From teen mum to the top Fighting for our children
“I wanted my children to have moko living in their world. I never saw one growing up – only in pictures.”
She was a teen mum. Now, as well as raising seven children, she has dedicated more than 30 years of her life to serving her community. She is a fluent speaker of te reo and traces her ancestry back through generations of East Coast Maori to the revered Ngati Porou woman Hinetapora, a wahine who is said to have trained warriors in hand-to-hand combat.
It’s hard to imagine a person better qualified to look after the interests of Maori children or indeed any children. Glenis Philip-Barbara is our first Assistant Maori Commissioner for Children. She works, as she puts it, “shoulder to shoulder” with Judge Andrew Becroft.
She is a warm-hearted, compassionate, intelligent woman and she is focused on eliminating the racism that dogs the lives of so many Maori children.
“In my work, when I ask kids what’s on their minds, young brown children always want to talk
