He Tātai Whenua: Environmental Genealogies
Abstract
:1. Explanatory Tools for Understanding the World
In te ao Māori, all of the myriad elements of creation—the living and the dead, the animate and inanimate—are seen as alive and inter-related. All are infused with mauri (that is, a living essence or spirit) and all are related through whakapapa... The people of a place are related to its mountains, rivers and species of plant and animal, and regard them in personal terms. Every species, every place, every type of rock and stone, every person (living or dead), every god, and every other element of creation is united through this web of common descent…
This system of thought provides intricate descriptions of the many parts of the environment and how they relate to each other. It asserts hierarchies of right and obligation among them... These rights and obligations are encompassed in another core value—kaitiakitanga. Kaitiakitanga is the obligation, arising from the kin relationship, to nurture or care for a person or thing. It has a spiritual aspect, encompassing not only an obligation to care for and nurture not only physical well-being but also mauri [life force]…
Enacting whakapapa or performing kinship obligations and responsibilities is intricately linked to tribal sovereignty. Conversely, when whakapapa is absent within day-to-day activities then connections to ancestors and the environment weaken. When this notion is applied to understanding social phenomena whakapapa can be used to trace and critique origin, complex connections and interactions—although is much more than just a chronological history of events. It can make explicit dominant imperatives whilst also making visible those imperatives that have failed to gain traction at specific junctures of time thereby inviting consideration of whether we can think or act differently.In the human realm, those who have mana [authority]… must exercise it in accordance with the values of kaitiakitanga—to act unselfishly, with right mind and heart, and with proper procedure. Mana and kaitiakitanga go together as right and responsibility, and that kaitiakitanga responsibility can be understood not only as a cultural principle but as a system of law.
2. Environmental Histories of Aotearoa New Zealand
2.1. Te Ao Māori/the Māori World
Every culture has its traditions about how the world was created. Māori have many of them, but the most important stories are those that tell how darkness became light, nothing became something, earth and sky were separated, and nature evolved.
The children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku were born into Te Pō, the dark world of potential and when they thrust apart their parents Te Ao Mārama the world of light was created. It is in the world of light that natural resources and humanity emerged. Figure 3 is a whakapapa sequence depicting the origin of natural resources and humanity.In the Māori story of creation, the earth and sky came together and gave birth to some 70 children, who eventually thrust apart their parents and populated the world. Each of the children became the god of a particular domain of the natural world. Their children and grandchildren then became ancestors in that domain. For example, Tangaroa, god of the sea, had a son called Punga. Punga then had two children: Ikatere, who became the ancestor of the fish of the sea, and Tūtewehiwehi, who became the ancestor of the fish and amphibious lizards of inland waterways.
Hineahuone is the mother of humanity. She was formed from the Earth and imbued with the essence of the ira atua (Mikaere 2003). This is the origin of one of the names of the Māori people—tangata whenua meaning people of or from the Earth. Hineahuone gave birth to the first human form—Hinetītama (Mikaere 2003) creating a kinship relationship with the spiritual world as represented by Ranginui, Papatūānuku and their children and natural resources (Roberts et al. 1995; Royal 2003).The children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku had only talked of life… They had not experienced it for themselves, not in the physical forms that tormented their imaginations... [but] it was the human form that eluded… Papatūānuku waited until she knew the time was right, then led Tāne to her sacred place, to Kurawaka. This was where he fashioned me [Hineahuone] from the red clay he found there. I was the first. The first to breathe, to touch, to feel, to hold, to know, to experience everything of the newly created world.(Excerpts from the poem Hineahuone by Wiremu (Grace n.d.))
2.2. Te Ao Hurihuri/the Changing World
The British colonial project introduced new ideas, technologies and peoples to the Aotearoa New Zealand landscape. An abrupt change to authority over the environment emerged and Māori communities experienced widespread disruption to Te Ao Māori (Forster 2013a; Walker 1990). Figure 6 is a whakapapa sequence that demonstrates the interaction between the two dominant and contested environmental traditions—one derived from Te Ao Māori (a repeat of Figure 5), the other introduced by the British colonial project.An overriding feature of New Zealand’s environmental histories has been the use of land and water for successive waves of resource exploitation, for which reason this remains a country heavily dependent on a narrow range of primary exports. In the nineteenth century, wool, wheat and timber booms followed sealing and goldmining; in the twentieth century, the preoccupation was with the extraction of maximum value from grass-based commodities. Such resource ‘quarrying’, of living ‘off’ rather than ‘with’ the land, has been framed through systems of law, surveying, cartography and metrology... reveal[ing] how fragile and unstable are the land and waters so measured and appropriated... acquisition of intimate environmental knowledges through the senses of Māori has not always been replicated among Pākehā. The assumption of the colonial project of improvement has been that of an essentially benign, if not fixed or knowable, environmental stage, which is why the project has in its turn been portrayed as ‘fraught and vulnerable’.
However, Māori and supporters of a conservation agenda have continuously contested the emphasis on exploitative economies (Forster 2014, 2016; Young 2004). By the 1950s, a global movement for sustainability (McClean and Smith 2001) was also beginning to influence the direction of Aotearoa New Zealand’s environmental policy (Memon 1995); change was imminent.The effects of Māori hunting, fire and horticulture were extensive. But they were less dramatic than 200 years of Pākehā transformations, initiated as part of the European imperial drive to incorporate new territories into the capitalist world economy... There have been contests for land between Māori and Pākehā, vigorous throughout the nineteenth century and not forgotten by Māori since, and environmental interventions resulting in resource destruction, soil erosion and the spread of unwanted, and costly, pests and weeds.
