Māori Wellness Expert Brendon Te Waati Awarded $200,000 Over Facebook Posts

Māori wellness practitioner Brendon Te Waati has been awarded $200,000 in general damages by the High Court after a woman published serious, false allegations against him on Facebook, nzherald.co.nz reported. Justice Jane Anderson ruled that Nga Atawhainga Adrianna Creagh had no arguable defence against the defamation claims, noting that the online posts caused Te Waati’s monthly trading revenue to collapse to zero while prompting widespread cancellations of national and international seminars.

Creagh Published Four Facebook Posts About Te Waati

According to a High Court judgment, Te Waati and Creagh shared a brief relationship that ended in 2021. Four years later, Creagh published four posts on her Facebook page, which had a following of more than 2,000 users. In the first two posts, she tagged Te Aho Matua, an organisation operating Māori language immersion schools, while including a photograph of Te Waati and identifying him by his name, Ngarino Te Waati, and his nickname, “Beez”. The third and fourth posts, published on the same day, further identified him by referencing his ex-wife’s name. Justice Anderson noted that the posts remained online for about two weeks, during which they were read by third parties and amplified via social media’s grapevine effect.

Impact On Trading Revenue And Seminar Bookings

The digital fallout had an immediate and severe operational impact on Te Waati’s professional enterprise. Te Whare Āio, the organisation he founded to deliver wānanga and seminars on Māori wellbeing practices both nationally and internationally, experienced an almost overnight cessation of work. Te Waati provided court evidence showing that the monthly revenue of his trading company, Māori Movement, fell to zero and remained there. A long-standing client cancelled forward bookings for 24 scheduled wānanga, and his attendance at four national and four international seminars was called off. “In Mr Te Waati’s words, ‘work has dried up’,” Justice Anderson stated in her judgment.

Creagh Refused to Retract Defamatory Comments

Efforts to resolve the dispute outside the courtroom stalled following initial legal notices. Last October, Te Waati’s lawyers issued a formal request asking Creagh to stop making defamatory comments and issue a retraction. Creagh took down the Facebook posts and stated she would not post certain further allegations, but she refused to make a retraction statement or sign an undertaking. Justice Anderson noted that Creagh claimed a retraction would make her out to be a liar. After Te Waati initiated summary judgment proceedings in February, Creagh was served with documents but ignored them until June, when she emailed lawyers to state an intention to defend the claim while being “entirely judgment-proof”. Her subsequent attempts to file a draft affidavit, a letter from her social worker, an unsigned notice of opposition, and an unsigned interlocutory application after 5pm on the Thursday of the Matariki weekend were rejected by the court registry. Creagh later identified herself from the public gallery during Te Waati’s submissions at a July 16 hearing, where her application for an adjournment and leave to file out of time was declined.

Judicial Rejection Of Defences And Assessment Of Damages

Justice Anderson ruled that Creagh had no arguable defence against the claims, observing that defamatory statements are presumed false without an evidential basis for truth. The court found no foundation for an honest opinion defence because the imputations were presented as facts rather than opinions and the underlying facts were false. Defences of qualified privilege and responsible communication also failed, as the court ruled there was no privilege to air allegations publicly instead of reporting them to proper authorities, and the communication was sensationalist without giving Te Waati an opportunity to respond. Justice Anderson awarded $200,000 in general damages to compensate for reputational harm, vindicate his good name, and provide consolation for distress, hurt, and humiliation.