IDA MALOSI Judge 1962
The first female Pasifika judge and champion of Pasifika women in law Raised in Bluff and Invercargill, Judge Ida Malosi is the daughter of Samoan immigrants. After obtaining a law degree from Victoria University, she founded King, Alofivae, Malosi - a law firm owned and run by all Māori and Pasifika women. She also chaired the Manukau Youth Court Community Resource Panel, which involved her in helping young people and their families deal with the court system. In September 2002 she was sworn in as a judge – becoming the first female Pasifika judge - and appointed to the Family Court. Through her position on the bench she has worked hard to implement "alternative, culturally appropriate responses to youth offending in her community". Judge Malosi – who was born in the same year as Samoa gained independence - has also worked with her colleagues on establishing Rangatahi Courts and is now a judge on the Pasifika Courts. Rangatahi Courts and Pasifika Courts operate in the same way as the traditional Youth Court, but are held either on marae and follow Māori cultural processes or in Pasifika churches or community centres and follow Pasifika cultural processes. Both courts were designed to help young Māori and Pasifika young people "to engage in the youth justice process" and to better involve the specific families and communities in that process. It's not just in New Zealand that Judge Malosi has excelled and achieved. Between May 2013 and July 2014 she served as Samoa's first Samoan female Supreme Court Judge. And during her time in Samoa Judge Malosi also established the country's first Family Court and Family Violence Court and paved the way for an Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court to be set up. In 2017 Judge Malosi was awarded Victoria University's Distinguished Alumni Award. She is also the patron of the MALOSI project - the Movement for Action and Law to Overcome Social Injustice - run by Pacific law students at Auckland University. The project's objective is to strengthen Pacific communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.