2.3. Te Ao Tautohe/the Contested World
2.4. A Wetland Story
In the days of our forefathers and to the present day, the great lake has been a major source of food... The tangata whenua [local indigenous people] of Whakakī [derived] a total way of life from this lagoon and its tributaries. Their ancestors are buried... around the perimeters of the lagoons. The spiritual connections are strongly bonded between the land, lagoons and people. The heritage bonds give the tangata whenua their pride, their mana [power and prestige] and their spiritual culture.
This has now changed drastically due to the ecosystem being muddled with by engineers... The food source which the people of Whakakī relied on... has now almost disappeared... The river... has now silted up.
The letter points out that Whakakī Lake and wetland system in the Hawke’s Bay region of the North Island, New Zealand is a significant resource in the tribal territory of my ancestors. Survival as a people was dependent on this resource and the lake and associated natural resources are intricately linked to our mana and tribal identity. This letter provides examples of mana atua/spiritual power, mana whenua/power derived from ancestral landscape and mana tupuna/ancestral connections. For example, mana atua connections are referenced by the phrase “heritage bonds” and mana whenua is expressed through the desire to influence contemporary resource management decision-making. The intent was to ensure that mana tupuna responsibilities are maintained, particularly nurturing the wellbeing of natural resources and ensuring the survival of “heritage” for future generations of our people.In these changing times where a natural order of nature is fast disappearing we as kai tiaki (Trustees) of the environment should endeavour to maintain all natural resources. This is to ensure that future generations can grow up with a heritage that is a vital part of being Māori.(Letter written 25 May 1992 from Huki Solomon to the Parliamentary Commission for the Environment, Helen Hughes)
3. Discussion and Conclusions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Glossary
Aotearoa | Māori name for New Zealand |
hapū | Subtribe |
Ira atua | Ancestral life principle |
Ira tangata | Humanity |
Kaitiakitanga | Māori environmental ethos and practices |
Kaupapa Māori research | Approach to research based on Māori worldview and political agenda |
Kōrero tuku iho | Genealogical narrative; narratives derived from whakapapa |
Mahi mara | Gardening |
Mahinga kai | Collection of wild foods |
mana | Authority |
Māori | Indigenous people of Aotearoa |
Mauri | Life force |
Mātauranga Māori/mātauranga | Māori knowledge |
Pūrākau | Narratives |
Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangi |
Te whare tapa whā | Māori framework for conceptualising health based on the four-sided whare |
Te wheke | Māori framework for conceptualising health based on the octopus |
Tikanga | Actions |
Rāhui | Restrictions to protect natural resources |
Waiata | Songs |
Whakapapa | genealogy |
Whakataukī | Sayings |
Wharenui | Tribal meeting house |
Names in Whakapapa Sequences (In Order of Appearance)
Te Ao Māori | The Māori world |
Te Ao Hurihuri | The changing world |
Te Ao Tautohe | The contested world |
Te Kore | World of darkness |
Te Pō | World of potential |
Te Ao Mārama | World of light |
Ranginui | Sky father |
Papatūānuku | Earth Mother |
Tangaroa | God of sea |
Punga | Son of Tangaroa |
Ikatere | Offspring of Punga; ancestor of the fish of the sea |
Tūtewehiwehi | Offspring of Punga; ancestor of the fish and lizards of inland waterways |
Tāne | God of the forest |
Te Ao Tūroa | The natural world |
Kurawaka | Sacred place that held life principle of humanity |
Mana atua | Power derived from whakapapa |
Mana whenua | Power derived from ancestral landscapes |
Mana tangata | Power linked to upholding the dignity and wellbeing of people |
Tikanga tiaki | Guardianship customs |
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1 | For those readers unfamilar with this model te whare tapa wha is a tool for conceptualising wellbeing from a Māori perspective (Durie 1994; Rochford 2004) based on the metaphor of a four sided house. It emphasises that wellbeing is dependent on four interconnected cultural concepts or dimensions—taha wairua/the spiritual, taha hinengaro/the mental, taha whānau/the family and, taha tinana/the phyiscal. This model was developed to contest the dominant medical model of health that tends to focus on illness and physical dimensions. |
2 | Te wheke (Pere 1991) is another Māori health model with an emphasis on whānau/family. This model is depicted by te wheke/the octopus. The head represents the family and each of the tentacles a distinct cultural health concept. |
3 | Treaty of Waitangi; A treaty negotiating Māori and British sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand. |
4 | The genealogical narratives provided here are based on the author’s own tribal traditions—those of the Ngāti Kahungunu people. It is important to note that other tribes have their own traditions that can differ from the one described here. |
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Forster, M. He Tātai Whenua: Environmental Genealogies. Genealogy 2019, 3, 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3030042
Forster M. He Tātai Whenua: Environmental Genealogies. Genealogy. 2019; 3(3):42. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3030042
Chicago/Turabian StyleForster, Margaret. 2019. "He Tātai Whenua: Environmental Genealogies" Genealogy 3, no. 3: 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3030042
APA StyleForster, M. (2019). He Tātai Whenua: Environmental Genealogies. Genealogy, 3(3), 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3030042