Associate Minister of Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced the appointment of Chief Judge Fox as the Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal.
Kei aku iti, kei aku rahi, kei ngā mātā waka o te motu, tēnā koutou
On Friday, 1 September 2023, the Hon. Nanaia Mahuta, Associate Minister of Māori Development, announced the appointment of Chief Judge Caren Leslie Fox as the Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal.
Chief Judge Fox is a descendent of Ngāti Porou and Rongowhakaata, with ties to Te Whānau a Apanui. She is the fifth judge to be appointed as Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal, following Chief Judge Kenneth Gillanders Scott, Tā Justice Taihakurei Durie, Tā Justice Joe Williams and Chief Judge Wilson Isaac.
Chief Judge Fox was appointed as a Māori Land Court judge on 1 October 2000, and shortly thereafter was appointed as the Presiding Officer of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Central North Island district inquiry in 2001. She has gone on to lead a number of Tribunal inquiries, including the Porirua ki Manawatū and Te Rohe Pōtae district inquiries, the Constitutional kaupapa inquiry, and urgent inquiries into claims concerning aquaculture and marine farming, Te Arawa Treaty settlement and mandating processes, Crown policy concerning Kōhanga Reo, and the Crown review of the Māori Community Development Act and Māori Wardens. She was also appointed as an Alternate Environment Court Judge in 2009.
Chief Judge Fox was appointed as the Deputy Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court in 2010, and as the Chief Judge of the Court in 2023. On 24 August 2023, her swearing-in ceremony was held at The Pā, University of Waikato.
Prior to her appointment to the bench, Chief Judge Fox was a Lecturer in law at Victoria University and a Senior Lecturer in law and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Waikato. She also acted as legal counsel for Treaty claimants and Māori land clients. She holds a LLM from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, and in 2023 received her PhD at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi for her thesis "Ko te mana te utu: Narratives of sovereignty, law, and tribal citizenship in the Pōtikirua ki te Toka-a-Taiau District".
Judge Sarah Reeves will continue as Deputy Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal.
View the Hon. Nanaia Mahuta's article at the Beehive website here.