Barrister Maui Solomon is a well known Indigenous Rights activist, mediator and negotiator in New Zealand, the Pacific and internationally.
Maui is from a family of 13 children and was born in Temuka in 1960. His hokopapa (descent) is from Moriori, Ngāi Tahu and Pakeha. He graduated from Canterbury with a law degree in 1983 and is a Barrister with 30 years’ legal experience. He has specialised in land and fishing claims, cultural and intellectual property and environmental law, and represented Māori tribes from all over Aotearoa/New Zealand and other peoples around the Pacific.
He has played a leading role throughout his adult life in the renaissance of the culture and identity of Moriori people on Rekohu (Chatham Islands). Maui is currently the CEO of his tribal body, Hokotehi Moriori Trust on Rekohu.
Maui has also been active in international indigenous peoples issues including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Intellectual Property Organisation and is a past President of the International Society of Ethnobiology. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada.
