tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/maori-culture-40219/articlesMāori culture – The Conversation2023-09-21T20:07:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2128752023-09-21T20:07:01Z2023-09-21T20:07:01ZThe Voice: how do other countries represent Indigenous voices in government?<p>One of the <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/files/pamphlet/your-official-yes-no-referendum-pamphlet.pdf">claims</a> advanced by the “no” campaign in the upcoming referendum on the Voice to Parliament is that “there is no comparable constitutional body like this anywhere in the world”. </p>
<p>Yet across the globe there are many political institutions that seek to guarantee Indigenous peoples are heard. </p>
<p>Broadly speaking, they fall into four different categories: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>reserved parliamentary seats</p></li>
<li><p>devolved self-governance</p></li>
<li><p>traditional authority councils and </p></li>
<li><p>Indigenous advisory bodies (the proposed Voice fits in this category).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Surprisingly, the current debate on the Voice to Parliament seems to have missed the fact Torres Strait Islanders have effectively had an elected voice to both federal and state governments for almost 30 years.</p>
<p>Besides being a form of devolved self-governance, the <a href="https://www.tsra.gov.au/the-tsra">Torres Strait Regional Authority</a> is empowered to “advise the federal minister for Indigenous affairs on matters relating to Torres Strait Islanders”. </p>
<p>In fact, the proposed Voice to Parliament is one of the more modest proposals for Indigenous governance systems around the world.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-will-vote-in-a-referendum-on-october-14-what-do-you-need-to-know-195352">Australians will vote in a referendum on October 14. What do you need to know?</a>
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<h2>Reserved seats</h2>
<p>Several countries have reserved seats for Indigenous peoples, as a voice within the parliament itself. This is different to the Voice, which proposes an external advisory body to the Australian parliament.</p>
<p>In New Zealand, Māori currently have <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/mi/pb/research-papers/document/00PLLawRP03141/origins-of-the-m%C4%81ori-seats#:%7E:text=The%20M%C4%81ori%20seats%20were%20established,councils%20and%20a%20General%20Assembly.">seven reserved seats</a> in their parliament of 120. Māori voters can choose to enrol to vote for reserved seats, or the general roll. Māori MPs can also be elected on the general roll.</p>
<p>The Treaty of Waitangi is considered a key part of New Zealand’s unwritten constitution.</p>
<p>Because of this, Māori representation is guaranteed - although the questions of whether reserved seats are politically or constitutionally guaranteed is a vexed and <a href="https://www.nzcpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/TheMaoriSeatsInParliament.pdf">technical</a> one. </p>
<p>In Asia, Taiwan provides a clear example of constitutionally enshrined Indigenous representation. Taiwan is a settler colonial society, with a Han Chinese majority, and numerous Austronesian language-speaking First Nations people, with a similar population proportion to Australia, at 3%. <a href="https://theconversation.com/taiwan-must-find-ways-to-enhance-indigenous-representation-132582">Taiwan</a> has had reserved seats for Indigenous peoples since the 1970s. The current allocation of six seats was entrenched in the most recent round of constitutional <a href="https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=A0000002">amendments</a> in 2005.</p>
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<p>In Latin America, Bolivia has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17442222.2020.1839225">reserved</a> seven of its 130 parliamentary seats for Indigenous peoples. The US state of <a href="http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/1728/chapt3.pdf">Maine</a> has had First Nations representation of two members since the 19th century. These members are able to contribute to debates, albeit without voting rights.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-voice-to-parliament-explained-212100">The Voice to Parliament explained</a>
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<h2>Indigenous self-governance</h2>
<p>Devolved self-governance involves the delegation of certain government powers to Indigenous communities themselves. </p>
<p>Notably, Australia’s own <a href="https://www.tsra.gov.au/the-tsra">Torres Strait Regional Authority</a> falls in this category. Its 20 representatives, elected every four years, are tasked to “formulate, coordinate and implement programs for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people living within the region”.</p>
<p>Established in 1994, this authority survived the <a href="https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/learning-modules/rights-and-freedoms-defining-moments-1945-present/124-2005-abolition-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-commission-atsic">abolition of ATSIC</a> in the Howard era in 2005. It has produced a regional economic development strategy, fisheries and environmental management policies, and advocated for better regional infrastructure.</p>
<p>Another key example of delegated self-government is Canada’s <a href="https://www.assembly.nu.ca/">Nunavut Parliament</a> of the Inuit people. This parliament has powers covering the administration of justice, education and local taxation. A <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100032275/1529354547314#chp3">number</a> of First Nations in Canada have some transferred powers of self-governance.</p>
<p>The Sámi parliaments in Scandinavia are often cited as examples of Indigenous self-governance. These are the arguably the closest to Australia’s proposed Voice, as they have <a href="https://www.nordicpolicycentre.org.au/sami_parliaments">largely consultative roles</a>. They advise national governments on issues of cultural maintenance, language and native land title. For example, the Sámi parliament of Norway is the “<a href="https://sametinget.no/_f/p1/i76216562-1cc9-4bc4-8aab-dda60387c0b4/sametinget-brosjyre-a4-engelsk-230623.pdf">prime dialogue partner</a>” for the Norwegian government in relation to Indigenous policy.</p>
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<p>Both the reserved seats model and Indigenous self-governance model offer more substantial powers than those proposed for Australia’s Voice to Parliament.</p>
<p>The proposed Voice would not create a devolved decision-making body, nor a voice directly inside parliament. It would simply be an advisory body to the Australian parliament and key departments. </p>
<p>The model of devolved self-governance is more practicable where there are concentrated regional majorities of Indigenous peoples. Creating Indigenous representation is more challenging when minority populations geographically spread out.</p>
<p>This helps explain why the particular model of the Voice was proposed by the <a href="https://ulurustatemdev.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/UluruStatementfromtheHeartPLAINTEXT.pdf">Uluru statement</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-the-voice-proposal-will-not-be-legally-risky-this-misunderstands-how-constitutions-work-212696">No, the Voice proposal will not be 'legally risky'. This misunderstands how constitutions work</a>
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<h2>Traditional authority councils</h2>
<p>The third model is exemplified by several Pacific nations. Since independence, several Melanesian states have created Voice-style institutions to give traditional or customary authorities a voice to the government. </p>
<p>Examples include the Great Council of Chiefs in Fiji, which was temporarily abolished under former Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, but has now been restored. This institution appointed the president of Fiji, and several senators. </p>
<p>Vanuatu’s <a href="https://mjcs.gov.vu/index.php/malvatumauri-council-of-chiefs">Malvatumauri</a> is a body without formal powers in the parliamentary system, but which must be consulted about issues that affect traditional governance, including land title issues. </p>
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<p>In New Caledonia, which has a large European settler population, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-caledonia-has-had-an-indigenous-body-advise-government-since-1999-what-can-australia-learn-204906">Customary Senate</a> must be consulted on any bill concerning Indigenous Kanak identity or customary lands.</p>
<p>All these traditional authority councils advise the modern state on traditional affairs, but do not represent a particularly strong parallel with the Voice, and were developed for majority Indigenous societies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-executive-government-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-the-voice-to-parliament-212785">Explainer: what is executive government and what does it have to do with the Voice to Parliament?</a>
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<h2>Indigenous advisory bodies</h2>
<p>Closer parallels to the Voice lie in other First Nations institutions in Canada and Taiwan. Taiwan’s <a href="https://www.cip.gov.tw/en/index.html">Council of Indigenous Peoples</a> has existed since 1996, and has its own minister in the government, effectively institutionalising a voice within the executive. It has played a key role in attempts to revitalise Indigenous languages. </p>
<p>Canada also has an <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/impact-assessment-agency/advisory/advisory-groups/indigenous-advisory-committee.html">Indigenous Advisory Committee</a> to advise government on policy, with representatives from the three Indigenous groupings: First Nations, Inuit and Métis.</p>
<p>The Waitangi tribunal is also parallel, representing a “permanent commission of inquiry” on issues relating to potential breaches of the treaty, though without a veto power. The proposed Voice would strongly parallel these international examples.</p>
<p>One question that follows, is why Aboriginal people from the mainland should not enjoy the same rights as Torres Strait Islander people, who have had a form of voice to government via elected representatives for nearly 30 years. The Torres Strait Regional Authority itself <a href="https://www.tsra.gov.au/news-and-resources/news/indigenous-voice-report-supports-torres-strait-representation-from-the-region-and-mainland-australia">strongly supports</a> the current Voice proposal, not least because of the large number of Torres Strait islanders who live on the mainland.</p>
<p>How, then, should we evaluate the “no” campaign’s claim there are no other constitutional bodies like this anywhere in the world? The statement lacks the clarity of information that would inform Australians in voting. </p>
<p>If the claim is that there is no institution exactly like the proposed Voice, then this is technically true. But this is primarily because the Voice is a modest proposal compared with most international examples. Even so, similar institutions can be found in our region and beyond, including those established through constitutional amendment. </p>
<p>If the claim is that there is no comparable form of Indigenous representation anywhere else in the world, the “no” campaign’s claim is clearly inaccurate. </p>
<p>The key point is that all these countries have bodies to ensure Indigenous voices are heard, and Australia currently does not.</p>
<p>The Voice has parallels in many countries with Indigenous populations, and Australia’s proposal is a very modest one by comparison.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Leach has previously received funding from the Australia Research Council. </span></em></p>Despite the claim ‘there is no comparable constitutional body like this anywhere in the world’ many countries have similar institutions to the proposed Voice.Michael Leach, Professor, Politics & International Relations, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2017612023-03-21T03:08:39Z2023-03-21T03:08:39ZWhat Australia could learn from New Zealand about Indigenous representation<p>A referendum will be held later this year to enshrine a First Nations’ Voice to Parliament into the Australian constitution. The <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-garma-festival">draft question</a> for the referendum is “Do you support an alteration to the Constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-chifley-research-conference">in a speech</a> last month the Voice should give First Nations’ people a “say” in public policy. He said “it is common courtesy to consult people when you’re taking a decision that affects them”. </p>
<p>But a “say” is still not the power to make decisions. An ongoing question is whether the proposed Voice should instead make First Nations peoples authoritative participants in the rights and responsibilities of government.</p>
<p>In New Zealand, Māori are represented in parliament through <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018658559/maori-seats-what-are-they">designated seats</a>. This arrangement was established in 1867, to ensure a Māori voice <em>in</em> rather than <em>to</em> parliament. Being in parliament means being able to serve as a minister or, if a member of the oppostion, being able to participate in holding the government to account.</p>
<p>The proposed Voice won’t have the power to <em>make</em> decisions because it won’t be a parliamentary chamber, as the House of Representatives and the Senate are. The government is formed in, and responsible to, the House of Representatives. The Voice won’t be able to pass laws and its members will not be ministers in government.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/waitangi-day-2023-why-article-3-of-the-treaty-deserves-more-attention-in-the-age-of-co-governance-198976">Waitangi Day 2023: why Article 3 of the Treaty deserves more attention in the age of 'co-governance'</a>
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<h2>What could Australia learn from New Zealand?</h2>
<p><a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/%E2%80%98we-are-all-here-stay%E2%80%99">New Zealand</a> is not a perfect model for good relations between Indigenous people and government. But the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018658559/maori-seats-what-are-they">Māori seats</a> in parliament at least ensure Māori people can bring distinctive and culturally contextualised perspectives to parliamentary decision-making.</p>
<p>New Zealand public life is influenced by its founding treaty, <a href="https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/translation-of-te-reo-maori-text/">te Tiriti o Waitangi</a>, signed in 1840. Its terms and contemporary meaning are sharply contested, but Māori seats in parliament mean there is a constant voice to make sure Te Tirit (the treaty) is “<a href="https://huia.co.nz/products/always-speaking-the-treaty-of-waitangi-and-public-policy">always speaking</a>”.</p>
