Travel and Learning Award for Melissa Tahere
Supporting Melissa Tahere to travel to the Hoover Institute at Stanford University in California, United States, to participate in the Hoover Institution Indigenous Student Seminar.
Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award
Melissa’s plan
Melissa is using the Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award to attend the Hoover Institution’s Indigenous Student Seminar, Renewing Indigenous Economies, at Stanford University in California. The intensive seminar brings together Indigenous students and emerging leaders from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to explore Indigenous economies, including federal Indian policy, tribal governance, Indigenous entrepreneurship, property rights, and trade networks prior to European contact.
The opportunity will enable Melissa to deepen her understanding of Indigenous approaches to economic development, governance and legal systems, and to consider how these perspectives can inform her legal practice and contribute to sustainable outcomes in Aotearoa, particularly for whānau, hapū and iwi Māori and the legal profession generally.
About Melissa
Melissa Tahere (Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāpuhi) is a solicitor in the corporate advisory team at Whāia Legal. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Human Resources and Employment Relations, from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and was admitted to the bar in 2023. Melissa specialises in trust, corporate and commercial law, and advising on Māori legal issues. She is also the Kaupapa Māori Deputy Editor of the New Zealand Women’s Law Journal | Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā Wāhine, contributing to the development and promotion of kaupapa Māori legal scholarship, and was one of the authors of the TLA Joint Writing Prize-winning article, ‘Wāhine Tū, Iwi Māori Ora: The Waitangi Tribunal Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry: The First 32 Years’.
Grant Amount
$7,500 in 2026 to support travel
“I am grateful to the Borrin Foundation for supporting this kaupapa and the opportunity to broaden my understanding of Indigenous legal and economic systems internationally. I look forward to bringing these learnings back home to Aotearoa.”