Family
Statutory marriage and divorce alongside customary adoption and lineage
Marriage, divorce and maintenance are statutory and heard by the High Court, while adoption and the transmission of land rights remain substantially customary and matrilineal.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, in the High Court and District Court. Customary adoption and lineage questions may be referred to the Traditional Rights Court where land rights turn on status.
Governing law
- Marriage Act 1988
- Divorce Act 1988
- Adoption Act 1969
- Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act 2011
In practice
The statutory scheme provides for registered marriage, judicial divorce on stated grounds, maintenance and custody. Running alongside it is customary practice, most visibly in adoption: kokajiriri, the customary transfer of a child within the extended family, is widespread and may not be registered, which creates real difficulty when the child later asserts land rights or needs documentation for travel or US Compact purposes. Because land descends through the bwij, questions of who is a lineage member carry property consequences that a purely statutory family court would not reach, and this is why the Traditional Rights Court's role matters in family matters too. The Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act 2011 introduced protection orders and police powers, a significant reform in a society where such matters were previously handled within the family.