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<p><a href="https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/translation-of-te-reo-maori-text/">Te Tiriti</a> allowed the British Crown to establish government over its own people. Māori were promised full authority over their own affairs and resources, and granted the rights and privileges of British subjects. </p>
<p>In 2023, New Zealanders are no longer British subjects, but New Zealand citizens. Citizenship is a stronger political status, carrying the right to participate in government. It emphasises political authority belonging to the people rather than a distant sovereign. Te Tiriti means Māori should be distinctively included among the people to whom political authority belongs.</p>
<p>These treaty promises for Māori self-determination pre-date democracy. But they make democracy work better. This is through something political theorist Nancy Fraser calls <a href="https://ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/works/fraser-review.htm">participatory parity</a> - where everybody has the same opportunity to influence public decisions.</p>
<p>The general idea that Māori are present in the political community is well established in New Zealand. There is a distinctive Māori Health Authority, to make decisions about how to deliver primary health care, and distinctive schools to teach in the Māori language. </p>
<p>Te Tiriti justifies Māori voice at every level of the policy-making process. <a href="https://www.futureforlocalgovernment.govt.nz/assets/Reports/Draft-report-final.pdf">A major review</a> into the future of local government is considering what it means in that sphere. </p>
<p>But on the other hand, Te Tiriti routinely fails to work as Māori think it should. There are points of difference with government that can be seen in the number and breadth of claims put to the <a href="https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/publications-and-resources/waitangi-tribunal-reports/">Waitangi Tribunal</a>, which has been established to consider alleged Tiriti breaches. </p>
<p>Since its fist report in 1978, the Tribunal has reported on more than 3,000 claims. A recurring point of contention is over how much authority Te Tiriti gives the government as opposed to how much authority Māori retain. </p>
<p><a href="https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_171027305/He%20Paharakeke%20W.pdf">Recent examples</a> include the tribunal finding government overreach in the care and protection of Māori children, which led to large numbers of children being unjustifiably removed from their families. </p>
<p><a href="https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_152801817/Hauora%20W.pdf">Another</a> is that breaches of the agreement have contributed to poorer Māori health outcomes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/publications-and-resources/waitangi-tribunal-reports">There are many reports</a> dealing with the alienation of Māori land and making recommendations for compensation, many of which the NZ government has accepted. Though these never amount to full compensation or the return of everything that was taken.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-11-indigenous-politicians-in-parliament-why-does-australia-need-the-voice-200910">With 11 Indigenous politicians in parliament, why does Australia need the Voice?</a>
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<h2>Testing democratic fairness</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14687968211047902?journalCode=etna">My work in New Zealand</a> focuses on strengthening participatory parity in public life. </p>
<p>For example, my colleagues and I developed <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/30/Supplement_5/ckaa165.674/5915983">Critical Tiriti Analysis</a>. This is a policy evaluation method that asks questions about a policy to see if it is consistent with Te Tiriti. </p>
<p>Adapting our questions to the Australian context could see a Voice to Parliament asking questions like these about proposed policies, but also about who makes policy for whom and why:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>How have First Nations’ people contributed to this policy?</p></li>
<li><p>Does this policy reflect First Nations’ peoples’ priorities?</p></li>
<li><p>Could this policy disadvantage First Nations’ people in ways it doesn’t disadvantage other citizens?</p></li>
<li><p>Does this policy preserve First Nations’ sovereignty as the relevant communities understand it?</p></li>
<li><p>Is this policy consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (and with treaties that may, in time, be negotiated)?</p></li>
<li><p>Why is the government presuming to make this decision? Why does the decision not, in part or whole, belong to a First Nation or other Indigenous entity?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Through facilitating questions such as these, the right to be consulted in a government project is replaced by more meaningful political voice. If people have contributed to a policy, rather than just been consulted before somebody else makes the decision, the policy has potential to be better informed and more likely to work. </p>
<p>Although only partially implemented in New Zealand, Te Tiriti supports the expectation that Māori leadership in Māori policy should always occur. </p>
<p>If a policy reflects what First Nations’ people actually want, this would better support their self-determination. This could also be an effective way of avoiding future policies and decision-making that exclusively disadvantages First Nations’ people.</p>
<p>Participatory parity, through political voice, is quite different from governments saying “we will ask you want you think before making the decision for you”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic O'Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The proposed Voice to Parliament is a First Nations advisory body. The way New Zealand have ensured Māori representation in Parliament could be a better way to approach Indigenous self-determination.Dominic O'Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1789012022-03-16T02:05:02Z2022-03-16T02:05:02ZTo truly embrace diversity, university leaders sometimes need to find the humility to be students again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452047/original/file-20220315-13-1ei0mpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=879%2C0%2C4176%2C2728&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Waipapa Marae, University of Auckland campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>He aha te kai a te rangatira? He korerō, he korerō, he korerō.</p>
<p>What is the food of leaders? It is communication. <strong>– Māori proverb</strong></p>
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<p>Growing up on the other side of the Ditch, I had the usual dreams and even aspirations of becoming an All Black – despite my lack of size, speed and rugby skill. None of those constraints prevented me from imagining All Black glory when I learnt my first <a href="https://www.allblacks.com/the-haka/">haka</a> as a ten-year-old. I still get goose bumps whenever it’s performed, as I expect do many tourists and rugby followers around the world who know this fierce ceremonial dance as an iconic part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Māori culture.</p>
<p>The haka is both a unique call to action and a powerful celebration of Māori identity and history. It was because of its importance that I found it confronting several years ago leading a University of Auckland faculty whose own history, specifically with the haka and with Māori more generally, was all too often fraught. Decades earlier, as part of graduation celebrations, engineering students would perform haka that over the years increasingly mocked its heritage and significance in both Māori culture and New Zealand society.</p>
<p>These tensions escalated, resulting in a <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/haka-brawl-rivals-unite-to-remember/YOCXZ5YKXEXUY3FBFRCHQZIBZQ/">clash</a> between these students and local Māori, which was uncomfortable and confronting at the time. The offensive haka parodies stopped, but the underlying lack of respect was left unresolved. </p>
<p>Like many unresolved issues it generated constant, ongoing tension, which subtly but relentlessly undermined both an important partnership and the faculty’s aspiration to be a place of respect and inclusion. What had started off with direct conflict had transitioned over 40 years into a less confronting but arguably more insidious combination of understandable resentment on the part of Māori and at best unexpressed guilt and at worst apathetic lip service on the part of Pākehā and others.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Me Hoki Whakamuri Kia Anga Whakamua. The Faculty of Engineering and the Haka – our story.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-all-know-and-admire-the-haka-so-why-not-one-of-our-own-45432">We all know and admire the Haka ... so why not one of our own?</a>
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<h2>The day it dawned on me</h2>
<p>My frustration about this uneasy truce came to a head one afternoon at a university function celebrating diversity. The main speaker was a Māori member of staff. She was compellingly describing the opportunity we had to create a genuine partnership and enhance our sense of uniqueness, belonging and community in ways that very much transcended any of the many strategic plans the university had produced. </p>
<p>As I listened, I noticed an eminent professor next to me gazing out the window with an expression of polite indifference. He gave the impression of merely waiting for formalities to end so he could leave with his guilt assuaged, having supported the function simply by attending. As I considered this my frustration escalated to anger: here was a white, middle-aged male who to all appearances was simply embodying lip service – playing a proverbial dead-bat not only to the challenge but also to the opportunity.</p>
<p>Then it occurred to me: could I be certain what my colleague was really thinking? And “playing a dead bat” – why had this metaphor sprung to my mind? I had no idea if this man had grown up playing cricket on manicured lawns surrounded by peers dressed in white. </p>
<p>The reason I thought of that metaphor was that cricket was my childhood activity (notwithstanding dreams of All Black glory). The uncomfortable fact was that there was not one but two white, middle-aged men standing next to each other at the function. To all observers I suspect we looked very similar.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-of-australias-uni-leaders-are-white-male-and-grey-this-lack-of-diversity-could-be-a-handicap-150952">Most of Australia's uni leaders are white, male and grey. This lack of diversity could be a handicap</a>
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<p>I realised then that it was not enough just to ensure that experts had the support and resources they needed to step into the void created when (typically much less expert) leaders such as myself stepped back. Resourcing and support had to be accompanied by my own acknowledgement and celebration of the opportunity to be a student of what these colleagues had to say. </p>
<h2>Why humility and courage are needed</h2>
<p>The academic culture (and sometimes society at large) lauds and rewards expertise. However, this sometimes deters people from demonstrating ignorance or incompetence even if these states are necessary staging points of a learning process. As people acquire status and acknowledgement in one field, it often only increases the perceived risk of losing face by publicly participating, and possibly failing, when trying something completely different. </p>
<p>Once one has been cast as an expert and a leader, it can be difficult in our academic culture to adopt the humble posture of the pupil. It takes courage. Yet this humility is essential if we are ever to learn and change.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/honouring-te-tiriti-means-getting-into-the-stream-together-so-this-vice-chancellor-has-become-a-student-again-156198">Honouring Te Tiriti means ‘getting into the stream together’ — so this vice-chancellor has become a student again</a>
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<p>As I stood at that function, I realised this lack of courage had been my chief failing. By standing quietly in the background, despite my good intentions, I had done nothing to lower the risk for other staff to engage and make mistakes – key steps in their own development. I resolved to change how I did things. </p>
<p>From that point on I did engage – and I made plenty of mistakes. I asked ignorant questions that still make me blush. I stumbled over welcomes in te reo Māori – Māori language. I messed up protocols. I mispronounced names. I displayed my ignorance left and right. </p>
<p>But in time, and with the support of patient, generous and incredibly understanding expert colleagues, I learned. And, much more importantly, I saw others join me on that learning path.</p>
<p>Ultimately, that group of others became big enough for us to create and perform our own haka. This haka, with more expert help, was able to respectfully acknowledge our difficult history but also reclaim our right to move boldly into the future. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="All Black rugby union team performing the pre-match haka" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452048/original/file-20220315-130173-1k6xt1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The All Blacks performed a traditional haka, Ka mate, until 2005, but then developed Kapa O Pango, specifically for and about the All Blacks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While that ten-year-old never became an All Black, he did get the opportunity – complete with goosebumps – to perform that haka to Māori leaders who were involved in that conflict 40 years earlier. I was surrounded by colleagues, many of whom had become my friends, students, many of whom had become my teachers, and that same eminent professor, who was certainly no longer gazing out the window. Those three minutes remain a highlight in my time as a university leader.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nic Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Childhood dreams of being an All Black helped give a senior academic leader the courage to adopt the humble posture of a pupil with much to learn.Nic Smith, Provost and Professor of Engineering, Academic Division, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1604382021-06-07T22:01:58Z2021-06-07T22:01:58ZWhat would sustainable tourism really mean for New Zealand? Let’s ask the river<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403902/original/file-20210602-27-18zonps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5958%2C3969&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Whanganui River.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Excitement among Cook Islands tourism operators and officials at the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442778/covid-19-excitement-builds-as-cook-islands-travel-bubble-begins">opening of quarantine-free travel</a> with Aotearoa New Zealand was understandable. The impact of the pandemic on the island nation’s economy has been massive and will be felt for a long time.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t long before a local environmental organisation <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/443141/cook-islanders-considering-how-much-tourism-is-too-much?fbclid=IwAR1zmWcgMKWlfcYDvg4NNA4eScNoza9S5ElBqWA-yQqMt2Trrj5TlL-psPg">sounded a warning</a> about the risks of a return to high-volume tourism. </p>
