Moana Jackson (10 October 1945 – 31 March 2022) was a New Zealand lawyer specialising in constitutional law, the Treaty of Waitangi and international indigenous issues. He was an advocate and activist for Māori rights, arguing that the New Zealand criminal justice system was discriminatory and leading work on constitutional reforms. In 1987 he co-founded Ngā Kaiwhakamarama i Ngā Ture (the Māori Legal Service). He also supported the rights of indigenous people internationally – for example, through leading the working group that drafted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and sitting as a judge on the International Tribunal of Indigenous Rights in the 1990s. Biography Jackson was born in Hastings, and was one of six children of Everard Jackson, an All Black rugby player, and Hineaka (Janey) Cunningham. His older brother was activist Syd Jackson. He was affiliated with the iwi of Ngāti Kahungunu on his mother's side and Ngāti Porou on his father's side. He attended Mayfair Primary School and Hastings Intermediate, and from 1959 to 1963 he attended Hastings Boys' High School, where he was a prefect in his last year. He graduated in law and criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, and after a short period in practice took up the teaching of the Māori language. He then undertook further study in the United States, attending Arizona State University. Jackson died on 31 March 2022 at Waimana after a long illness, just three days after his sister-in-law, Dame June Jackson. His tangi (traditional funeral) took place at Matahiwi Marae. He requested that women be able to speak on the marae at his tangi, a role usually reserved for men. On Jackson's death, a number of well-known New Zealanders paid him tribute including Marama Davidson (co-leader of the Green Party), academics Margaret Mutu and Khylee Quince, and writer Tina Makereti. New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern said: Career After returning to New Zealand from his study in the United States, Jackson conducted research for the New Zealand Department of Justice. As part of this work he wrote Māori and the Criminal Justice System: A New Perspective, He Whaipaanga Hou published in 1988. In this report he argued that without changes to the criminal justice system Māori people would experience worse outcomes and discrimination. He was the first person to argue that an alternative justice system would be more appropriate for Māori. the report continues