Jackson has worked across education, law and academia. He was involved in his generation’s most significant movements and events, including working on the seabed and foreshore cases, the 1995 Moutoa Gardens occupation, and as a teacher as part of efforts to revitalise te reo Māori.
He was a vocal critic of the government's foreshore and seabed legislation in 2004 and the October 2007 police 'terror' raids. He resigned as patron of the Police Recruit Wing 244 due to his opposition to how the raids were conducted saying, "I do not buy that this was a racially-neutral act". In 2009 at Omahu Marae in Hastings he said: "Those who take power unjustly defend it with injustice."
His overseas work includes the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 1993 he was a judge on the International Tribunal of Indigenous Rights in Hawaii and again in 1995 in Canada. During the Bougainville peace process he was counsel for the Bougainville Interim Government.
His passing followed the death of Dame Temuranga June Batley-Jackson, his sister-in-law and renowned advocate for urban Māori, who died on Monday. His brother Syd Jackson was one of the founding members of Ngā Tamatoa and his nephew Willie Jackson MP is the Minister of Māori Development. Jackson’s whanaunga said he would return home to Matahiwi Marae in Clive, Hawke’s Bay.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is one of many who spoke about Jackson's impact on their lives.
Marama said she had been “incredibly privileged” to have known and to have been guided by him. “I am feeling utterly devastated. A whole lot of us are in quite a bit of pain,” she said. “I'm going to talk through my tears, I'm sorry. I'm in my emails now going back over the years, long before I was an MP, I ended up in many situations coming under attack. “He would send me emails saying, ‘Keep going Marama, keep going. Ignore the rubbish.’” She said Jackson had guided many politicians, and she met with him most recently in November, when he spoke with Green MPs about Māori rights to self-determination and Te Tiriti."
1News wrote: " Dr Jackson's work on Māori and Indigenous rights has been an inspiration to many at home and abroad, using his knowledge and experience to help Māori and Pākehā understand the impacts of colonisation in Aotearoa. His early advocacy began more than 30 years ago and centred on Māori and the criminal justice system. He was the lead researcher and author of the groundbreaking 1988 report, Māori and the Criminal Justice System: He Whaipaanga Hou and helped set up Ngā Kaiwhakamarama i Ngā Ture (the Māori Legal Service)."
RNZ News wrote: "He [was] a tireless advocate for criminal justice reform and the dismantling of racist structures in the justice system. In 1988, he was the author of the ground-breaking report for the Justice Department, Māori in the Criminal Justice System, which is still widely referenced today."
Columnist Morgan Godfrey (Te Pahipoto, Sāmoa) and Uni Otago senior lecturer, wrote: "Moana Jackson was the very best of us: unfailingly kind to everyone he met, generous with his time and energy - especially if young people were asking for it - and the most gifted intellectual of his generation. He had such a soft voice, but he never took a back step."
Moe mai ra te Rangatira.
Also https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/31-03-2022/moe-mai-ra-moana-jackson-1945-22
-- ACW
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