New Zealand Study Tour 2025
In November 2025, a group of undergraduate and postgraduate RMIT law students went on an extraordinary Study Tour to Aotearoa New Zealand — a week many described as life-changing. Curated by the CIJ’s Director Rob Hulls and hosted by RMIT’s School of Law, the tour immersed students in culturally grounded, community-led and restorative approaches to justice through engagements with Māori legal practitioners, community organisations and courts across Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).
Students visited Project Restore, the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court, Rangatahi Youth Court, Auckland City Mission, Māngere Community Law Centre and other key justice institutions. Witnessing justice practices grounded in culture, healing and community reshaped students’ understanding of justice and influenced future study and career pathways. Notably, many students shared that the CIJ played a decisive role in their choice to study law at RMIT.
Student Reflections
I joined the week long study tour to New Zealand of the CIJ program in November 2025. My background in community organising and political activism means I have been acutely aware through my juris doctoral studies of the divergent paths practitioners can take upon admission as lawyers. I wanted to explore the ways in which legal practice can challenge old systems which have benefited the powerful, often to the detriment of the disadvantaged. I knew from RMIT studies in jurisprudence and innovative justice some of the theory behind this and the study tour was an opportunity to see in practice the approaches taken by legal practitioners to address those challenges.
The highlight for me was witnessing the passion, care and love of practitioners in their legal practice. In the court, it meant meeting judges, Māori leaders, social workers and lawyers who share wonder and joy in their work of supporting participants in drug treatment courts. In the small suburban practice, it meant watching the revolutionary spirit of young lawyers and the thoughtful mentorship of partners. In the community legal centre, it meant learning about the marginalisation of communities and the work of building those communities to have voice through the law.
We learned that Treaty plays a foundational role in giving voice, space and power to first nations people. We learned that there is a place for loving, caring and compassionate practitioners who are not naïve but are connected to their communities. I also learned how much easier it is to display care and compassion in our work as lawyers when surrounded by others on a similar journey and with similar objectives. We were fortunate to have a fantastic community of students and CIJ leaders with us to foster our inquiry, support our inquisitiveness and develop our reflection.
– Josh Cullinan, Juris Doctor Student
Tēnā koutou katoa Ko Watagans te maunga Ko Hunter te awa Ko Mulubinba/ Newcastle te whenua tupu Kei Naarm/ Melbourne au e noho ana He student au i RMIT University Ko Em au
Greetings all My mountain is the Watagans My river is the Hunter I grew up in Muloobinba/ Newcastle I live in Naarm/ Melbourne I am a student at RMIT University My name is Em
I’ve started this reflection like many of the days we began our study tour in Aotearoa, with a pepeha. A pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in te reo Māori. It tells the story of the places and people you are connected to, starting with your mountain, your river or ocean, and where you come from. Even as a Pākeha (a person who is non-Māori and typically of European descent), you can introduce yourself this way. It is a beautiful and grounding way to feel connected with the people you meet with. I would encourage you to think about what your own pepeha might be.
The Innovative Study Tour was something I had aspired to attend since I started my Juris Doctor. I knew that the tour would take us to meet some of the most inspiring practitioners of the law, and I wanted nothing else than to be a sponge and learn as much as I could from them… and I was right. We were so fortunate to meet and learn from facilitators of restorative justice practices, academics creating innovative and decolonial frameworks for justice, and judges who had established therapeutic courts across Aotearoa.
What I didn’t expect was for the week to be such a moving and emotional experience.
A particular highlight of the week was at the Te Kōti Rangatahi Court (children’s court), held at the Hoani Waititi Marae where we observed Judge Ophir Cassidy. She expertly supported young people who had committed high level offences with such compassion and empathy in a culturally safe and affirming environment. She knew when to provide encouragement, when to be firm and when to be gentle, depending on the young person’s personal circumstances. She was able to understand the nuance and uniqueness of each young person’s needs without condoning their offending. Her approach could not have been more contrasted with the Victorian government’s recent announcement of ‘adult time for adult crime’. It was emotional seeing these young Māori people being so cared for by practitioners of the legal system, knowing the opposite is happening back at home, especially for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
A common thread throughout this week was the way in which these therapeutic courts were grounded in Māori cultural practices. These practices offer humanity, empathy, and compassion within legal processes when the western legal system is simply unable or unwilling to do so. Not only was this reflected in the way that the therapeutic courts were structured formally, but the way it informed every interaction each person had with each other. There was a softness and a gentleness between each person. A willingness to see each other and to be seen. As guests, we felt warmly invited and wanted in each one of the spaces we entered.
This week gave me hope that we can work towards a justice system that is truly ‘just’. A justice system that is decolonised, that prioritises Indigenous practices, and that encourages understanding each person as a whole, not just focusing on their offending in isolation. This week has affirmed for me that changes in the legal system are possible, even if they take time. I will carry the learnings, teachings, and friendships I’ve made during this week with me for a long time to come.
– Em Collard, Juris Doctor Student
This morning, at Māngere Community Law Centre, the kettle breathed its soft karakia, and the renovated office, warm as old hands, welcomed our footsteps. David and Harry’s voices, steady as a whenua-line, threaded stories of neighbours, cousins, strangers bound together by unmet need and the quiet bravery of turning up.
By afternoon the glass lifts of DLA Piper whisked us skyward; suits sharp, flat shoes Friday, air-con humming its corporate waiata. Two worlds rubbing edges, like flint and river-stone: one sparking the heart, one lulling with a view, both teaching.
Now, as our tour settles into dusk-light, I feel the ache of endings. We have walked pathways of innovative justice, restorative heart-work, therapeutic jurisprudence that listens, and the steady pulse of te ao Māori guiding us back to ourselves. Tikanga wrapping us: a cloak of “remember who you stand for.”
I sit with it all: the sweetness of what we’ve seen, the sting of leaving this shared journey, the small fluttering Pīwakawaka of fear beating inside the ribs asking what comes next.
Yet hope sidles in, uninvited but welcome, its voice like Tāmaki Makaurau’s rain: gentle, persistent, finding every crack and turning it green. Maybe courage is just that? turning up, again and again, to both the kitchen-table battles and the high-rise negotiations, carrying forward the promise that justice, like water, must reach everyone.
– Peter Carl, Juris Doctor Student