How did Moana Jackson die: Dr. Moana Jackson, a pioneering Mori lawyer and activist has passed away after a long battle with cancer in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty at the age of 76.
Jackson’s scholarship and activism have had an impact on public debates about colonialism and the Treaty of Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document.
Who was Moana Jackson?
Jackson (Ngti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Ngti Porou) was born in 1948, the son of All Black Everard Jackson and the brother of prominent Mori activist and trade unionist Syd Jackson.
“I didn’t hear the word ‘colonization’ very often when I was growing up, but I was always aware, I think, of its cold and unrelenting hurt,” Jackson said in a 2017 interview with the Counter futures journal.
“I guess colonialism politicized me, and with it a perception of the need to settle everything it has done and continues to do.”
Those experiences shaped Jackson’s work advocating for indigenous rights in the legal system and academia over the last five decades.
Jackson studied in the United States after training as a lawyer and working as a Mori language teacher. He also worked for the Navaho Legal Service.
When he returned to New Zealand in the 1980s, he co-founded Ng Kaiwhakamarama I Ng Ture, the Mori Legal Service, and later the Te Hau Tikanga, the Mori Law Commission.
Jackson authored a seminal report on Mori’s experiences with New Zealand’s criminal justice system in 1988, which exposed widespread institutional racism and called for greater recognition of the effects of colonialism on Mori.
That report recommended, among other things, the establishment of a parallel Mori justice system, a recommendation that was not carried out.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2015, Jackson stated that “not a lot has changed in 25 years,” and that it was impossible to separate the role of Mori in the prison system from the impact of colonization and disputes over the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi.
In 2007, he resigned as a police patron following controversial anti-terrorism raids on Mori activists. “Every act of Mori resistance since 1840 has been met with opposition… Those who seize power unjustly defend it,” he said at the time.
In recent years, Jackson has led work on constitutional transformation, including co-authoring a report calling for a rewrite of New Zealand’s constitution to better address Mori’s interests.
Cause of death
How did Moana Jackson die: Dr. Moana Jackson, a pioneering Mori lawyer and activist has passed away after a long battle with cancer in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty at the age of 76.
His death comes after a long record of fierce advocacy for Mori, reforming the criminal justice system, and demolishing racist structures.
Tributes
Willie Jackson, Mori development minister, and Jackson’s nephew paid tribute
“proud to have an uncle held in such high esteem and had such a brilliant mind.”
“Uncle Moana was a man who waited to be called on and was never one to step into the spotlight,”
This tweet had been pulled up again by the Twitter community over the past day or so, and this morning we learnt of Moana Jackson’s passing. Utter grief, such a loss. Can’t begin to have the right kupu yet – Moe mai ra Moana xxxxx
I remember Moana Jackson telling a room of Māori at a nursing conference a few years ago, not to fall for coloniser narratives that pit us against immigrants. Building bridges of solidarity especially with migrants of colour is our decolonisation work.
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