<p>The popular Muri lagoon area has already suffered from pollution. There is also pressure on sacred sites such as Avana harbour, legendary departure place of the seven canoes that sailed to Aotearoa around 700 years ago.</p>
<p>On the other side of the world, there is a renewed movement to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/02/mick-jagger-and-tilda-swinton-join-calls-for-new-law-to-protect-venice">save Venice</a> from pre-pandemic threats of over-tourism and cruise ships damaging its ancient canals.</p>
<p>In Aotearoa New Zealand, too, people have been given pause to think about whether a return to tourism as usual is viable. </p>
<p>One iwi, Tūhourangi Ngāti Wahio at <a href="http://www.maramatanga.co.nz/project/privileging-whanau-voices">Whakarewarewa</a> in Rotorua, has seriously considered whether to allow tourism to resume in their village. Virtually synonymous with the birth of tourism in Aotearoa, the iwi now questions just what benefits its people are receiving from tourist activity.</p>
<p>Everywhere, it seems, there are debates about what tourism will look like in the post-COVID era.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Whakarewarewa Thermal Village" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404141/original/file-20210603-13-8ki1r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Questioning the benefits of mass tourism: the legendary Whakarewarewa, Rotorua’s ‘thermal village’ attraction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No return to mass tourism</h2>
<p>As regular flights between Aotearoa and Australia resume, the issue of <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/118322701/we-can-no-longer-afford-to-be-complacent-about-tourism-growth">high-volume tourism and its environmental impact</a> is now front and centre.</p>
<p>Significantly, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has <a href="https://www.pce.parliament.nz/publications/not-100-but-four-steps-closer-to-sustainable-tourism">advocated</a> for using the disruption caused by COVID-19 to transform the local tourism industry. </p>
<p>This would be based on the industry being accountable for its environmental costs, and involving local communities and mana whenua in decision-making — echoing other calls to recalibrate tourism within “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342463861_Socialising_tourism_for_social_and_ecological_justice_after_COVID-19">sustainable bounds</a>”.</p>
<p>Few people would argue for a return to unsustainable practices, but what does this really mean? And who might we turn to for solutions? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nz-tourism-can-use-the-disruption-of-covid-19-to-drive-sustainable-change-and-be-more-competitive-155370">NZ tourism can use the disruption of COVID-19 to drive sustainable change — and be more competitive</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Listening to Indigenous voices</h2>
<p>We argue Indigenous philosophies of <a href="https://chelliespiller.com/attachments/docs/wise-up-creating-organizational-wisdom-through.pdf">enterprise</a> and <a href="https://sites.massey.ac.nz/teaurangahau/about-te-au-rangahau/nga-panui-projects/whai-rawa-economy/">economy</a> have the potential to provide those answers — if we are bold enough to allow such voices to be heard.</p>
<p>In Māori philosophy, people and the environment are kin. As such, they depend on one another for their well-being. Consequently, some of the voices we need to hear are those of Papatūānuku (Earth mother) and her elements, the rivers, mountains and seas. </p>
<p>What is more natural than wanting to have a conversation with your relations in times of trouble or joy? This can be an alien concept for many, but the Māori practice of karakia (incantation) is essentially about communicating as kin with the natural elements. </p>
<p>In fact, these ideas have already found expression in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/09669582.2021.1912056?needAccess=true">Māori tourism operations on the Whanganui River</a>. Te Awa Tupua, an ancestor of the iwi of the river, has been <a href="https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1703/S00187/te-awa-tupua-passes-in-to-law.htm">recognised as a person in law</a> through a <a href="https://www.govt.nz/assets/Documents/OTS/Whanganui-Iwi/Whanganui-River-Deed-of-Settlement-Ruruku-Whakatupua-Te-Mana-o-Te-Iwi-o-Whanganui-5-Aug-2014.pdf">settlement</a> of past wrongs under Te Tiriti o Waitangi between Whanganui iwi and the Crown. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Te Urewera National Park showing hills and lake" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404391/original/file-20210603-21-1ly5y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Te Urewera: legal personhood was established in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ask the river</h2>
<p>While relatively novel, the granting of <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2014/0051/latest/whole.html">legal personhood to Te Urewera</a> in 2014 and Te Awa Tupua in 2017 enacts a fundamental idea of indigeneity — that all things, human and non-human, are interrelated. </p>
<p>For the iwi of Te Awa Tupua, this sense of unity is captured in the tribal saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au — I am the river and the river is me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps those wanting a conversation about what sustainable tourism might look like could begin by asking the river. </p>
<p>This is not a fanciful suggestion. Te Awa Tupua has been given a human face in the form of <a href="https://www.ngatangatatiaki.co.nz/our-story/ruruku-whakatupua/te-pou-tupua/">Te Pou Tupua</a>, a single role held by two people appointed to speak on behalf of Te Awa Tupua and to uphold <a href="https://www.govt.nz/assets/Documents/OTS/Whanganui-Iwi/Whanganui-River-Deed-of-Settlement-Ruruku-Whakatupua-Te-Mana-o-Te-Awa-Tupua-5-Aug-2014.pdf">Tupua te Kawa</a>, the natural law and values of the river.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Marae meeting house and carving" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404393/original/file-20210603-27-1e7ghmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Te Papaiouru Marae in Rotorua: smaller-scale cultural experiences could be the future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Low growth, high quality</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09669582.2021.1912056">research</a> has exposed social and ecological tensions between conventional industry ideas and Māori tourism operators’ attitudes to commercial growth. Māori tourism enterprises will more readily opt for lower growth in favour of environmental and community well-being. </p>
<p>One Māori-owned jet boating enterprise, for example, would forgo tours beyond a desired daily maximum to help minimise the environmental footprint of the operation on the awa (river) and surrounds. They preferred to focus on quality of experience, not quantity of visitors.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-green-tax-on-long-haul-flights-favours-rich-tourists-nz-needs-a-fairer-strategy-156847">A green tax on long-haul flights favours rich tourists. NZ needs a fairer strategy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another Māori operator prioritised job opportunities for whānau to harness their cultural knowledge and deepen their connection to the awa. As the owner reflected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think the biggest aspiration is for my kids to know and identify themselves with the river.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, a marae-based tourism experience has avoided catering for busloads of visitors in favour of smaller groups. Tribal narratives of the awa are linked to discussions about climate change, all within a culturally unique space that allows time to reflect on the human connection to Te Awa Tupua.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/freedom-camping-needs-new-regulations-and-foreign-tourists-arent-the-only-villains-155621">Freedom camping needs new regulations and foreign tourists aren’t the only villains</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Tourism and the Treaty</h2>
<p>These examples of Māori tourism demonstrate there are other ways of thinking beyond
a return to the old mode of accentuating growth at the expense of the environment and local communities. </p>
<p>Given the impact of COVID-19 now and likely into the future, the tourism industry can’t ignore the innovative potential of Māori world views. </p>
<p>A sustainable tourism model also recognises the essential purpose of treaty settlements such as those agreed in Whanganui — to allow people to live a good life in peaceful co-existence with each other and the land for all time.</p>
<p>In practice, this means a homegrown Indigenous framework for discussing and building sustainable tourism is already at our doorstep. We need only ask the rivers, the mountains, the seas – our ancestors – for guidance on what that means for coming generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Paul Mika receives funding from Massey University to conduct research on Māori tourism on the Whanganui River.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Scheyvens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Māori world view provides a viable framework for building a new tourism model that prioritises quality over quantity.Jason Paul Mika, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey UniversityRegina Scheyvens, Professor of Development Studies, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499672020-12-31T20:19:22Z2020-12-31T20:19:22ZKiwiana is past its use-by date. Is it time to re-imagine our symbols of national identity?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375224/original/file-20201215-23-zjxixl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C6%2C4268%2C2837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s with those jandals, hokey pokey ice-creams, buzzy bees, Swanndris and gumboots? Far from being random and unrelated objects, these icons of so-called Kiwiana tell a story of late 20th-century nostalgia at a moment of rapid social transformation.</p>
<p>Definitions of Kiwiana vary and the term is widely applied to objects, expressions and pastimes that evoke a sense of national identity. But, as sociologist Claudia Bell has <a href="https://journals.cultcenter.net/index.php/culture/article/view/47">argued</a>, it’s an identity where Pākehā culture is dominant. </p>
<p>When including Indigenous content, Kiwiana has occupied a largely aesthetic and apolitical place. The focus has been on flora and fauna, such as the kiwi itself, the silver fern, koru and pāua shell. Māori incorporation within Kiwiana involves myth-making, traditional costumes and objects such as kete, poi and tiki. </p>
<p>In the 2020s, then, Kiwiana is arguably no longer fit for purpose in a diverse, decolonising nation. Yet these relic symbols persist, part of art and culture in schools and still selling products.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Postage stamp with image of buzzy bee toy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4423%2C3792&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375223/original/file-20201215-14-1dpnfr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Comfort in times of anxiety</h2>
<p>When Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, New Zealand lost its major trading partner and status as “Britain’s farm”. Global oil shocks dealt a further blow, ending the post-war economic “golden weather”. Decolonisation spread from the economy to the social, cultural and political worlds. </p>
<p>As author Richard Wolfe put it, Kiwiana objects emerged as “reminders of who we are”, which served as anchors in a world of change. It was sentimental and looked backwards, nestled in nostalgia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-australian-womens-weekly-spoke-to-50s-housewives-about-the-cold-war-145699">How the Australian Women's Weekly spoke to '50s housewives about the Cold War</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This all happened in the context of a wider popular “heritage moment” in the late 20th century. The British historian Raphael Samuel <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/232534/theatres-of-memory-by-raphael-samuel/">said</a> these “historical fictions” were affectionately conjured up, often in reaction to change, with Americana, Canadiana and Australiana all part of the same phenomenon.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, however, economic deregulation meant cheap imports began to flood the local market. Iconic brands were subject to buyouts and takeovers, fuelling nostalgia for a post-war rural idyll.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Soft toy kiwi souvenirs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375226/original/file-20201215-19-roaaoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Symbols out of time</h2>
<p>In a sense, Kiwiana was about evoking the uniformity of a post-war closed economy. The farmed bounty of the land, in particular from the traditional meat and dairy industries, was the mainstay of New Zealand’s economy. </p>
<p>Comforting Kiwiana clothing revived a settler farming and rural mythology, such as the Swanndri, a New Zealand-made woollen bush shirt popular in the 1950s and ’60s with rugged outdoor men including farmers, deer cullers and timber workers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/born-to-be-wild-revelling-in-the-design-and-desire-of-the-motorcycle-150067">Born to be wild — revelling in the design and desire of the motorcycle</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Along with lamb chops and full-cream milk, nothing captured this quite as much as the breakfast cereal Weetbix. According to legend, Weetbix fuelled Edmund Hillary in his successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953. By the 1980s it had captured an estimated 40% of the breakfast cereal market. </p>
<p>Similarly, Tip Top commanded the domestic ice-cream market. Its hokey pokey flavour, a local adaptation involving toffee nuggets in vanilla, became popular in the post-war years. From the 1980s it qualified as Kiwiana, promoted as an example of Kiwi ingenuity, originality and playfulness.</p>
<p>When local supermodel Rachel Hunter become the advertising face of Tip Top, she embodied the connections between the land, produce and consumption. Commercial interests were central in the construction of Kiwiana.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Postage stamp with picture of hokey pokey ice cream" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375227/original/file-20201215-20-omde6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>An expression of uniqueness</h2>
<p>As cheap imports began to replace locally made objects, Kiwiana came to represent a strange kind of authenticity. The humble jandal is a case in point. Auckland businessman Morris Yock started making these “Japanese sandals” in his garage in 1957. Touted as an example of Kiwi ingenuity and adaptation, they were sucked up into the Kiwiana vortex. </p>
