Speakers
This page will be updated as new speakers are confirmed.
Emily Barnes
Mediator, Dewberry
Emily Barnes is an award-winning mediator who specialises in institutional abuse, professional indemnity and public liability cases. Emily has successfully mediated over 2000 cases over the last decade, in her dedicated full time mediation practice.
She has expertise in complex disputes, high conflict personalities, trauma informed facilitation and online dispute resolution. Emily’s passion for the work that she does has led her to become a founding member of The Kato Collective, a community of experienced mediators committed to improving outcomes for clients in conflict.
Emily is also an accomplished public speaker and has been invited to speak at a variety of conferences and private engagements on topics ranging from negotiation and mediation skills, branding and growing your business and diversity in the law. When Emily is not busy mediating, you can find her murdering innocent vases over a pottery wheel, trying to look less appetising to hungry sharks on her surfboard or enjoying the van life with her two (nearly grown) children and circus quality dogs (Moose and Banjo).
Title: 10 things I wish I knew
Description: A raw and honest accounting of the journey to a successful and sustainable full time mediation practice, a decade on.
Dr Grant Morris
Associate Professor, Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Grant Morris is Associate Professor in Law at Victoria University of Wellington. Grant is also an accredited mediator and has worked as a facilitator and negotiator over the past two decades. Grant's research areas include mediation, interest-based negotiation and New Zealand legal history. He has published several books and numerous articles on these subjects, including the recent work, Mediation in New Zealand (Thomson Reuters). Grant is also a regular contributor to RNZ Afternoons.
Title: Mapping Mediation in Aotearoa New Zealand: The attempt to map all mediation in an entire nation
Description: Is it possible to analyse and map all the mediation in a country? Since 2015 Dr Morris has attempted to answer that question in the affirmative. NZ has a unitary constitutional system and relatively small population making it possible to gather the necessary information. This project reveals both predictable and surprising results. It also acts as a possible model for other jurisdictions ie it can be done.
This keynote will discuss the findings of the 2015-2021 mediation mapping project and argue that while mediation is in good health in NZ it is also at a crossroads in terms of growth and delivery. The mapping project includes both public and private led mediation regimes and features one of the few international examples of comprehensive empirical research into the private commercial mediation market.
For those NMC attendees wanting to find out how mediation works in Aotearoa NZ, this talk will help to provide the answers.
Dr John Waldon
John Waldon is of Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Pōrou, Chinese and English descent. He completed studies in Earth Science, Public Health and Māori Studies. In 2020, John was elected as a member of the Midcentral DHB Board, Chairing the Health & Disability Committee. Prior to this John served on the Midcentral Health’s Clinical Board for seven years, and the Cancer Control NZ Board for 5 years as a Ministerial appointee. John’s health research interests are epidemiology (cancer and infectious diseases) and Māori health. He has presented papers in Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Darwin, Kuala Lumpur, Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal, Bristol, Geneva and Rio di Janeiro.
John is an accredited Restorative Justice Facilitator (2016), endorsed for working with family violence (2018). He works as a Research Development Advisor at Massey University. In his spare time John chairs the Manawatū Centre of the Cancer Society and is a board member of the Central Districts Division of the Cancer Society, has consulted to the World Health Organisation and presented two reports in confidential sessions to the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child.
Awards: Health Research Council PhD Scholar, Jane Freemantle -Ormond College Fellow (Melbourne University), HRC Erū Pōmare Post Doctoral Fellow, life member of the Cancer Society. John was also awarded a fellowship at the TVW Institute for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, and has held conjoint appointments at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.
Title: Utu - Crafting a Balance
Description: It is said revenge, unlike utu, is a meal best served cold. In this light, revenge is silent on the menu, through to who will do the dishes. Utu has been used to illustrate Aotearoa’s colonial past, in many cases to justify jailing without due process and land confiscation. Today, utu articulates Indigenous values and cultural practices providing a contemporary perspective for those committed to high professional standards, equity and ethics. Utu, crafting balance, is informed by mātauranga Māori Indigenous knowledge.
MC for the Conference
Dr Karen Vaughan
Karen has been fascinated by the rich learning potential in everyday settings all her life. She brings this focus to her work as Director of Hummingbird Effect where she is a mediator, restorative practice facilitator and education consultant. A former researcher in vocational and professional education, Karen has published widely on workbased-learning, communities of practice and learning from failure in a diverse range of sectors and fields.
Karen works closely with Te Ngāpara Centre for Restorative Practice at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, consulting on the design of restorative schemes and education programmes. She serves on the Competence Authority for the Teaching Council of Aotearoa, advisory panels for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Board of Work-Integrated Learning New Zealand. Karen is a keen tramper and conversation volunteer for Ngā Uruora Kāpiti Biodiversity Project.