Maryann Panoho
Indigenous Law Center Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Professor
Bio
Maryann Panoho (member of the Ngāpuhi tribe in Northland, Aotearoa New Zealand) is the incoming Visiting Professor of Law at the Indigenous Law Centre. She received her LLB and BA in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Auckland (2023), and her LLM and SJD in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy from the University of Arizona (2024, 2025).
Professor Panoho’s doctoral dissertation examines the rebirth of Māori Indigenous justice systems as an exercise of tino rangatiratanga (Māori self-determination, sovereignty, and autonomy). Her dissertation, The Aotearoa | New Zealand Our Ancestors Were Promised: The Rebirth of Indigenous Justice Systems as an Exercise of Māori Tino Rangatiratanga, offers a comparative analysis of Indigenous justice models in the United States – including the Muscogee Creek Nation, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Navajo Nation—to critique settler colonial suppression of Māori legal traditions and advocate for a uniquely Māori approach to justice.
Focusing on family law jurisdiction, Professor Panoho proposes a Māori court system grounded in Tikanga Māori (Māori law) and Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and storytelling), emphasizing restoration and community-based justice. Her work also situates Māori justice reform within Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand) and international law, particularly the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, arguing that Treaty breaches violate both domestic and international legal obligations. Her research calls for transformative legal change that fulfils the promises made to Māori ancestors and advances a pluralistic justice framework for Aotearoa New Zealand.
Professor Panoho’s broader research also engages critically with environmental law, fortress conservation, climate justice, Indigenous land rights, and Land Back. She explores how the fortress conservation model justifies conquest, dispossession, and Indigenous rights violations to their environments, all in the name of ‘conservation.’ Her research further argues that Indigenous legal orders and guardianship practices offer foundational frameworks for environmental protection. Her work advocates for the recognition and restoration of Indigenous legal authority over lands and waters, affirming that Indigenous stewardship is essential not only for Indigenous futures but for the well-being of all living things.
Professor Panoho was the recipient of the 2025 Vine Deloria Jr. Outstanding SJD Dissertation Award and the 2024 Robert A. Hershey IPLP Outstanding Tribal Advocate Award. She was also a Bay and Paul Foundation Fellow during her time at the University of Arizona and received the Williams Achievement Award scholarship (2023-2025). In Aotearoa, she was awarded the Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Postgraduate Scholarship (2023-2024) for her studies in the United States and has received multiple academic excellence awards, including first-in-course honors.
She has worked with the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, where she contributed to UN reports, advised the Special Rapporteur, drafted state communications, and advocated for the advancement of Indigenous rights in global forums. She has participated in both the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
In addition to her research and international advocacy, Professor Panoho has extensive teaching and lecturing experience. She served as a Teaching Fellow in Contract, Torts, and Property Law at the University of Arizona, where she lectured small group and large group classes, and previously as the Head Tutor in the Māori Academic Programme at the University of Auckland Law School. She is deeply committed to advancing Indigenous legal education and fostering inclusive, transformative spaces for Indigenous students, communities, and advocates.
Professor Panoho’s scholarship and teaching are grounded in a lifelong commitment to justice and equity for Indigenous Peoples. Inspired and guided by Indigenous legal traditions and knowledges, her work envisions transformative, pluralistic systems of law and justice that honor Indigenous autonomy and sovereignty, restore balance, and support the flourishing of Indigenous futures.