<p>The buzzy bee re-emerged in response to the plethora of plastic toys from overseas. Manufactured from 1948 by the Ramsey brothers, the local variation of the wooden pull-along toy was lodged in the infant memories of baby boomers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/confronting-colonial-legacies-in-londons-little-india-151601">Confronting colonial legacies in London's 'Little India'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Objects such as the buzzy bee and Crown Lynn crockery became valued for their manufactured localness — a response, as Claudia Bell <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272209149_Migrating_meanings_New_Zealand_kiwiana_collectors_and_national_identity">put it</a>, to “the risk of annihilation of difference through the impacts of globalisation”. </p>
<p>In the late 20th century, trade with China, Australia, the United States and Japan had overtaken Britain, and tourism had become a major industry. Ironically, kitsch Kiwiana souvenirs made overseas filled a new demand for symbols of an invented national story of Kiwi culture. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, massive social, socioeconomic and political change was challenging the post-war Kiwi consensus. Race and gender relations were shifting. The Waitangi Tribunal’s powers were extended in 1985 and te reo Māori became an official language in 1987. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1986, paving the way for civil unions and same-sex marriage in the early 21st century. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Paua shell" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375228/original/file-20201215-19-7mfbmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The past isn’t what it used to be</h2>
<p>Post-war family values gave way to a greater acceptance of divorce, blended families, and solo and gay parenting. Traditional Kiwiana was effectively out of step in this new world.</p>
<p>At the same time, migration from Asia and the Pacific was creating an ethnically diverse population with no cultural memory of Kiwiana or its origins in the fuzzy sameness of a New Zealand that no longer existed. The professional transformation of the once predominantly rural and amateur “national game” of rugby embodied the shift. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-singlet-a-short-history-of-an-australian-icon-145545">Friday essay: the singlet — a short history of an Australian icon</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And yet, Kiwiana has been carried along in the visual, digital age by a wave of marketing and souvenir commerce. The symbols may have been past their expiry date, but there was still profit to be made in Kiwiana. </p>
<p>It might even be that Kiwiana filled a void left by the decline of religion and its icons in an increasingly secular age. As a kind of national symbolism it is broad, accepting and appealing. </p>
<p>But a closer examination reveals a narrow and nostalgic set of symbols that mirrored colonial settler narratives at a time of economic, social and cultural change. Comforting nostalgia on one level, it’s nonetheless the assertion of an imagined world that was fading away. </p>
<p>With international tourism paused for the time being, maybe now is the perfect opportunity to gently draw the curtains on our Kiwiana past and re-imagine the symbols of our national identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Pickles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Based on the nostalgic yearning for an imaginary past, Kiwiana should be quietly retired in the face of massive social and political change.Katie Pickles, Professor of History, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469622020-10-02T13:56:04Z2020-10-02T13:56:04Z500 whales stranded in Tasmania – indigenous elders are best guides to understanding this tragedy<p>Close to 500 pilot whales beached themselves in September 2020, in what has been described as Australia’s <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/world/380-pilot-whales-dead-in-largest-mass-stranding-ever-recorded-in-australia-nearly-500-still-stranded-in-tasmania-8847071.html#:%7E:text=Hobart%3A%20More%20pilot%20whales%20were,ever%20recorded%20in%20the%20country.">biggest mass stranding</a> on record. Rescue efforts <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/world/australia/tasmania-beached-whales.html">saved</a> 108 of the marine mammals, which belong to the dolphin family, but <a href="https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/dn4428-predator-theory-for-whale-mass-stranding/">scientific attempts</a> to explain the tragedy have so far offered only theories, including sickness, navigational errors, and sudden changes in the tide.</p>
<p>Indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific, including the Maori of Aotearoa (New Zealand), have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/03/what-is-the-sea-telling-us-maori-tribes-fearful-over-whale-strandings">raising the alarm</a> for some time. For generations, people here have watched the movements of these whales closely to help them navigate the world’s largest ocean. </p>
<p>For the Aboriginal people of Australia and indigenous communities throughout the Pacific, changes in whale behaviour are ominous. With a rich oral history to draw from, the indigenous people of the Pacific are among our best guides for making sense of the recent strandings, and the wider environmental changes they portend.</p>
<h2>Ocean giants in Pacific folklore</h2>
<p>The slipstreams of whales and dolphins weave throughout the folklore of the Pacific Islands. The Maori tell the story of Paikea who, when faced with drowning due to the machinations of his evil brother, recited an incantation and summoned a whale to save himself. </p>
<p>The seaways between the Central Carolines and the Marianas would chant of Ikelap – “the big fish” – when it was sighted by voyagers. It was a signpost that the journey was nearing the east coast of Guam. Western mariners would come to know this big fish as the pilot whale – a namesake that speaks to it being a dependable guide.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black long-finned pilot whale mother swims with her grey calf close behind." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361368/original/file-20201002-17-1qiawbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ancient voyagers tracked pilot whales in order to help navigate the Pacific Ocean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/long-finned-pilot-whale-mother-calf-565369348">Andrew Sutton/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s a common belief among many different Pacific communities that whales and dolphins are spirit transformations or carriers of ancestors. As such, whales are often sought for spiritual guidance to <a href="https://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/science-publications/conservation-publications/native-animals/marine-mammals/conservation-of-whales-in-the-21st-century/whaling-and-new-zealand/the-indigenous-relationship-with-whales-in-new-zealand/">decide</a> where to settle and when to avoid fishing or sailing. </p>
<p>Changes in whale migratory routes, songs and unusual surfacing behaviour are all instructive, and observations of distressed whales – to a degree that’s far outside the norm – are interpreted as significant omens. In Tikopia, part of the Solomon Islands, the stranding of whales signified imminent spiritual danger.</p>
<p>Since their whaling rights are protected under the International Whaling Commission, indigenous catch reports have also been used to help <a href="https://iwc.int/humpback-whale">track whale populations</a> and to identify when commercial whaling was depleting populations in the past.</p>
<p>Indigenous accounts are invaluable as they provide a reliable, long-term record of how whale populations have changed over time according to changes in their environment.</p>
<h2>What the whales foretold</h2>
<p>Environmental change in the Pacific is not new. Oral history recalls when, at the end of the last ice age, <em>fenua imi</em> (an island-eating demon), swallowed the land and forced the migration of its peoples across Oceania. The history of the Pacific is a history of migration, and the whales and dolphins have accompanied these movements, guiding voyagers across the vast ocean. </p>
<p>Climate change could be considered the modern return of <em>fenua imi</em>. But it comes with additional barriers. Political and legal borders now restrict the free movement of people across the Pacific, even as climate change threatens to inundate these vulnerable islands with storms, rising tides and the destruction of vital habitat such as mangroves and coral reefs. </p>
<p>While much international attention has focused on what sea level rise will mean for the low-lying lands of the Pacific, deep changes within the oceans are just as urgent. One of the North Pacific’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/worst-marine-heatwave-on-record-killed-one-million-seabirds-in-north-pacific-ocean-129842">worst marine heatwaves</a> on record killed one million seabirds between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016. Hotspots of marine biodiversity are threatened by <a href="https://theconversation.com/galapagos-how-to-protect-the-islands-amazing-marine-life-from-huge-chinese-fishing-fleets-144927">overfishing</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/deep-sea-mining-threatens-indigenous-culture-in-papua-new-guinea-112012">deep-sea mining</a>. And while many people have heard of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/great-pacific-garbage-patch-46255">Great Pacific Garbage Patch</a>, fewer know about the poisons that this <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-poisons-ocean-bacteria-that-produce-10-of-the-worlds-oxygen-and-prop-up-the-marine-food-chain-117493">floating plastic waste</a> produces, killing microorganisms that produce oxygen and feed marine life. The recent whale strandings, historic in scale, are a reminder that problems in the biosphere cannot be treated in isolation.</p>
<p>Listening to indigenous communities throughout the Pacific about environmental change is not only important, but it is also vital in our attempts to correct the damage done to marine ecosystems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niki JP Alsford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time to listen to warnings from the people of the Pacific.Niki JP Alsford, Professor in Asia Pacific Studies, Director of the Asia Pacific Studies Institutes, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1361752020-04-23T19:59:57Z2020-04-23T19:59:57ZCaring for community to beat coronavirus echoes Indigenous ideas of a good life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328234/original/file-20200416-140719-1likaqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6798%2C2526&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suz Te Tai (Ngati Manu)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us our own well-being is intimately connected to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington-top-stories/120791996/coronavirus-thank-you-to-our-essential-workers">other people</a> and our natural environment. </p>
<p>For many people, living in a small lockdown bubble for weeks has put a heavy strain on <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown-triggers-huge-increase-in-mental-health-issues.html">their mental health and relationships</a>. For others, it’s been a chance to <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018743585/coronavirus-multigenerational-bubbles-enjoying-lockdown">strengthen multi-generational ties</a>.</p>
<p>Māori and Indigenous peoples elsewhere have long called for social and political transformation, including a broader approach to health that values social and cultural well-being of communities, rather than only the physical well-being of an individual. </p>
<p>When our COVID-19 lockdowns end, we can’t afford to stop <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/parenting/moe/23-04-2020/together-apart-keeping-kids-connected-under-rahui/">caring</a> about collective well-being. New Zealand is well positioned to show the world how this could be done, including through the New Zealand Treasury’s <a href="https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/higher-living-standards/our-living-standards-framework">Living Standards Framework</a> – but only if we listen more to Māori and other diverse voices.</p>
<h2>Relationships are at the heart of living well</h2>
<p>For many Indigenous peoples, good relationships are fundamental to a well-functioning society. In New Zealand, these connections are captured in Māori narratives charting our relationships with people and other parts of the natural world. The relationships are woven in a complex genealogical network. </p>
<p>Indigenous well-being begins where our relationships with each other and with the natural environment meet. These intersections generate responsibilities for remembering what has come before us, realising well-being today, and creating sustainable conditions for future generations.</p>
<p>Practices that enhance the importance of these relationships are central to Māori notions of “<a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/tz746/">manaakitanga</a>” (caring and supporting others) and “<a href="http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_109_2000/Volume_109%2C_No._4/Kaitiakitanga%3A_A_Maori_anthropological_perspective_of_the_Maori_socio-environmental_ethic_of_resource_management%2C_by_Merata_Kawharu%2C_p_349-370/p1">kaitiakitanga</a>” (caretaking of the environment and people). We find these <a href="https://www.teaomaori.news/iwi-leaders-partner-food-service-provide-kai-vulnerable-whanau-nationwide">commitments and practices</a> in <a href="https://maorimaps.com/">communities</a> and tribal groups across New Zealand.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/community-wellbeing-best-measured-from-the-ground-up-a-yawuru-example-64162">Community wellbeing best measured from the ground up: a Yawuru example</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, the Yawuru people of Broome in north-western Australia contend that good connections with other people and the natural environment play a central role in “<a href="http://www.yawuru.org.au/community/mabu-liyan-framework/?doing_wp_cron=1586926205.3619189262390136718750">mabu liyan</a>”, living a good life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329915/original/file-20200423-47815-1payatd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Yawuru conducted a well-being survey that highlighted the crucial role of connectedness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Puertollano, used with permission</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329917/original/file-20200423-47784-1lgp2qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ojibwe women wearing their healing (jingle) dresses: Robyn Copenance, Sharona Seymour, Rayanna Seymour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In North America, relationships as well as the need for cooperation and justice between all beings ground the Anishinaabe good-living concept of “<a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/environment-and-society/9/1/ares090102.xml">minobimaatisiiwin</a>”. </p>
