EMILY CHALK.
After two decades in a high-pressure legal career, representing iwi in the Waitangi Tribunal and Treaty settlement negotiations, being diagnosed with thyroid cancer shocked Roimata Smail into taking stock of her life and health.
“It was a really good wake-up call that I had been working too intensely for 20 years and needed to downsize my cases,” says Roimata, 45, who was sent for more testing after noticing a lump on her
face in 2023.
“A surgeon put a camera up my nose and into my throat, and I heard him say, ‘It looks cancerous.’ That was my first experience with a health scare and it was very scary.”
It turned out to be two small cancerous lumps that were thankfully diagnosed early and removed surgically soon after. In the quiet of recovery, something surprising happened – Roimata finally had the time to write a book she’s been contemplating her entire career.
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The result is Understanding Te Tiriti: A Handbook of Basic Facts About Te Tiriti o Waitangi. (Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the reo Māori version of New Zealand’s founding document.)
“The idea just kept coming back and I felt really called to see if I could write something simple from what I had learned about Aotearoa and our history,” explains mother-of-two Roimata.
“Once I had the space, it came pouring out of me. I was trying to write it for myself as I was 20 years ago or myself when I was in high school and didn’t know these things.”
It has been a cathartic and personal journey in more ways than she expected.
“It was quite healing, the way it came rushing out,” she recalls.
“I was coming to terms with everything I had learned and some of it was sad stuff that has happened in our country, but the book is really hopeful.”
Roimata published through her whānau company Wai Ako early last year and celebrated with family, hoping a few people might find it helpful.
“I had 300 copies printed just in case someone outside my circle wanted to read it,” she says.
“There was a bit of fear, but I honestly didn’t think many people would read it.”
But they did. In fact, Understanding Te Tiriti has become a Unity Books and Nielsen number one bestseller.
An anonymous reader was so moved by her work, they’ve donated a copy to every high school in the country. Others, including her iwi Ngāti Maniapoto and Joan Macdonald Treaty Educational Resource Trust, pledged to place a copy in the hands of every MP and mayor in the country.
“It just exploded,” smiles Roimata.
“All of a sudden, I was sitting there refreshing the website and it was selling 100 copies an hour!”
The reason? Roimata had done something few others had: she made Te Tiriti feel accessible
“Turns out there were lots of other people who wanted to know the information but hadn’t before had it presented in a really simple way where they could get the gist all at once,” she explains.
Making big ideas simple
“I’m trying to let people know this isn’t complex or overly academic and scary, and it’s not our fault we didn’t learn this. I myself didn’t know it before.”
She hopes to write at least five more books. After representing lead claimants in the Waitangi Tribunal inquiry that led to the Hauora Report and the establishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. Her next title will be helping others understand the health system in New Zealand.
Now balancing her work as a lawyer with hosting Te Tiriti workshops in libraries, bookshops and festivals around the country. Roimata will never forget when she first heard Understanding Te Tiriti had hit the top of the charts.
“It was crazy,” she laughs.
“We ran around the house shouting and jumping, then ran next door to my mum’s and told her.”
Grounded in Whānau
Roimata lives in her childhood home in Auckland’s Torbay – the same one her parents lived in for 40 years – with her husband, children Kiri, nine, and Savanh, seven, her cousin and niece, with her mum in another house right next to them. She comes from a long line of teachers, so becoming a lawyer was an unexpected career move. But in putting pen to paper, Roimata feels she’s returned to her ancestors calling to teach.
“Mō āku tamariki,” [For my children] reads the book’s dedication, but Roimata reveals her dreams extend much further than her own children.
“I wrote it for their generation and the world they’re growing up in.”
To find a workshop near you or for more information, visit roimatasmail.com
