Tracy Karanui-Golf 

Te Rarawa 

Speech and Language Therapist 

Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy 

Poutāhū Ahunga Tikanga – Postgraduate Diploma in Māori Laws and Philosophy 

Student, Tāhuhu Ahunga Tikanga – Master of Māori Laws and Philosophy 

31 March 2025

Tracy Karanui-Golf completed the Poutāhū Ahunga Tikanga – Postgraduate Diploma in Māori Laws and Philosophy at Te Wānanga o Raukawa at the end of 2023, and at the beginning of 2024, she enrolled into the Tāhuhu Ahunga Tikanga programme  - Master of Māori Laws and Philosophy. This programme delves into Māori customary law, Māori philosophies, kaupapa and tikanga as fundamental laws of Aotearoa, He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and much more. She did this to assist in her work at Massey and at the Ministry of Justice. 

A mother of two sons, Leroy and Ashdon and daughter, Lola and nannie to Alfie, Tracy juggles family, work, life and study. Creating a papakāinga on land she and her husband bought at Kaimaumau, a small coastal village past Kaitaia and Awanui in the Far North has been one of her passions. The papakāinga is part of her plan for her whānau and for the generations to come. The property is about 6 acres, and the plan is to have each of their children build homes and live on the property. Their uncle who they care for also has a small home on the property. He has his own vegetable garden; he gets out every morning and goes for a walk with the dogs and is active and mobile. Tracy loves to weave, fish and garden. Lola, her 12-year-old daughter, also shares her love for gardening and can be found in the garden on weekends. 

Through her grandmother’s influence, Tracey has a strong sense of social justice. Her grandmother, Kuini o te Maunga Karanui opened her home to homeless and at-risk youth. Her grandmother had been a ward of the state and had experienced abuse and unkindness during that time and never wanted any young person to experience what she went through. Her grandmother was the eldest person to give evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in 1922. The lessons and values she taught still guides Tracey and her wider whānau today. A favourite whakataukī of Tracey’s grandmother is, “He aha te mea tangata o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata”. 

 For ten years Tracy worked as a teacher aide and therapy assistant at Wilson School, North Shore – a specialist school supporting students with special needs.  Tracey loved what she saw the speech and language therapist doing for students and whānau. This is what drew her towards speech and language therapy. As a single mother of two young sons, she enrolled into the Speech and Language Therapy programme at Massey University and completed after five years of study including a year of prerequisites. During this time, she met her husband, Paul, and together they had their daughter. A challenging time for Tracy with late night feeds, children, studies and placements to be done, and an exciting time as well with studies close to completion, a new husband and baby. 

 Employed as the Kaiakiaki Māori for the Speech and Language Therapy programme at Massey University, Tracy’s focus in this role is on embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles and Māori cultural practices into the curriculum. She supports the Speech and Language Therapy team in developing culturally sustaining practices. She also ensures the integration of mātauranga Māori into course content and provides leadership in creating a vision for Māori student success. Making sure they graduate students who can safely and responsibly care for whānau Māori. 

 Also contracted by Talking Trouble Aotearoa New Zealand as a court appointed specialist communication assistant, Tracey works within the Ministry of Justice. She is one of less than ten specialist Māori communication assistants in Aotearoa who can confidently work from a te ao Māori perspective integrating mātauranga Māori into clinical and professional practice. She assists clients with complex communication profiles. Perhaps they had a stroke, or traumatic brain injury, or are autistic, or experienced some kind of trauma, or for whatever reason the clients find participating in the Justice system challenging. 

 Her role in the courts is to provide her assessment and a report to the court which contains communication recommendations about what would help the clients better understand the legal processes they need to go through and assist them to say the things they want to say and to answer the questions they are asked. She assists the courts and participants – defendants and witnesses to communicate effectively in court proceedings. She assists in all courts from the Appeal Court, High Court, Family Court and Youth Court and in this role is an Officer of the Court. 

Tracey has been re-indigenising herself with learning and applying the tools of decolonisation and learning about the power of mātauranga Māori. Because she is often assigned Māori clients in her Ministry of Justice work, she felt she needed to better understand our history of colonialism and how we have at times ended up with distortions of tikanga. She had been reading Ani Mikaere’ papers to become familiar with the idea of distorting tikanga to make sure she wasn’t re-colonising herself, her profession and the people she works with over and over again. She had been watching the Ahunga Tikanga programme for a few years but had felt whakamā to join. She eventually enrolled last year and according to Tracey, “It has been amazing and really transformative.” The phrase, “it’s been wild” has often been used by Tracey to describe her journey from a 15-year-old school leaver to where she is today.  

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