<p>In South America, reciprocity in human interactions with nature is fundamental to the Quechua people’s good living notion of “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21683565.2018.1468380">allin kawsay</a>”. </p>
<p>For Indigenous peoples everywhere, navigating our complex responsibilities for people and other living things in ways that enrich our existence is fundamental.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329951/original/file-20200423-47799-849iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mariaelena Huambachano and Quechua ladies from Choquecancha, discussing the importance of seeds for well-being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mariaelena Huambachano</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Living standards and well-being</h2>
<p>The New Zealand Treasury’s <a href="https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/higher-living-standards/our-living-standards-framework">Living Standards Framework</a>, launched in late 2018, recognises that living well consists of many dimensions, including health, housing and social connections. It is based on 12 well-being indicators. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272140/original/file-20190502-117570-m26iqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/The Conversation</span></span>
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<hr>
<p>Significantly, the framework has <a href="https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/pq/article/view/5294/4649">some foundation</a> in what is known as the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/">capability approach</a>, which argues the focus of well-being should be on what people are capable of doing and what they value.</p>
<p>The capability approach has been pivotal in moving discussions away from measures <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-well-being-approach-to-budget-is-not-new-but-could-shift-major-issues-116296">based purely on income</a> to a broader scope of concern: the ability to live well by relating to others and the natural environment, or by participating politically. </p>
<p>Indigenous peoples promote the centrality of collective well-being. They emphasise the importance of sustaining relationships over generations. Examples grounded in such thinking include the <a href="https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/a-matou-mohiotanga/corporate-documents/tpk-annualreport-2007/online/4">Māori Potential Approach</a>, which focuses on Māori strength and success, <a href="https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/whakamahia/whanau-ora">Whānau Ora</a> and many earlier innovations in Māori health policy. This Indigenous work is more important than ever <a href="https://www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2020/04/17/estimated-inequities-in-covid-19-infection-fatality-rates-by-ethnicity-for-aotearoa-new-zealand/">for shaping policy to tackle inequities</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-well-being-approach-to-budget-is-not-new-but-could-shift-major-issues-116296">New Zealand's well-being approach to budget is not new, but could shift major issues</a>
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<hr>
<h2>Creating a fairer future for all</h2>
<p>When talking about New Zealand’s response to COVID-19, many people have been invoking the well-known Māori phrase <a href="https://twitter.com/WgtnCC/status/1250680323869863937">He waka eke noa</a> (we are all in this together).</p>
<p>But our social and political arrangements are not really equitable – and that can cost lives when it comes to a crisis like COVID-19.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2020/04/17/estimated-inequities-in-covid-19-infection-fatality-rates-by-ethnicity-for-aotearoa-new-zealand/">modelling</a> shows the COVID-19 infection fatality rate varies by ethnicity. In New Zealand, it is around 50% higher for Māori (if age is the main factor) and more than 2.5 times that of New Zealanders of European descent if underlying health conditions are taken into account. </p>
<p>In the face of so many challenges – COVID-19, climate change, poverty – we have significant opportunities. One is to learn from the current experience, which has shown everyone the importance of thinking beyond individual well-being, to develop a well-being framework that better reflects diversity. </p>
<p>At least in its current form, New Zealand’s Living Standards Framework is missing diverse voices, especially of our most vulnerable communities such as children, older people, Māori and Pasifika communities. </p>
<p>Around the world, work is underway on how to develop well-being indicators for <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230284814">children</a>, <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/mds/projects/HaPS/HE/ICECAP/ICECAP-O/index.aspx">older people</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875067211000320">people with disabilities</a>, and <a href="http://www.yawuru.org.au/community/mabu-liyan-framework/?doing_wp_cron=1586926628.5647659301757812500000">Indigenous communities</a>. </p>
<p>So too are well-being initiatives undertaken by local Māori communities. The tribal census undertaken by <a href="https://ngatiwhatuaorakei.com/">Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei</a> is an example of communities committed to the aspirations of their people. To do this, we need to rethink long-standing assumptions about what well-being is and how it is measured. </p>
<p>Beyond this current crisis, we need to apply the same collective approach – of <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/411097/covid-19-how-to-protect-yourself-and-others">protecting each other</a> to protect ourselves – to the other social and political challenges we face. By doing that, we could create a better future for all of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Krushil Watene receives funding from The Royal Society of NZ, and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. She is affiliated with Ngāti Manu, Te Hikutu, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Tonga </span></em></p>When our COVID-19 lockdowns end, we can’t afford to stop caring about collective well-being. NZ is well positioned to show the world how it’s done – if we listen to Māori and other diverse voices.Krushil Watene, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1055082018-11-06T05:32:28Z2018-11-06T05:32:28ZMānuka honey: who really owns the name and the knowledge<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244004/original/file-20181105-74775-rw2dak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=880%2C485%2C5101%2C3449&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the case of mānuka honey, there are serious questions about what authenticity actually means. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://theconversation.com/how-better-tests-and-legal-deterrence-could-clean-up-the-sticky-mess-left-behind-by-fake-honey-row-102973">Adulterated honey</a> and <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/6784835/Fake-manuka-honey-threatens-industry">fake mānuka honey</a> have repeatedly made headlines in recent years. </p>
<p>The arguments around adulterated honey are relatively simple. These honeys are diluted with cheaper syrups and their lack of authenticity is unquestionable. The discourse around mānuka honey is different, as there are serious questions about what authentic mānuka honey actually means. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/honeygate-deepens-as-new-tests-reveal-27-of-brands-are-adulterated-104139">'Honeygate' deepens as new tests reveal 27% of brands are adulterated</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Two warring families</h2>
<p>The term mānuka carries with it a <a href="https://www.eater.com/2016/8/25/12644050/manuka-honey-why-so-expensive">premium</a>. Mānuka honey is made from the nectar of the <em>Leptospermum scoparium</em> flower. This plant is native to New Zealand and south-east Australia. It is, thus, not surprising that much of the war around the term mānuka has played out between Australian and New Zealand producers.</p>
<p>There are many registered trademarks in Australia and New Zealand that include the word mānuka and relate to honey-based products. In July, the Australian Manuka Honey Association filed to <a href="https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/1939743?fs=PENDING&fst=WORD&q=manuka">protect its name</a>. </p>
<p>The parallel New Zealand entity, the Mānuka Honey Appellation Society Inc, has filed for a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/102477715/nz-accepts-mnuka-honey-as-trademark-term-as-australian-government-funds-objection">certification trademark</a> for the term mānuka honey. If granted, traders in New Zealand would only be able to market their products as mānuka honey if they satisfy a certain standard and are certified as such. </p>
<p>The Mānuka Honey Appellation Society Inc sought the same certification trademark in <a href="https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/1752903?s=511a7039-d065-4b6b-b91c-a837171eebe5">Australia</a> and the <a href="https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/4/EU017285421">UK</a>. The New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries has a <a href="https://www.mpi.govt.nz/growing-and-harvesting/honey-and-bees/manuka-honey/">definition for authentic mānuka honey</a>, which includes a certain DNA marker and four chemical compounds. Comvita have separately <a href="http://www.umf.org.nz/%7Bhttps://patents.google.com/patent/WO2017099612A1/en">filed patent applications</a> for marker compounds to <a href="https://www.comvita.co.nz/purest-source/manuka-honey/rangeNZ00001">identify true mānuka honey</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-fake-honey-and-why-didnt-the-official-tests-pick-it-up-102573">What is fake honey and why didn’t the official tests pick it up?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s in a name</h2>
<p>Despite the value embodied in the term mānuka, Māori interests are often left out of the discussion. Similarly, little attention is given to the disagreement within Māoridom about who has jurisdiction over mānuka. </p>
<p>This is despite the glaringly obvious fact that mānuka is the <a href="http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/foma-disagrees-australias-claim-manuka-honey-trademark">Māori term</a> for <em>L.scoparium</em>. Put another way, a war of words is playing out. And, while the war is over a Māori word, Māori are not seen as a key player. Instead, it is industry and government that we see on the field.</p>
<p>The fact that Māori are often left out from the conversation around the authenticity of mānuka honey reflects a long history of western law and science ignoring indigenous peoples, at best, or treating them as non-stakeholders or sources to be mined for information, at worst. The issue runs deeper than simply the use of a Māori word.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244005/original/file-20181105-74778-11f0gf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Māori have long used the mānuka plant for medicinal purposes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>From ancient grudge break to new mutiny</h2>
<p><em>L.scoparium</em> is near endemic to New Zealand. Māori have long used the plant and honey derived from it for various purposes, from brewing beer to <a href="https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/2988">multiple medicinal purposes</a>. The latter includes the treatment of urinary complaints, fevers, burns, dysentery, skin and muscle inflammations, eye and mouth problems, pain relief and as a sedative. Teas were made from the leaves of the plant to <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/rongoa-medicinal-use-of-plants">ease fevers</a>, or from the bark to treat dysentery and diarrhoea.</p>
<p>The use of <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@future-learning/2018/07/09/145825/patents-raise-concern-over-threat-to-maori-knowledge">Māori traditional knowledge</a> to further western science is not new. In a recent <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3209589">study of patent applications</a> filed in New Zealand, 25 applications were identified that used some aspect of the plant, honey or ingredient as a major component.</p>
<p>Half of the inventions were in the pharmaceutical industry. Many of these used the antibiotic properties of mānuka honey and were compositions including the honey or an extract. Several applied the antibiotic properties of the essential oil in <em>L.scoparium</em>. Three of the applications related to food or beverages. Two inventions were in the cosmetic industry.</p>
<h2>I take thee at thy word</h2>
<p>In 2013, New Zealand passed <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0068/52.0/DLM1419043.html">new patent legislation</a>, which created a <a href="https://www.iponz.govt.nz/about-ip/maori-ip/maori-advisory-committees/">Māori Advisory Committee</a>. This has the role of advising the Commissioner of Patents on whether an invention is derived from Māori traditional knowledge or “indigenous plants or animals” and, if so, whether “the commercial exploitation of that invention is likely to be contrary to Māori values”. The commissioner uses this advice to determine whether the “commercial exploitation” of an invention would be contrary to “public order” or “morality”. </p>
<p>These provisions have the potential to introduce te ao Māori (the Māori world) into a western legal paradigm. It has yet to be seen if they will truly meet Māori concerns. Of the 25 inventions identified in the study, 13 appeared to be derivative of a known Māori use. However, only four of these came under the Patents Act 2013. </p>
<p>At the time of writing, none of the four had gone through full examination by the <a href="https://www.iponz.govt.nz/about-ip/trade-marks/process/">Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand</a>. Two were open for public inspection and two were recently filed. Indeed, no applications had gone to the Māori Advisory Committee. Thus, it remains to be seen what exactly the committee’s role will be and how it might affect applications for patents over inventions pertaining to mānuka in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105508/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica C Lai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While industry bodies fight over who can claim that their mānuka honey is authentic, Māori interests are often left out of the debate.Jessica C Lai, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017382018-09-05T20:04:42Z2018-09-05T20:04:42ZDead as the moa: oral traditions show that early Māori recognised extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234703/original/file-20180903-41702-n8ug8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C29%2C990%2C774&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The extinction of important animal resources such as the moa reverberated culturally for centuries after the birds' extinction.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Megahan / Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Museums throughout Aotearoa New Zealand feature displays of enormous articulated skeletons and giant eggs. The eggs are bigger than two hands put together. This is all that remains of the moa.</p>
