United World College of South East Asia – International Baccalaureate (Chairperson of the School Council)
  • Auckland University – Bachelor of Laws (Senior Prize in Law)

Employemnt History

Annette has been practicing law since 1984 and currently is a Partner in the law firm Aurere Law in Rotorua which was recently established following the restructuring of the firm Rangitauira & Co.

Annette is a human rights lawyer specialising in the rights of indigenous peoples to promote their own systems of law and has a strong focus in her career on all aspects of law as they affect Maori especially constitutional change.

She has been an active member of the New Zealand Criminal Bar , the Family Courts Association and Te Hunga Roia Maori, (Maori Law Society) and is an advocate in the specialist jurisdictions of the Waitangi Tribunal, Maori Land Court and Appellate courts as well as the other general courts of New Zealand.

Protest has been an active part of her career and community activities. Annette is a founding member of Te Kotahitanga o Waiariki a protest group established by the late Syd Jackson, the late Merata Mita, Tame Iti and Tuhipo Kereopa in 1984 to promote the education and decolonization of Aotearoa New Zealand around the early colonial history of the country and its failure to Honour Te Tiriti.

Annette assisted in the early establishment of Rape Crisis Centres and Maori Women’s Refuges for women in the 1980’s and has maintained an ongoing commitment to ensuring shelter and proper regard for women facing domestic and state violence in their daily lives. Annette together with a number of concerned activists, established Nga Tai o te Reinga to coordinate Waiariki opposition to the confiscation of lands following the Labour Party and National Party responses to the Ngati Apa decision of the Court of Appeal

Past Directorships

  • Te Mangai Paho Maori Broadcasting Agency
  • Deputy Chairperson of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd
  • Director of Moana Pacific Fisheries Ltd
  • Maori Law Commission Te Hau Tikanga
  • Director of a number of Tribal initiatives for her people of Te Arawa
  • Member of the Waiariki Polytechnic Council
  • Mediator at the Waiariki Polytechnic Council and Waikato University on claims involving allegations of sexual harassment and the role of Te Reo Maori in the academic practice of tertiary institutions

Speaking Symposiums

  • Family Court Symposium, the role of Tikanga Maori in Dispute Resolution processes;
  • Nga Wahine Pacifica, Pacific Court of Women, Aotearoa, New Zealand in 1999,
  • World Court of Women Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001,
  • United Nations Conference on the concerns of human rights for migrant women and children held in Bali in 2009,
  • Seminars in Kanaky and Tahiti speaking against globalisation and new forms of colonisation that beset the Pacific and a lecture series in 2011 in various universities in North America around the human rights issues facing indigenous peoples wrongly accused of terrorist activity.

Career Highlights

Annette was the first Maori Woman lawyer to present to the Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction in her role as junior counsel in the Te Reo Maori Claim. The claim was the basis from which successful negotiations with the Crown saw the establishment of 22 Maori Radio stations and an independent Maori [pullquote]Annette was the first Maori Woman lawyer to present to the Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction in her role as junior counsel in the Te Reo Maori Claim. [/pullquote]Television channel and ongoing commitments to the promotion revitalisation and retention of Te Reo Rangatira as part of the Education System. Annette assisted in claims to the High Court, Court of Appeal and Privy Council on the questions of implementation and benefit distribution of the Maori Fisheries Settlement, commonly referred to as the Sealords deal as instructing counsel for Area One Consortium, and the Te Kotahitanga o Te Arawa Fisheries Ltd.

She has been lead counsel in over 50 Waitangi tribunal claims against the Crown in the Central North Island, Te Urewera, National Park and Whanganui inquiries of the Waitangi Tribunal.

She has successfully defended a number of individuals in high profile criminal trials including prosecutions of Maori activist and Tuhoe leader Tame Iti following a powhiri at Ruatoki to the Waitangi Tribunal and in the wake of so called ‘terror raids’ in October 15 2007 which has seen 14 of the 18 accused acquitted from these offences following a complex appeals process lead by Annette and Queens Counsel Mr Rodney Harrision to the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 2011.

Annette’s vision for the future:

  • Tino Rangatiratanga: Maori independence;
  • Elimination of poverty and social injustice in Aoteaora New Zealand;
  • A Nuclear and genetic engineering free Pacific; Maori Women in leadership roles;
  • Separate Justice System sourced in the values of Tikanga Maori and adapted to the modern circumstances of Maori whanau and hapu and their communities;
  • Constitutional Change of the modern New Zealand nation state in accordance with the principles of He Whakaputanga o Nga Rangatira o Nga Hapu o Niu Tireni and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the advancement of the recognition of the roles and values of indigenous peoples .

Publications

  • Annette has also written many articles and publications ‘Te Tiriti 0 Waitangi (Our Bill of Rights)’, ‘Te Tiriti o Waitangi;
  • A Women’s Perspective’ and ‘The “Te Reo Maori Claim” and its ramifications for the New Zealand Broadcasting arena’
  • ‘The Tide is Turning – Foreshore and Seabed”

Her most recent contribution was written for the Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture Series in 2010 entitled “ Iwi Leaders Forum: A new Maori Hegemony” has received significant comment in Aotearoa and internationally for its critique of Crown appointed spokespersons for issues of national Maori Significance.

This is something that she does as an interest and in her spare time.