Meet the rangatahi Māori breaking ground in both law and fashion

Source: Radio New Zealand

From a town of less than 4000 people, Siadin Ellis (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tūhoe) is carving out space for rangatahi Māori in places they are still rarely seen.

At just 23, Ellis has walked the runway at New Zealand Fashion Week twice while also graduating with a Bachelor of Laws and being admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court.

Now the youngest lawyer at Tāmaki Legal, she works in Treaty law and hopes her journey shows other rangatahi Māori- particularly those from small towns – that they belong in both academic and creative spaces.

“We as Māori are so much more than the stereotypes and the statistics portray us as,” she told RNZ.

“We deserve as much as anyone else to be present in these spaces, whether it be academically or creatively.”

Ellis was born in Taupō and spent her early childhood in Tūrangi before moving to Australia at age four. Her whānau returned home when she was 11, and she later moved to Tāmaki Makaurau in early 2020 to study law.

“There wasn’t a lot of opportunity in such a small town. I was a bit lost at that age, and I felt like law would have a lot of different opportunities that I could branch out into,” she said.

Tūrangi sits on the west bank of the Tongariro River and has a population of less than 4000 people, with more than 60 percent identifying as Māori.

Ellis said growing up there shaped her desire to challenge negative narratives.

“In our town, the statistics are so bad – teenage pregnancy, suicide, gang affiliation,” she said.

“In a way, my journey is giving back to my town, family and iwi.”

While Ellis now stands confidently in her Māoritanga, identity has been something she has grappled with throughout her life, particularly after spending her early years in Australia.

“I still feel too white for Māori spaces and too Māori for white spaces sometimes,” she said.

She recalled being teased after returning to Tūrangi for not speaking te reo Māori fluently.

“That made me whakamā to even learn back then.”

Now working in Treaty law and involved in the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa inquiry, Ellis said her identity is a strength – both professionally and personally.

“It’s almost the only space where I’ve felt like being Māori is a privilege,” she said, describing her Māoritanga as a “superpower.”

“Understanding tikanga, it’s a strength, not a weakness.”

The transition from a small town to Auckland was not without its challenges. Ellis said isolation, financial pressure and self-doubt weighed heavily during her studies.

“I always had impostor syndrome, and I still do to this day,” she said.

“I felt like I wasn’t in the right place, like I wasn’t as smart as everyone around me.”

Being the only person from her school year to attend university added to that pressure, as did starting during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I didn’t know anyone up here besides my partner. I went to uni, put my head down and didn’t even speak to anyone.”

What kept her going, she said, was her whānau – especially her 16-year-old brother and eight-year-old sister.

“Doing it for them and letting them see that they can do more and be more, it means so much.”

Alongside law, Ellis was also building a presence in the fashion industry. She began modelling soon after moving to Auckland, despite being told she didn’t fit traditional standards.

“I’m on the shorter side, and I had some really bad experiences with agencies declining me,” she said.

She describes herself as a “bigger-bodied model” and said visibility was a major motivation.

“I always kind of felt like a background person,” she said.

“But when I’m on the runway, I feel seen. Not in an attention way, but like people can actually see me.”

Ellis first walked at New Zealand Fashion Week in 2023, returning again in 2024. She said modelling became a vital creative outlet alongside the intensity of legal study.

“I’m a very creative mind, and when I’m doing so much theory and old legal jargon, I need something else, and that was it.”

Representation in fashion, she said, matters – particularly for Māori and curvy wāhine.

“There’s not a lot of bigger Māori models,” she said.

“It felt like I wasn’t just representing me, it was for others as well.”

One standout moment, Ellis said, was when she appeared in a Mi Piaci campaign where her ankle tāmoko was visible across billboards and store displays.

“I thought it was going to be really whitewashed,” she said.

“But you could see my tāmoko, and that was huge for me.”

Feedback from others reinforced the importance of that visibility.

“I had a lot of people say, ‘It’s amazing to see that.’”

Ellis hopes her haerenga encourages rangatahi Māori to push boundaries and back themselves, no matter where they come from.

“It will often feel like the whole system is against you and that’s because it is,” she said.

“It wasn’t designed for us. But we owe it to ourselves, our tūpuna, our whānau and the next generation to knock down those barriers.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand