The landmark bilingual judgment Pokere v Bodger - Ōuri 1A3 (2022) 459 Aotea MB 210 has been issued by the Māori Land Court and is now available on Westlaw. In its media release the Court said:

"This judgment is a significant milestone in the Māori Land Court and for Māori landowners.  As the first fully bilingual judgment issued in its history, it signals the enhancement of te reo Māori in the Court."

Pokere v Bodger examines tikanga in the context of trust law and whether the trustees of Hanataua Ahu Whenua Trust had breached their duties under tikanga. The applicants had asked to be heard on the matter in te reo Māori. 

The Court found that ss 4 and 21 of the Trusts Act 2019 provided a statutory basis for tikanga duties.

• "Section 21 states that duties should be performed by trustees having regard to the context and objectives of the trust. It would be difficult to argue that tikanga would not be in the mix considering the context and objectives of Māori land trusts."  (at [94])
• "trustees appointed under Part 12 of the Act have duties under tikanga, regardless of whether these duties are explicitly included in the terms of the trust or not"  (at [100])
• "Similar to fiduciary law, where the duties and remedies arise based on the nature of trustee/beneficiary relationship, as opposed to prescription, tikanga is also relational and context specific".  (at [103])

The Court found that the trustees had not breached their duties under either tikanga or the Trusts Act 2019. Because there was no breach, remedies were not required. But the trustees were invited to consider holding wānanga (meetings) to help the wider hapū (family grouping) achieve a sense of ea (a state of balance).