Learn more about Tekatau's pathway to becoming a Family Lawyer.
Video transcript
[Video shows an aerial view of Hastings]
The main reason I became a lawyer was to help people. There's a lot of Pacific, a lot of Māori people out there that need someone familiar that they can relate to.
And so I love being able to just talk to people because I work as a family lawyer, what help they need with their kids.
[Video shows Tekatau Tabwe Bio sitting in a court room speaking]
if they need protection from their partner, that sort of stuff. And I love getting a good result for them at the end of the day, knowing that they'll be safe, or their children will be safe.
Or that have at least helped in some way to make their lives a bit better.
[Music plays]
So my name is Tekatau, but most people just call me Tau, because it’s easier. And I don't mind it, it’s fine.
So I'm from Kiribati. My mom and dad are from Kiribati. We're from the islands of Marakei, Tarawa, and Abaiang.
I was born there, I’m the oldest of six, and we came here when I was about two in 1992. And then I've grown up ever since. My siblings were born here, but I still feel obviously at heart, an islander.
[Music plays]
Yeah. When I was younger, I wanted to be a journalist because I was really nosy.
[Video shows Tekatau talking to others in the court room]
Like, I wanted to know what was going on, and I was always asking questions. But then my parents, and my uncle is probably more the influencer, my dad's older brother, he was a magistrate back in the islands. Back in Kiribati.
And so that was sort of like what steered me from journalism to being a lawyer.
[Video shows Tekatau sitting in a court room speaking]
So the skills I think that Pasifika people could bring is listening. Listening is so important if you're wanting to be a lawyer because people come and they talk your ears off.
But you got to listen up for what the key things are, what will help them. And we have like this friendly approach I've been told by some clients is that they just feel like they they've known you, if you get what I mean, like, they aren't obviously don't know you, but they feel like they can connect to you.
[Video shows Tekatau working in her office]
And that's so important if you want to have a good working relationship.
In high school, I did English, history, social studies, a bit of maths. I mean, it depends what kind of law you want to go into.
Family law doesn't really do much math, strictly because we are really written and oral based. So anything that requires you to write a lot and read a lot because that's what you'll be doing most of your life anyway. [Laughs]
[Video shows Tekatau sitting in a court room speaking]
And any opportunity to do public speaking. Those school speeches that you guys do during high school. Their speech competitions do definitely give that a go because they build your confidence because that's exactly what you'll be doing here.
[unknown] My name is Tekatau Tabwe Bio, people call me Tao, I’m from Kiribati, from the villages of Marakei, Tarawa, and Abaiang.
I live in Hastings at the moment, but I went to school in Te Kuiti High School, but I grew up in New Zealand, including places like Invercargill, Dunedin, and New Plymouth.
I'm a sister. I'm a daughter. I'm an auntie. I'm a cousin. I'm a volleyball player. I'm an islander.
And this is how I became a family lawyer at Tope Law here in Hastings.
[Music plays]