Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Mākino
Annette is a human rights lawyer specialising in the rights of indigenous peoples to promote their own, separate systems of law and has a strong focus in her career on all aspects of law as they affect Māori especially constitutional change. Annette was the first wāhine Māori lawyer to appear as counsel in the Waitangi Tribunal for the Te Reo Māori claim. She has been an active member of the New Zealand Criminal Bar, the Family Courts Association and Te Hunga Rōia Māori, (Māori Law Society) and is an advocate in the specialist jurisdictions of the Waitangi Tribunal, Māori Land Court and Appellate courts as well as the other general courts of New Zealand.  Annette was the first wāhine Māori lawyer to appear as counsel in the Waitangi Tribunal for the Te Reo Māori claim. Annette is renowned for her social activism and founding member of protest movements against the New Zealand government on issues affecting Māori and this has been an active part of her career and community advocacy. These direct-action strategies have led to government policy change such the Te Reo Māori movement and petition in the 1970s and was part of drafting the legislation for the Māori Language Act 1987. Annette has also been a strident advocate for ‘te pani me te rawakore’, the poor and dispossessed which has been an important driver of her work as a lawyer in Rotorua and has also lived with the realities of the poor, marginalised and homeless daily.