Ngāti Awa Representative
Appointment term expires: 10 August 2026
Deputy Chief Judge Craig Coxhead was appointed to the Māori Land Court on 25 January 2008 and appointed Deputy Chief Judge in June 2024.
Based in Rotorua, he is the resident Judge for the Waiariki District of the Māori Land Court, hearing cases in Rotorua and Taupō.
His Honour Deputy Chief Judge Coxhead graduated from the University of Waikato Law School firstly with a Bachelor of Social Sciences and then with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in 1994 and was admitted to the Bar in 1995. He later completed a Master of Laws degree in 2000.
Before he was appointed, His Honour Deputy Chief Judge Coxhead worked in private practice with McCaw Lewis Chapman mainly in the areas of Treaty of Waitangi, Māori land issues, criminal and general civil litigation. Following private practice, he became a senior lecturer at the University of Waikato Law School lecturing in both graduate and post-graduate courses.
He has also served as a former president of Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa – the New Zealand Māori Law Society.
His Honour Deputy Chief Judge Coxhead is a member of the Waitangi Tribunal and is the presiding officer for the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry District and the Housing inquiry.
In 2011 he was appointed as a High Court Judge in Niue, in 2016 as a Justice of the High Court of the Cook Islands and in 2018, he was appointed the Chief Justice of Niue.
His Honour Deputy Chief Judge Coxhead is a former Council member and Chairperson of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
Deputy Chief Judge Craig Coxhead (pictured)
Council member: Deputy Chief Judge Craig Coxhead
Qualifications: BSocSci, LLB(Hons), LLM
Iwi: Ngāti Makino, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Maru