Principal Youth Court judge

First is a word Judge Ida Malosi is more than familiar with. It’s been applied to her many times in her life and career and now she is adding another one – the first Pasifika woman to be appointed as principal Youth Court judge.

She is by no means new to the Youth Court – it’s been a huge part of her whole career, but now she is taking the reins.

It brings with it a series of concerns. Social media is a worry to her, along with unhealthy homes, poor education and school attendance rates, poverty and whether people’s homes are safe.

Growing up in Bluff, Malosi was aware there were few families or faces that looked like hers. Her parents moved to New Zealand in the 1950s and ended up in Bluff – about as far from traditional Samoan population bases as it was possible to get.

She agrees that might sound odd, but not when you know her mother’s brother had got married there. There was a huge disconnect in communication. ’’I remember telegrams were a common source of communication and the cost of travelling back to Samoa was prohibitive – lots of families would only return to Samoa once in their lifetime.’’

It was, however, in her own words, an idyllic life. It’s clear her family became deeply part of the community and that the strength of her parents became her foundation.

Even so, there were traditionally two careers for Samoan girls: nursing and teaching. Her older sister had gone into nursing so Malosi – with inspiration from a history teacher – began studying history at Victoria University. Once her BA was done she decided to give law a go.

It was a massive shift to the big city of Wellington, but holidays had been spent with relatives in nearby Porirua, so it wasn’t unfamiliar.

And it led to a career deeply rooted in the Samoan cultural idea of service, with only a hint of wistful regret for the teaching path not taken. ‘‘Giving back is very much in my cultural DNA, so it’s not peculiar to my family. It’s a hallmark and something that I’m really proud of in terms of my Samoan community, and that sense of service has stood me well in my personal and professional life.’’

There was, she says, a recognition, too, that law is a powerful tool and that the Pasifika community needed people who knew how to use those tools. ‘‘Yes, it was about change from the inside.’’

She fondly remembers former principal Youth Court judge Mick Brown inviting her and a bunch of others into his chambers, where he said he was going to take a chance and approve them all being youth advocates and they were not to let him down. ‘‘And I’ve thought a lot about him and what he said recently with a sense of pride, that I think he would agree – we have not let him down.’’

And it was changing the traditional styles of law and law firms that saw her and the two women who are her other family, La-Verne King and Ali’imuamua Sandra Alofivae, start the law firm most often called KAM (King Alofivae Malosi) in 1994. With all Mā ori and Pacific Island practitioners, it won the Auckland District Law Society’s EEO most innovative award in 2000.

Two years later Malosi went to the Family Court bench – supported and pushed by her partners, again the first Pasifika woman to do so. In fact, she was in a partnership meeting when the call came to say she was being appointed a judge. She’s not the only one: five from the firm have now gone to the district court bench.

Mostly Malosi has sat in Family and Youth Courts in South Auckland, seeing the problems unique to that area. ’’It’s always been a hotspot for youth,’’ she says.

It led to her establishing the Pasifika Youth Courts in Mā ngere in 2010 and Avondale the following year. The courts run using the same laws and procedures but are held in the community at churches or community centres.

In 2013, she was seconded to Samoa as a judge of the Supreme Court, starting the first Family Court and Family Violence Courts.

Malosi is inheriting a Youth Court noted for its innovation. Youth Court is an all-inclusive process, bringing in people from education, health services, social workers, whā nau and elders to both listen to and help guide a young person who has got into trouble.

It’s noted for its dedication to plain speech so youths can understand what is happening. Malosi says the system is going to hold them accountable, but it is also about giving them the tools to make good decisions in their lives, particularly as they move into adulthood.

‘‘The power of the community is where most of the answers lie, in my view. You’re getting back to those basics about people and communities caring for one another and moving away from the fear of being busy-bodies.’’

And having conversations that help families navigate those tough discussions as well as educating families, particularly the children of new migrants, she says.

‘‘What does it mean when your son comes home with a group of friends that are all wearing the same clothes or the same colour? What do those things mean? And what do you need to be looking out for when your children have all these things that you didn’t buy.’’

She’s also grateful for the groundwork laid by former principal Youth Court judges in the neurodiversity space.

Now she is looking at concentrating on the basics in the Youth Court. ‘‘I definitely want to continue on that journey of education, but I want my time marked by a focus on those fundamental human rights of young people, to be safe, to be fed, to be educated and to be healthy, and to be able to access basic human needs.

‘‘What I’m interested in doing is making sure we’ve got the basics right . . . in building solid foundations.

‘‘How do we create the environment which I was lucky to have as a child, so that we do thrive? And that they contribute to society and feel that society values them for who they are.’’

The recent numbers about how many children are not enrolled in education are another concern. ‘‘PostCovid, lower school attendance rate, that has to be worrying for us because it’s young people who, prior to Covid, didn’t have issues with attendance, but the whole world’s been turned on its head. I’m really hoping that maybe there’s something about the beginning of a new year. That would help kids go back to school with confidence.’’

One of the challenges will be social media. Malosi says the Youth Court is challenged by the explosion in its use. ‘‘So our challenge is about working out how we use those social media platforms for good, not evil, because they are powerful tools when in the right hands, used in the right way.

‘‘We certainly don’t have the balance right at the moment. There are lots of people looking down [at their phones] and we want them to look up.’’

She believes young people are incredibly resilient. ‘‘We need to know what we are doing wrong and what we need to do to get it right. And that’s part of the solution.’’

In 2017 Malosi was awarded one of Victoria University’s Distinguished Alumni Awards. She is equally proud of being born in the same year as Samoa gained independence.

‘‘It makes me think I was born in that year for a reason and, as the country has grown and flourished, I’d like to think I have a little bit too.’’

‘‘Giving back is very much in my cultural DNA...It’sa hallmark and something that I’m really proud of...’’