<p>Tracing extinctions that happened centuries ago is difficult, but our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-018-0004-0">collaborative analysis of ancestral sayings</a>, or <em>whakataukī</em>, found that early Māori paid attention to their local fauna and environment and recognised the extinction of these giant, flightless birds that were an important food resource.</p>
<p>After Europeans arrived, some <em>whakataukī</em> used moa as a metaphor for the feared extinction of the indigenous Māori people themselves, which emphasises the powerful cultural impact the extinction of moa had.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234705/original/file-20180903-41705-1rtdt8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moa were an important food source for early Māori.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kane Fleury / Otago Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>To go the way of the moa</h2>
<p>Moa once walked the uplands and forests of Aotearoa New Zealand, before they were <a href="https://phys.org/news/2014-03-dna-evidence-humans-moa-extinction.html">hunted to extinction</a> some 500 years ago. Although moa belong to a time long gone, their story still packs a powerful punch. Especially as we attempt to save the many threatened species at risk of disappearing in our own time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-sperm-race-to-help-save-one-of-new-zealands-threatened-birds-the-sugar-lapping-hihi-94650">A sperm race to help save one of New Zealand’s threatened birds, the sugar-lapping hihi</a>
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<p>Although we know when moa disappeared, and why, we know far less about how people alive then responded to the giant birds’ extinction. The loss of the world’s big animals – megafauna including mammoths, cave bears, giant kangaroos – is <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/in-a-few-centuries-cows-could-be-the-largest-land-animals-left/558323/">a repeating theme</a>. These extinctions mostly happened so long ago that we can no longer flesh out the relationships humans had with these species, except in bare bones terms.</p>
<p>But New Zealand was one of the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/105/22/7676">last places on earth that people settled</a> (around AD 1280), and Māori oral traditions retain clues about the species these early settlers discovered, and the ecological relationships they forged.</p>
<p><strong><em>E koekoe te tūī, e ketekete te kākā, e kūkū te kererū</em></strong><br>
<em>The tui chatters, the parrot gabbles, the wood pigeon coos</em></p>
<p>It takes all kinds to study the past. Our team includes a conservation biologist, a linguist, a bioinformaticist and experts in Māori culture. Together, we delved into the wealth of ecological knowledge embedded in Māori oral traditions. We unpicked language cues, historical events and cultural contexts to understand habitats, animals, landscapes and the relationships between them. </p>
<p>Many <em>whakataukī</em> (pithy sayings like English proverbs) reveal intimate observations about nature. The link between flowering times and animal activity expose seasonal cycles. <em>Whakataukī</em> note the abundance of food resources. </p>
<p>Of those that refer to birds, a disproportionate number talk about moa. What they looked like. How they trampled through the forest with their heads in the air. How best to eat them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234704/original/file-20180903-41729-syhupq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moa once walked the uplands and forests of Aotearoa New Zealand, before they were hunted to extinction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kane Fleury / Otago Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>He koromiko te wahie i taona ai te moa</em></strong><br>
<em>The moa was cooked with the wood of the koromiko</em></p>
<p>Oral traditions can be highly practical. Māori <em>whakataukī</em> are no exception. Many refer to large birds that made excellent meals, from tītī (muttonbirds) to shags. This tallies with the abundance of bones from large bird species that are found in the rubbish dumps of New Zealand archaeological sites.</p>
<p>But <em>whakataukī</em> tell us more. Sometimes, what is missing from a body of knowledge reveals more than what is actually there. We searched the <em>whakataukī</em> for bird species that became extinct in the first few centuries after Māori arrived in New Zealand. There were none, apart from moa, and the giant eagle, or pouakai, that preyed on moa. Pouakai tracked moa on the highway to extinction.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232606/original/file-20180820-30578-ah7ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fossil bones of this South Island adzebill were found at Pyramid Valley, North Canterbury.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Auckland Museum - Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We know that many large bird species existed at this time – giant adzebills, a large goose, the New Zealand raven. But their Māori names are lost. Extinction is reflected in the <em>whakataukī</em>, but sometimes in the gaps. </p>
<p><strong><em>Kua ngaro i te ngaro o te moa</em></strong><br>
<em>Lost as the moa was lost</em></p>
<p>Losing the names of birds that died out centuries ago illustrates one powerful connection between language, culture and biodiversity. When a species goes extinct, the words and knowledge associated with that species start to disappear from the world, too. This extinction pattern is particularly acute in oral cultures. </p>
<p>In contrast, we still recall the birds that went extinct after European arrival – huia, piopio, koreke (the New Zealand quail), whekau (the laughing owl). The changes wreaked on our environment over the last two centuries remain abundantly clear.</p>
<p>Many <em>whakataukī</em> highlight the disappearance of the moa, a sign that moa represented more than just another extinction. They were a poster species. A hashtag. Many sayings lament the loss of the moa, using different words and different phrasing, but with an echo that repeats over and over.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234707/original/file-20180903-41732-168mwdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many sayings lament the loss of the moa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kane Fleury / Otago Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Huna i te huna a te moa</em></strong><br>
<em>Hidden as the moa hid</em></p>
<p>Māori recalled the moa after Europeans arrived, too. Māori were suffering badly from diseases and deprivation in the late 1800s. It was as though the Māori world was being felled along with the forests. There was a very real fear among both Māori and Europeans that Māori people and culture would also disappear, just like the moa.</p>
<p><strong><em>Ka ngaro ā-moa te iwi nei</em></strong><br>
<em>The people will disappear like the moa</em></p>
<p>Thankfully, of course, the Māori world is growing. Its <em>whakataukī</em> speak of ecology and history, but more than this, they highlight timeless issues, as relevant today as when they were written, framed as observations of the natural world. A recurrent underlying reminder is that our own future is directly interconnected with our environment. Let’s listen to the lessons in <em>whakataukī</em>, so we can create an enduring legacy for the future. </p>
<p><strong><em>Whaowhia te kete mātauranga</em></strong><br>
<em>Fill the basket of knowledge</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priscilla Wehi receives research funding from The Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apaarangi</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hēmi Whaanga receives funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apaarangi.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Murray Cox receives research funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi.</span></em></p>Tracing extinctions that happened centuries ago is difficult. But in New Zealand, the last place to be settled some 750 years ago, ancestral Māori oral traditions retain clues about lost species.Priscilla Wehi, Conservation biologist, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare ResearchHēmi Whaanga, Associate Professor, University of WaikatoMurray Cox, Professor of Computational Biology, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1004472018-07-27T02:23:37Z2018-07-27T02:23:37ZLord of the forest: New Zealand’s most sacred tree is under threat from disease, but response is slow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229350/original/file-20180725-194158-b7f6m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C436%2C5422%2C3370&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tāne Mahuta is New Zealand's most sacred tree, but its days will be numbered if it is infected with kauri dieback disease.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tāne Mahuta is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest living being – but the 45m tall, 2,500-year-old kauri tree is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/14/like-losing-family-time-may-be-running-out-for-new-zealands-most-sacred-tree">under severe threat</a> from a devastating disease. </p>
<p>Nearly a decade after the discovery of <a href="https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/what-is-kauri-dieback/">kauri dieback disease</a>, it is continuing to spread largely unchecked through the northern part of the North Island. Thousands of kauri trees have <a href="https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/media/1399/faqs-and-mythbusters-final-15_9_16.pdf">likely been infected</a> and are now dead or dying. The <a href="http://www.waipouaforest.hokianga.co.nz/">Waipoua forest</a>, home of Tāne Mahuta and many other majestic kauri, is reported to be one of the <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/360955/kauri-dieback-in-waipoua-forest-a-tragedy-scientist">worst affected areas</a>. </p>
<p>For Māori, who trace their whakapapa (lineage) to the origins of the earth, Tāne Mahuta is kin. The threat of losing this tree should electrify the fight against kauri dieback. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-blind-to-plants-and-thats-bad-news-for-conservation-65240">People are 'blind' to plants, and that's bad news for conservation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Call to close the forest</h2>
<p>Named after Tāne, the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatūanuku the earth mother, Tāne Mahuta is a highly revered taonga, or treasure. In Māori mythology, it was Tāne who brought trees and birds to earth. </p>
<p>The loss of this ancestor, with a presence that has been known to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/dec/06/tane-mahuta-sacred-kauri-tree-waipoua-dargaville-new-zealand">move some to tears</a>, is incalculable. </p>
<p>Kauri dieback has been recorded metres from this ancient tree, despite the best efforts of a <a href="https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/">prevention programme</a> that has been in place since 2009. Much of the focus of the programme has been on encouraging behaviour change by forest users (following paths, washing boots) and upgrading tracks (from mud to boardwalks). A new <a href="https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/consultation/">national pest management plan</a> proposes more of the same. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229353/original/file-20180725-194143-17i1cjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As part of a prevention programme to limit the spread of kauri dieback, visitors to kauri forests are encouraged to spray their shoes with a disinfectant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eli Duke/WIkimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229351/original/file-20180725-194134-13v9st4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signs remind visitors in the Waitākere Ranges about precautions against the spread of kauri dieback disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my view, the most notable, and frustrating, aspect of this programme is the significant resistance to close kauri forest tracks to people, who, along with wild pigs, are one of the major vectors of the disease. </p>
<p>Te Kawerau ā Maki, a Māori tribal group with mana whenua (customary authority) over the land of the Waitākere forest in the Auckland region, have maintained a consistent stance that the only way to protect kauri forests is to close them to humans. In November 2017, they <a href="http://waitakererahui.org.nz/the-rahui">placed a rāhui</a> (temporary closure) over the entire forest area, severely frustrated by the lack of effective action to control kauri dieback by Auckland Council. </p>
<p>A rāhui is not legally enforceable, and it was <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11978208">largely ignored</a> by forest users who continued to enter and spread the disease. Eventually, six months later, Auckland Council voted to <a href="http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2018/5/kauri-dieback-closures-what-you-need-to-know/">close the majority of tracks</a>, but Te Kawerau ā Maki have viewed this as <a href="http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/closing-forest-areas-not-enough-save-kauri-says-iwi">too little</a>, and possibly too late. </p>
<h2>Keeping the forest open</h2>
<p>In a similar laggardly vein, the <a href="https://www.doc.govt.nz/">Department of Conservation</a> has only just put forward a <a href="https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/all-consultations/2018/proposal-to-close-tracks-to-protect-kauri/">proposal</a> to close or partially close 24 kauri forest tracks. This proposal is currently going through a consultation process, which seems inappropriate when dealing with an immediate biosecurity crisis. </p>
<p>The proposal does not include the Waipoua forest and the track that leads to Tāne Mahuta, or to other significant kauri such as Te Matua Ngahere. The department says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the decision to propose track closures is not taken lightly, but has been considered in situations where there is high kauri dieback risk, low visitor use, high upgrade and ongoing maintenance costs, and a similar experience provided in the vicinity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tāne mahuta draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to the Waipoua forest area. This, combined with the fact that forest tracks are generally in good condition has led to the decision to keep the forest open. For now, the tangata whenua (local Māori with authority over land) <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/361665/northland-iwi-insist-threatened-kauri-tane-mahuta-in-safe-hands">support it</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229354/original/file-20180725-194137-1liqxla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tāne Mahuta draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the kauri forests in the north of New Zealand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Relinquishing our claims</h2>
