Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Postgraduate Scholarship for Gabriella Makerita Hinetu Brayne
Gabriella is pursuing a Masters of Indigenous Law and Policy at the University of Arizona, USA. Gabriella hopes to return to Aotearoa to work in community law, supporting whānau to navigate the systems of welfare and injustice.
Borrin Foundation - Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga postgraduate scholarship
About Gabriella
Ngāti Maniapoto, Falefā
Gabriella Makerita Hinetu Brayne was raised in Massey, Waitākere. She was Dux Litterarum of her school, St Dominic’s College before studying a BA/LLB conjoint degree at the University of Auckland where she received awards for top marks in Sociology and Legal Writing. Gabriella says, “My beautiful māmā instilled in me a strong love for education as liberation.”
Alongside her studies, Gabriella has worked with rangatahi in schools, co-creating kaupapa around Indigenous wellbeing and supporting their organising efforts on a variety of concerns including reproductive justice. More recently, she has worked as a Tuākana tutor in History and a Research Assistant on Tangata Moana experiences of the justice system, shaping a document in solidarity with He Whaipaanga Hou and calls for constitutional transformation and prison abolition. This work is guided by the vision of being a good ancestor alongside our whānau here and now – and for our mokopuna to come – knowing that our communities deserve the full transformation required to thrive in worlds beyond colonisation.
What Gabriella is studying
This year, Gabriella will be traveling to the US to study a Masters of Indigenous Law and Policy at the University of Arizona, strengthening her learnings around Critical Race Theory and prison abolition from Māori and Pacific lecturers at the University of Auckland. The reason she chose this program is because of how it is set up to foster international solidarities and community building, bringing Indigenous rights into a global dialogue of interlocking struggles against transnational capitalism. With these learnings and connections, she hopes to return to Aotearoa to work in community law, supporting whānau to navigate the systems of welfare and injustice, whilst continuing to engage in grassroots education and organising around transformative kaupapa such as Maitike Mai, environmental justice, and prison abolition.
Scholarship amount
$40,000
“I am endlessly thankful and grateful for the support of Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga and the Borrin Foundation and their commitment to transformative kaupapa and justness for our communities. Very excited for new connections and learnings to unfold from across the Moana.”