Justice Joseph Williams - first Māori appointed to the Supreme Court bench - awarded knighthood
Sunday, 29 December 2019
The first Māori appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice Joseph 'Joe' Williams, has been awarded a knighthood for services to the judiciary.
Williams said it was a great privilege to receive the honour. 'Not as a reflection of any personal attributes but because of what it says about the mana of this country's highest court and the leadership role that judges appointed to it must play in applying and shaping the law of Aotearoa.'
He said the aroha of his family, and wider Wiremu whanau and of his iwi, Ngāti Pūkenga and Waitaha, had kept him grounded despite two decades of judging in five jurisdictions.
He also wished to acknowledge the friendship and support of his judicial colleagues. 'These men and women devote their lives unselfishly to the pursuit of justice and, in doing so, have provided me with a well-lit path to follow.'
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Since graduating with an LLB from Victoria University in 1986, Williams has been on an upward trajectory.
In 1988 he graduated with an LLM (Hons) from the University of British Columbia. That year he joined Kensington Swan, establishing the first unit specialising in Māori issues in a major New Zealand law firm and developing a large environmental practice.
He became a partner at Kensington Swan in 1992, leaving in 1994 to co‑found Walters Williams & Co in Auckland and Wellington.
In 1999 he was appointed Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court and the following year he was appointed acting chairman of the Waitangi Tribunal. He was permanently appointed to the role in 2004.
He was appointed as a Judge of the High Court in 2008 and a Judge of the Court of Appeal in 2018.
When he gained a seat on the Supreme Court earlier this year, he told RNZ that it was important that Māori saw their culture was valued in the court system.
He wanted to see more tikanga Māori and culture and identity programmes in prisons, and cultural training also needed to be targeted at officials, he said.
'I think it is happening and it needs to happen quickly, not just the prison population but those who create the prison population - the officials, the corrections officers, the probation officers, all the way through to the judges.
'Once people at the bottom of the pile see that they are valued, my experience is that that brings quite an important shift in attitude amongst those people.'
In November, Williams made headlines while considering Peter Ellis's appeal when he suggested that New Zealand didn't need to follow decisions set in any other country, and could establish an entirely new rule based on tikanga Māori.
Williams has another another claim to fame - a hit song from the 1980s from when he was a Kiwi music legend.
His reggae band Aotearoa made headlines and NZ Music Charts in 1985 with the single Maranga Ake Ai - a song calling for Māori youth to take pride in their identity.
He was singer and lead guitarist for the band while he was a law student and continued to perform occasionally when chairman of the Waitangi Tribunal, and later a High Court judge.
Justice Minister Andrew Little congratulated Williams saying he had made an 'immense contribution to the elevation of Māori voices in the justice system.
'This honour is well-deserved,' Little said.'Sir Joe Williams has brought a unique blend of legal intellectual rigour and tikanga Māori to his present role, and so reflects New Zealand in the 21 st century.'