<p>Although we know that our human presence in kauri forests will lead to the certain death of the trees, many people still wish to venture into the forests, to walk or to hunt, regardless of the consequences. </p>
<p>Whether conscious or not, the value assessment here must be that the right of kauri trees to live and flourish is of lesser value than some fleeting recreation on a weekend afternoon. As people kept blindly tramping into the Waitākere forest, infection <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/335445/mpi-criticised-for-serious-failings-on-kauri-dieback">rates increased from 8% to 19%</a> in just five years.</p>
<p>What I find most disturbing here is that government agencies tasked with preserving the “intrinsic values” of native species are prepared to let this happen for pragmatic and economic reasons. This is one of those situations where competing values can’t be balanced. </p>
<p>The life and flourishing of kauri must be prioritised above all else, whatever the economic or recreational hit. This means letting go of our claim to kauri trees as “natural and recreational resources” and acknowledging them for what they are – our living, spiritual, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-28516-8_1">intelligent</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/14/like-losing-family-time-may-be-running-out-for-new-zealands-most-sacred-tree">kin</a>. </p>
<h2>Kauri or kiwifruit</h2>
<p>Pragmatically, our assistance to kauri also necessitates that we re-assess the value we place on the survival of kauri from an economic perspective.</p>
<p>Funding of less than <a href="https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/media/1474/2016-2017-kauri-dieback-annual-report-web.pdf">NZ$2 million per year</a> for the kauri dieback programme pales in comparison to the magnitude of the response to recent agricultural biosecurity threats. </p>
<p>In 2010, a huge response to the incursion of a microbial pathogen (Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, or Psa) in kiwifruit vines saw a <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/50-million-governmentindustry-plan-fight-psa">NZ$50 million fund</a> created to fight the disease. </p>
<p>In 2015, after a single Queensland fruit fly was caught in a trap in February, a large coordinated response, with local, restrictive biosecurity control orders in place, resulted in eradication in October, at a cost of <a href="https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/media-releases/fruit-fly-eradicated-from-auckland-and-restrictions-lifted/">NZ$13.6 million</a>. </p>
<p>With such funds, it would be much easier to enforce the closure of kauri forests, until more long-term measures, such as improving genetic resistance, become possible. </p>
<p>At the end of last year, Minister for Forestry Shane Jones was <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11961555">quoted</a> expressing a similar opinion, following the government’s announcement that it would attempt to eradicate the cow disease Mycoplasma bovis. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If it’s possible for us to move swiftly and cull diseased cows and stop the transport of potentially diseased cows off private farms, we need a similar level of vigour in safeguarding areas where our kauri are still strong.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the survival of Tāne Mahuta, we should close off kauri forests immediately and boost funding for the implementation of the dieback management programme.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Hall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A pathogen is killing kauri trees in New Zealand and now threatens an ancient, sacred giant. The response to the biosecurity incursion pales in comparison to recent threats to agricultural crops.Matthew Hall, Associate Director, Research Services, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/841982017-10-12T19:13:31Z2017-10-12T19:13:31ZFriday essay: the cultural meanings of wild horses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189679/original/file-20171010-17703-1asj8vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wild horses, known as brumbies, in Australia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am walking quietly through the forest. As I reach the edge of the trees there is a snort and a staccato of hoofbeats, and four horses materialise only metres in front of me: a foal, two mares and a dark stallion. The stallion, ears pricked, tosses his head and prances forward. As I crouch to pick up a branch, the stallion wheels and gallops off with the group. They hurdle an old stock fence, and almost as soon as their hoofs touch down, another big grey stallion comes towards them over the hill.</p>
<p>The next minutes are completely mesmerising. The two stallions fight, 50 metres from me. Dust hangs in the air around them, their screams echo off the hills, the impact of their hoof strikes reverberates in my belly. They rear, scream; snake heads out to bite, whirl and kick. Eventually, bleeding and bruised, the dark stallion breaks and runs. The grey makes a show of chasing, then canters back to the mares, arching his neck, prancing with lifted tail.</p>
<p>This is one of many times I have seen horses, called brumbies in Australia, in the mountains. While cross-country skiing in the south I have watched them in the snow - ragged manes flying, galloping through a mist of ice crystals - and many times while driving and bushwalking in both the north and south of Kosciuszko National Park. I have also watched them cantering in clouds of dust in central Australia, and grazing in the swamps of Kakadu. Each of these wild horse encounters has been deeply visceral and emotional, elemental expressions of life in dramatic and beautiful landscapes.</p>
<p>Horses are large, powerful and charismatic animals, and humans have ancient connections to them. Wild horses are dominant among the 13 species painted on the caves of Chauvet in France 30,000 years ago, and while there continues to be debate, archaeologists suggest <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30634192-wild-equids">evidence for horse domestication</a> is at least 5,500 years old. And like the oldest human-animal relationship outside hunting - with dogs - the horse relationship is unique because we now mostly do not eat this animal. </p>
<p>Like dogs, horses now occur on every continent except Antarctica, and humans have been the primary agent for their dispersal. In North America, where the first true horses evolved and then died out, they were reintroduced by Columbus in 1493. Horses are the most recent of the main species humans domesticated, and the least different (with cats) from their wild counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189677/original/file-20171010-17676-1fuax3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horses and other animals on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southern France, from 30,000 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claude Valette/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia has the <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/b32a088c-cd31-4b24-8a7c-70e1880508b5/files/feral-horse.pdf">largest wild horse herd</a> in the world, maybe 400,000 or more horses, spread across nearly every bioregion from the tropical north to the arid centre to the alpine areas. That sounds like a dramatically large number, but Australia also has around one million domestic horses, about 100 million cattle and sheep, maybe 20 million feral pigs and 25 million kangaroos. But the presence of wild horses here is deeply <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grim-story-of-the-snowy-mountains-cannibal-horses-31691">controversial</a>.</p>
<p>Six thousand of these horses are in Kosciuszko National Park. Ongoing controversy around these wild horses encompasses debate about their impact and their cultural meaning. There is very little systematic research and a large amount of emotive and anecdotal argument, from both sides. There is circularity and self-referencing in government <a href="http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/protectsnowies/knp-wild-horse-plan-draft-160271.pdf">wild horse management plans</a>, very little reference to studies from Australia and almost no peer-reviewed research on horse impacts in the Snowy Mountains, despite decades of argument that they cause environmental degradation. </p>
<p>And Kosciuszko is right next to Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory, which has the highest per capita horse-ownership of anywhere in Australia. Several enterprises run horse-trekking trips into the Snowy Mountains, often interacting with brumbies. The Dalgety and Corryong annual shows on the boundaries of the park highlight horse skills, including catching and gentling brumbies. In many places mountain cattle properties are increasingly using horses instead of motorbikes to handle stock.</p>
<p>The Kosciuszko wild horses are also tangled within the embedded idiosyncrasies and contradictions of the largest national park in New South Wales. Here there are protected populations of two species of invasive fish (brown and rainbow trout) that are demonstrably responsible for local extinctions of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dean_Gilligan/publication/277598084_Fish_Communities_of_the_Murrumbidgee_Catchment_Status_and_Trends/links/556e50b008aec2268308c4d9/Fish-Communities-of-the-Murrumbidgee-Catchment-Status-and-Trends.pdf">native fish</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320701000210">frog species</a>; a gigantic hydro-electric scheme with dominant infrastructure across large areas of the park; and expanding ski resorts where it is possible to buy lodges. Much of the landscape that is now part of the park has a long history of summer grazing by sheep and cattle, with stockworkers’ huts scattered across the high country. This “wilderness” has been home to Aboriginal people for millennia, as well as well-known grazing grounds for more than a century.</p>
<p>These complexities and contradictions reflect our often unconscious modern propensity for hubris: we insist we are in charge of what happens on the planet, including in its “wild” places and “wild” species. Terms like “land management”, “natural resource management”, and “conservation management”, all reflect this assumption of superiority and control.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189686/original/file-20171010-17691-ddvgd9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roping wild horses, Gippsland, Arthur John Waugh, circa 1910-1920.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indigenous interactions</h2>
<p>The United States has <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/features/environment/wild-horses-part-one/">similar controversies</a> over the management of mustangs across large areas of the west. New Zealand has the <a href="https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/wild-horses/">Kaimanawa horses</a>, a special and isolated herd on army land. In both of those countries, as in Australia, there is a unique history of horse interactions with Indigenous communities. The great Native American horse cultures are well known and extraordinary, as Indians had no introduction to equestrian skills from the Spanish invaders, they learnt extremely quickly from scratch. </p>
<p>The first horses in New Zealand were a gift to Maori communities from missionary Samuel Marsden in 1814, and a Waitangi Tribunal Claim has been brought to protect the Kaimanawa horses as Maori <em>taonga</em> (treasures). Aboriginal stockmen and stockwomen were the mainstay of the pastoral industry all over Australia until the equal wage ruling of 1968 resulted in the wholesale expulsion of Aboriginal stockworkers in north and central Australia.</p>
<p>Peter Mitchell’s recent book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23288109-horse-nations">Horse Nations</a> uses that term to describe the people-animal relationship in certain Indigenous communities. Both Native American and Aboriginal cosmologies often place animals including horses, as their own “nations”, with whom they have a responsibility to respectfully interact.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189680/original/file-20171010-17697-1f7gvts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Goodreads</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The wild horses of the Australian Alps are arguably the strongest cultural icons. The enduring legacy of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1841075.The_Man_from_Snowy_River?from_search=true">The Man from Snowy River</a>, both the iconic Banjo Paterson poem and the 1980s film, but also the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1180574.The_Silver_Brumby">Silver Brumby</a> series of novels by Elyne Mitchell, still in print after nearly 70 years, idealise the strength, beauty and spirit of wild mountain horses. At least <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101973840">one source</a> suggests that “the man” from Paterson’s poem was in fact a young Aboriginal rider. </p>
<p>This is not at all implausible – there is much documentation, as well as strong oral histories, of Aboriginal men and women working stock on horseback across the Snowy Mountains. The Aboriginal mountain missions at Brungle and Delegate both have <a href="http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/cultureheritage/womensHeritageBrungleTumut.pdf">many stories</a> of earlier generations working as stock riders and also mustering wild mountain horses. <a href="https://open.abc.net.au/explore/211497">David Dixon, Ngarigo elder</a>, says </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our old people were animal lovers. They would have had great respect for these powerful horse spirits. Our people have always been accepting of visitors to our lands and quite capable of adapting to change so that our visitors can also belong, and have their place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the iconic figure of the cowboy and stockman is masculine, amongst Aboriginal stockworkers women and girls were likely as common as men and boys. In contemporary times, women far outnumber men in equestrian participation, and brumby defenders are equally represented by men and women. Four Australian horsewomen generously shared their knowledge and skills in the research that backgrounds this essay.</p>
<h2>Animal intelligence</h2>
