Anand Satyanand - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Satyanand was born and raised in Auckland to an Indo-Fijian family. His grandparents arrived in Fiji from Andhra, India in 1911, and were married on Nukulau Island. His father, Mutyala Satyanand, a medical doctor, was born in Sigatoka in 1913 and arrived in New Zealand in 1927 to attend high school. His mother Tara Tillak was a nurse from Suva. She married his father after moving to New Zealand.

Satyanand attended Sacred Heart College in Auckland and then moved to Dunedin to take a medical intermediate course at the University of Otago. He was not successful in gaining entry to the medical school and later said "...in reality I did not do well enough ... (but)... Looking back over that year, I remembered that one of the things I had really enjoyed was the debating and forum meetings involving students." So instead he took up law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Auckland in 1970. He worked as a lawyer for the next 12 years, initially for Greig, Bourke and Kettelwell. Later he worked as a barrister for the Crown Law Office. He served on the Council of the Auckland District Law Society from 1979 until his appointment as a judge of the District Court of New Zealand in 1982.

During the 1975 general election Satyanand and his wife helped David Lange in his first, unsuccessful attempt at election. Later, when Satyanand was a law student, he helped Clive Edwards (later Tongan deputy prime minister) when he stood in Auckland Central for National.

In 1995 he was appointed an ombudsman and he served two five-year terms. Between 2005 and his appointment as Governor-General he chaired the Confidential Forum for Former In-Patients of Psychiatric Hospitals.

Satyanand married Susan Sharpe in Auckland in 1970. She was born in Sydney, Australia in 1947 and moved to New Zealand with her family in 1955. He and his wife have three adult children. Satyanand's daughter Anya is an advocate of gay marriage, being in a civil union with her partner Ange. In 2002, Satyanand and his wife were involved in a serious car accident in Dome Valley north of Warkworth, Northland. An oncoming car crossed the centre line and crashed head-on into their car. The accident resulted in serious spinal injury to Satyanand, he broke his C2 and C3 vertebrae. He had to wear a halo traction to keep his head straight.

As well as English, Satyanand also speaks Fijian, Hindi and Māori.