Kaimahi kōrero: Riki Kotua

Riki Kotua KAIMAHI KŌRERO

NGĀTI KOATA

Ihave always wanted to work at Wakatū and I feel extremely lucky to be working for the organisation as legal counsel. My whānau are Owners of Wakatū and our links to Wakatū are through Ngāti Koata and in particular our tūpuna, Renata Te Ohiohi. My great-uncle Kahu Kotua helped establish Wakatū and was the inaugural chair. Our whānau is immensely proud of Uncle Kahu and his achievements, and I think he would be happy to know that we are keeping the connection alive. Uncle Kahu and his wife Aunty Morrie were the first people that my parents took me to see after I was born. Unfortunately, Uncle Kahu passed away when I was two, so I don’t have any direct memories of him. I know my father was particularly close to Uncle Kahu, who helped raise him and his siblings after my grandfather passed away quite young. I was very lucky to recently sit with Sir Tīpene O’Regan as he recounted his impressions of Uncle Kahu and how they had worked together to establish the various Māori incorporations.

My nana was really proud when I told her I had a job at Wakatū. I remember we weren’t sure she was going to make it to my mihi whakatau, as she was living on the other side of the Takaka Hill at the time, but she wasn’t missing it. It was priceless to see her fly around the corner of the carpark to Wakatū House, tooting her horn to announce her arrival. At 88 years old, there she was with a big smile, and dressed immaculately. This memory will always be very special to me, given that she passed away later that year. It was also lovely to have my partner Mel and my whānau attend.

I wanted to be a lawyer from a young age. I studied law at Otago University and was particularly interested in Māori land law and the rights of indigenous peoples. I wrote my honours dissertation on the removal of Māori rights under the then-Labour Government’s Foreshore and Seabed Bill, in response to the Court of Appeal’s (now Supreme Court’s) Ngāti Apa decision. Interestingly, I had originally planned to write my dissertation on the Crown’s fiduciary duty to Māori, but someone else had written on that topic the previous year.

I began my legal career in the Māori legal services team at Kensington Swan in Wellington, working on a range of Treaty of Waitangi claims

With the various strands of litigation stemming from the Wakatū Supreme Court decision, it feels a real privilege to be involved in such important work and I feel very lucky to be among and learn from such talented and amazing colleagues.

RIKI KOTUA

and issues. I also worked in the corporate and commercial team, and the banking and finance team at Bell Gully. These roles provided me with broad legal experience working for a range of clients both in Aotearoa and overseas. I worked in-house at GlaxoSmithKline and Intel Corporation in London, working predominately on large mergers and acquisitions and banking-related matters. Working at Intel provided interesting insights into technological developments around the world, such as investment in 5G and driverless transport.

My role as legal counsel at Wakatū is extremely varied as I work across the Wakatū and Kono businesses on a range of different matters. This includes marine farm, employment, confidentiality and kiwifruit and apples supply agreements. I look after intellectual property matters and other projects as required, for example, with the Auora team on the Indigenous Organisms project. This has meant a lot of learning and quickly getting up to speed with areas of law I am less familiar with, which has been a bit daunting, but also really fulfilling. It was humbling and rewarding to recently gather all of the great work that Kono does into the applications for the New Zealand International Business Awards 2019. We were finalists in five categories and winner of the awards for Inspiring Preference for New Zealand and He kai kei aku ringa for Māori Excellence in Export.

With the various strands of litigation stemming from the Wakatū Supreme Court decision, it feels a real privilege to be involved in such important work

Since reaching out to Wakatū, I have truly felt the whanaungatanga and manaakitanga, which is a testament to how the Incorporation ‘walks the talk’.

RIKI KOTUA

Archie Harris, district officer of the Māori Trustee’s Christchurch office, handing over the deeds of Māori reserved lands to Kahu Kotua, Wakatū Inc’s inaugural chair, 17 December, 1977. Nelson Provincial Museum, Geoffrey C Wood Collection: GCW3.4115_fr20.

and I feel very lucky to be among and learn from such talented and amazing colleagues.

I feel more passionate and invested working for Wakatū than other places in which I’ve worked. It is special to know that you are also working for your whānau and community, but at Wakatū I also feel like I have been reconnected to my wider whānau and Māori culture. I was born in Nelson and went to college here, but I spent my childhood growing up in Australia, so there was a disconnection from my culture. It is great to have the opportunities at Wakatū to learn te reo Māori and reconnect to my culture, people and place, such as the staff wānanga, and to listen and learn from kaumātua, including Uncle Rore Stafford. Since reaching out to Wakatū, I have truly felt the whanaungatanga and manaakitanga, which is a testament to how the Incorporation ‘walks the talk’.

Outside of work I enjoy spending time with whānau and friends and being in the sun and outdoors around Te Tauihu. Whenever possible we try and make it over to Wharariki beach in Mōhua or Whangarae in Marlborough where our whānau have land. I’ve always been very active and involved in sport, but I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing basketball a few months after starting at Wakatū (which seems to be a bit of a rite of passage at Wakatū and Kono).

When we moved back to Nelson, Mel and I had big plans to run the Abel Tasman, Heaphy and other tracks, however, due to my injury, we have taken up mountain biking instead and now spend a lot of time in the mountain bike parks and on tracks in the region. We recently biked part of the Queen Charlotte Track, which was stunningly beautiful. We also enjoy our food, so when we’re not cooking a big feed at home we like to try what’s on offer at the restaurants and cafés around Whakatū. I am also interested in politics and social justice issues and as much as possible try to keep up to date on current events in Aotearoa and around the world.