Sean Smith
Tackling the future
Story by Glenda Tuaine. Photos supplied
The Cook Islands prides itself on being a sporting nation.
Most days of the week excluding Sunday sporting codes
will be running programs for young and old, with netball,
basketball, triathlons, volleyball, handball, gymnastics,
badminton, golf and many other sports, our community
can be spoilt for choice but one thing that does stay true is
our love of Rugby. Our affiliation with New Zealand sees
us often supporting the All Blacks on the International
stage but if our National team is represented then we are
shouting, cheering, drumming, dancing and celebrating our
players!
Sean Smith knows that pride and
as the young President of the Cook
Islands Rugby Union he has big plans
for where Rugby can and will go in
our country. I sat down with Sean
to get some insight into how he is
tackling the future of Rugby in the
Cooks and learnt we possibly have a
national leader in the making as well.
Sean Smith is a young lawyer here
in Rarotonga, having returned two years ago after studying at
Otago University in New Zealand. I jokingly ask him if he was
the typical Otago Uni student as they do have a reputation
and he answers diplomatically that Otago students are a special
breed.
Sean’s legal work is orientated around commercial and land
matters at local Law Company Little & Matysik P.C. He says
when he returned after graduating working as a lawyer was bit
of a slap in the face! “Coming back I didn’t know what I was
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doing nor fully comprehend the legal environment here but the
beauty about it was my Principals and Seniors all appreciated
that. They threw me in the deep end and I really grew from that
experience”. Sean currently focusses on local land law. When
I ask if this is where he wants to stay he jokingly remarks that
he hasn’t thought past the weekend but that he does enjoy land
law because of the highs and lows of it. You can tell that joking
aside Sean is a young man who looks at all perspectives in a
situation, an approach sparked early in him as a child sitting
around with his Mum and Dad and their mates. By the way his
Dad is Ewan Smith an early Pioneer
and Aviator for our Tourism industry
having started up Air Rarotonga over
40 years ago.
“I spent a lot of time around the table
with my parents especially my Dad
and his mate’s sort of to’ing and fro’ing
with yarns. A lot of their discussions
were about hot topics of the time. I
did not understand but knew I wanted
to, essentially that’s how I more or
less stumbled into law.” Law offered
Sean a chance to pursue his interests in history, advocacy and
interpretation. “My biggest thing was I saw it as a skill and
perspective I wanted to have that is applicable across the board
in terms of any type of profession. It is always good to have
different angles on things and insight into situations where
other people may not have considered options or directions.”
So it is no surprise that this young man was selected to
represent the Cook Islands as a Young Pacific Leader in a
collaborative forum run by US Department of State and NGO