Bonjour, mon ami! It cannot have escaped your notice that this is Olympic week. Our tiny Island far flung at the bottom of the Pacific yet again batted well above average. Chests swollen, eyes wet, you doubtless stood proud as our Black Ferns clutched their gold medals and victoriously shouted their rousing Haka. Ko Ūhia Mai
In the same week, I wonder how proud you were of the brave storytellers in the Abuse in Care report? “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light – explaining what happened and why it happened to an estimated 200,000 children, young people, and adults in the care of state and faith-based institutions who were exposed to pervasive abuse and neglect.”
The term "hero" comes from the ancient Greeks. For them, a hero was a mortal who had done something so far beyond the normal scope of human experience that they left an immortal memory behind, and thus received worship… like that due to the gods.
The critical moral contribution of heroes is the expansion of our sense of possibility. Heroes can help us lift our eyes a little higher, and we may all benefit from their examples. Heaven knows we need those examples now. More than ever justice needs possibility, hope, and its heroes to lead that charge.
A hero is a person who gets a job done right and uses strength and courage to do it. He or she faces the odds without fear.
People who are heroes do not always get recognised. Some of them don’t even think of themselves as heroes. They are ordinary people who are brave, calm, and kind. As you go to your courtroom today, pause and look about you. There are more heroes there than you might think.
Being a hero is not an easy thing. Showing grace under fire means heroes do not get angry or show they are scared. Even in desperate situations, heroes stay calm and keep their cool. They get the job done. Of course, that is the most important quality in heroes, because most people would be afraid and would run away. Heroes stay and deal with things.
The greatest privilege of being a judge is moving from the dance floor to the balcony. We see much from that high place.
And we see our lawyers of South Auckland, so to them in this Olympic week I want to tell them this. We see your bravery at coping with workloads that would crush Hercules, we see your breathless headlong rush into courtrooms to the next big thing, we see the extraordinary way you bring your kindness in every act and the healing balm of your passionate advocacy to the poor, huddled, desperate, often confused, and angry parade.
When most others would run away, you stay in the south and get the job done. So, I thank you for being that possibility and hope of justice. You are the unsung heroes of our court. You are gold! In the final words of Ko Ūhia Mai, the Black Ferns chant:
Rise and press on
When the challenge arrives
We will gather and unite together.
Strength together
It will be done.
Kia kaha
Gerard