Judges

The group is treating the workshop as an opportunity to give back to the legal community, paying for the entire trip out of their own pockets.

Top New Zealand defence lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg KC, who is leading the group, says the workshop is also run regularly in Manukau, attracting lawyers from both defence and prosecutions.

 “What we’re wanting to do is to be able to demonstrate and give our learnings to people over the two days,” she says. 

New- Zealand’s Makereti is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction whose work has appeared in a range of literary journals, magazines and anthologies.

Her fellow judges, drawn from the other regions of the Commonwealth, are Nigerian author A. Igoni Barrett (Africa), Bangladeshi writer and editor Khademul Islam (Asia), British poet and fiction writer Keith Jarrett (Canada and Europe), Jamaican environmental activist and author Diana McCaulay (Caribbean).

South African novelist and critic Zoë Wicomb will chair the panel of judges.

The notion was triggered when the PM said he has received a lot of complaints written to him from members of the public regarding the decisions made in the Lands and Titles Court allegedly being false or unfair.

“When they write to me and ask me for help, I certainly cannot sit still because it is my job to answer to what the country needs,” said PM Tuilaepa.