<p>In the mid 1970s, I worked as a ranger in Kosciuszko National Park. In those days rangering was a seat-of-the-pants enterprise: we used to buy at least part of our uniforms out of our own money because the issued items were so inadequate, we taught ourselves to cross-country ski, we drank socially with the brumby-runners and other people from the surrounding rural communities.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189685/original/file-20171010-17691-1c712gv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shooting wild horses, Samuel Calvert, 1889.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In many places rangers were and are intimately part of the community, not seen as “public servants”. There is a complex and interesting relationship between university-educated national parks staff and local rural workers with deeply embodied knowledge and skills, with rangers acknowledging that they need the skills of these locals to carry out much animal-related work in the parks, including <a href="http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4846986/blue-mountains-brumby-muster-a-rescue-mission/?cs=2452">trapping and mustering wild horses</a>. Recent proposals to helicopter shoot large numbers of wild horses in Kosciuszko would potentially sever this link. Helicopter shooting requires specific marksmanship skills not common in rural communities.</p>
<p>While we debate how to reduce our wild horse numbers, other countries are working to <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0132359">re-establish wild horse herds</a> in Europe and Asia. It is often argued that domestication saved horses (and many other species) from extinction, aiding their establishment all over the planet while their wild ancestors diminished or disappeared. Creating populations of newly wild species is termed both “rewilding’ and ”<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/30302341?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">de-domestication</a>“, and there are numerous and increasing examples around the world. Some of <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7383/full/482030a.html?foxtrotcallback=true">these proposals</a> include the reestablishment of species long extinct, or their ecological equivalents.</p>
<p>In the period increasingly accepted as the Anthropocene, species are both declining and flourishing. Domesticated species have been moved all over the world; other introduced species flourish in new landscapes, and many of these are escaped or released domesticates. In the oceans, as large predators have declined all the cephalopods (octopus, squid and cuttlefish) <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216303190">are increasing</a>. Highly specialised species that evolved on isolated islands have declined precipitously, while generalist species are flourishing.</p>
<p>Global conservation management attempts to work against both of these trends: we attempt to suppress populations of flourishing species, while supporting or increasing populations of declining ones, including through translocations and captive breeding programs. These activities call into question the nature of nature in the 21st century: what is the "wild” in all this management and manipulation?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189678/original/file-20171010-17703-vch3kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While Australia debates removing wild horses, other countries are seeking to increase their wild herds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In these questions, the lives and cosmologies of Indigenous peoples, and the lives of other species, offer us serious teachings. The agency and intelligence of animals, the increasing discoveries of distinct cultures amongst animal populations, the agency of planetary systems in continually reorganising around changing inputs, all stand against the modern human insistence on control, stability and stasis.</p>
<p>While hiking mountain grasslands looking for wild horse bands, I have several times come across horse skeletons whitening in the sunlight, their energy and power transmuted back into the source from which new lives will spring. In a world where human societies are increasingly narcissistic, where our dominant concern is ourselves, recognising the agency and intelligence of other species can be deeply humbling. </p>
<p>Perhaps our task is to harmonise ourselves with these old and new environments, not continually attempt to “manage” them into some other state that we in our hubris think is more desirable, whether ecologically, economically or culturally.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Adrienne Corradini, Jen Owens, Blaire Carlon and Tonia Gray for improving my understanding of horse and brumby issues.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Adams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From 30,000-year-old cave paintings to The Man From Snowy River, wild horses have always been part of human culture. As Australia debates what to do with ‘brumbies’ in mountain environments, it’s time to reconsider their place.Michael Adams, Associate Professor of Human Geography, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/796612017-06-29T20:14:31Z2017-06-29T20:14:31ZMatariki: reintroducing the tradition of Māori New Year celebrations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174630/original/file-20170620-22151-shykbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">my star gazing profile</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5156/matariki-the-pleiades">Pleiades</a>, or Seven Sisters, is one of the most obvious star groups in the night sky, identifiable to the naked eye. </p>
<p>In Aotearoa/New Zealand, the star cluster is known as Matariki. This name is a truncated version of the saying “Ngā mata o te ariki Tāwhirimātea” meaning “the eye of the god Tāwhirimātea” - and there’s a growing trend to celebrate its pre-dawn rising at this time of the southern winter as the Māori New Year. But often the celebration takes place before the stars are visible in the sky and many people are unaware of the history and traditions behind it.</p>
<p>Unlike western New Year, the dates of Matariki change year by year. This year Matariki set on May 19 and will rise again between July 17 and 20.</p>
<h2>The meaning of Matariki</h2>
<p>Māori use the name Matariki to describe the entire cluster as well as the main star in the group. Many other stars in the cluster have their own name and particular purpose. </p>
<p>Astronomy, the study of the cosmos, is the stuff of legends in every culture, but Matariki has a practical meaning as well. For millennia, people have lived without a calendar, and for Māori, the position of the stars was important for local survival. The rising of Matariki marked the change of seasons, the time to harvest, the migration and spawning of species and the cycles of the environment. </p>
<p>Alongside the practical and robust science, the stars were intertwined with spirituality and beliefs. Māori would observe the sky from sunset to sunrise and take meaning from the stars’ position, colour, movement and brightness. They took all kind of omen and meaning from the heavens, believing stars foretold fortune and future. </p>
<p>It was the job of the tohunga kōkōrangi (astronomical expert) of the area to determine the meanings of the stars in the cluster and to share predictions with the people. It was a skill built up over many years. The position and brightness might tell them what the weather would be like for the year, or that it would be a bumper fishing harvest. There was also an intimate connection between Matariki and the dead, and when the cluster rose in the pre-dawn sky in winter people would weep and call the names of those who has passed during the year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175944/original/file-20170628-11993-xtdgur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Matariki (Pleiades) cluster consists of about 3,000 stars, at a distance of 400 light-years from Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/20/image/a/">NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eyes to the skies</h2>
<p>Missionary <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1c23/colenso-william">William Colenso</a> noted that Māori had the astonishing <a href="http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-TreRace-t1-body-d2.html#n11">ability to see a greater number of stars</a> with the naked eye than their pākehā (foreigner) counterparts. It was widely recognised in the late 1700s and 1800s that <a href="http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BesAstro.html">Māori knew more about the night sky than the Europeans</a> arriving in Aotearoa.</p>
<p>But colonisation affected Māori cultural practice and by the beginning of the 20th century the elaborate Matariki celebrations were no longer practised. The Māori system of time was synced with the lunar calendar, but that was then overtaken by the Gregorian solar calendar – and these two systems of time are incompatible. </p>
<h2>Where to look for Matariki</h2>
<p>The easiest way to find Matariki is to look for other identifiable star groups, for example Orion’s belt, also known as the pot (Tautoru to Māori). Moving right to left along the three stars at the base of the pot, the observer comes first to a triangular-shaped cluster known as Hyades or the face of Taurus the bull. Go left again and you’ll notice a small group of stars clustered closely together. This is Matariki.</p>
<p>It is widely accepted that the Māori year began with the rising of Matariki, but there are differences of opinion about when Matariki was observed and the length of the Matariki period. </p>
<p>A number of writers say the Matariki New Year began with the new moon after the cluster is seen in the sky before dawn. Others say it was tribal, or region-specific, and could be observed after the full moon, or in the new moon, or in the periods between. All agree that for Māori the most important time for observing the stars was morning, just before sunrise.</p>
<p>Matariki is what’s known as a third magnitude star. Magnitude is what astronomers use to measure the brightness of an object in the night sky as seen from earth. The lower the magnitude the brighter it is. </p>
<p>When searching for stars on the eastern horizon before the sun rises, you have to take into account the glow of the sun, the position of the moon, atmospheric conditions, local typography and the magnitude of the star. As a third magnitude star, Matariki will need to be at least five degrees above the horizon and the sun at least 16 degrees below. </p>
<h2>Resurrecting traditional ceremony</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://www.huia.co.nz/huia-bookshop/bookshop/matariki-the-star-of-the-year/">Matariki: the star of the year</a>, I discuss evidence that the correct time to view the cluster is when it is visible in the morning sky, but for some reason we have begun to celebrate in the new moon, which is too early; Matariki cannot be seen during the new moon phase. </p>
<p>This rather diminishes the whole reason for the ceremony and celebration. The point is to take direction from the stars, to make a connection between the celebration and the environment. It’s about responding to the environment, aligning with it rather than trying to shape it to suit ourselves.</p>
<p>It’s timely and appropriate for the traditional practice of Matariki to be resurrected, reintroduced and correctly observed, centred on traditional practice and underpinned by Māori culture and Māori language.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rangi Matamua receives funding from Royal Society of New Zealand, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori.</span></em></p>The pre-dawn rising of the Pleiades, known as Matariki in New Zealand, heralds the turn of the seasons and the start of a new year for Māori.Rangi Matamua, Associate Dean Postgraduate, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/498902016-05-11T20:10:04Z2016-05-11T20:10:04ZNew Zealand’s indigenous reconciliation efforts show having a treaty isn’t enough<p><em>Australia is being held back by its unresolved relationship with its Indigenous population. Drawing on attempts at reconciliation overseas, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/indigenous-reconciliation">this series explores different ways of addressing this unfinished business</a>. Today, lessons from New Zealand.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The relationship between Māori and the British Crown (which delegated its authority to the New Zealand government) has historically been filled with broken promises. Māori reached their nadir at the turn of the 20th century when their population had fallen to half of what it was at first contact.</p>
<p>Ever since the 1840 signing of the <a href="http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/treaty-of-waitangi">Treaty of Waitangi</a> (New Zealand’s founding document), a raft of government initiatives have resulted in Māori losing both resources and power. To tackle grievances stemming from these actions, reconciliation efforts were established in the country 30 years ago. </p>
<p>These efforts generally fall within three mechanisms: the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process; the Office of the Race Relations Conciliator; and public education platforms. </p>
<h2>Treaty settlements</h2>
<p>The Treaty of Waitangi contains three articles which recognise Māori retaining their mana (authority) and allow the British Crown to govern its own people; protect Māori resources and culture; and require Māori to enjoy equal rights with British citizens. </p>
<p>Despite all this, acts by both the British Crown and successive New Zealand governments have had detrimental effects on Māori. These span the loss of lives to the taking of land through various measures, with Māori becoming culturally and economically bereft within their own lands.</p>
<p>But there is recourse. The New Zealand government established a forum to hear treaty-based grievances, known as <a href="http://bwb.co.nz/books/the-waitangi-tribunal">the Waitangi Tribunal</a>, in 1975. The current framework for settling historical grievances focuses on the restitution of Article II rights: the taking of resources including land and the absence of protective measures regarding Māori culture. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.ots.govt.nz/">Office of Treaty Settlements</a>, the government entity responsible for negotiating agreements with iwi (tribes), 51 claims were settled between 1990 and 2014; three others dealt specifically with resources rather than being solely iwi-based; and another 35 are at various stages. </p>
<p>Each settlement contains financial and commercial redress, cultural redress and an apology for the offending acts.</p>
<p>The process is often criticised for being dependent on the government determining parameters of the settlement framework, and on the basis that settlements don’t necessarily equate to actual losses suffered by the iwi. Despite the iwi Ngai Tahu settling for NZ$170 million, for instance, the actual economic loss the tribe suffered is estimated at NZ$20 billion. </p>
<p>But it’s had positive outcomes too: the creation of <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11285705">an increasingly powerful Māori economy</a>, with iwi such as Tainui and Ngai Tāhu estimated to be worth NZ$1 billion in assets. Both iwi have attributed their success to property investment. </p>
<p>Crown apologies are received differently by various iwi. Some believe they aren’t important, while others consider an apology to be a significant part of the process that allows both parties to move forward.</p>
<h2>The conciliator, the media and education</h2>
<p>The Office of the Race Relations Conciliator was <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/your-rights/race-relations-and-diversity/">formed under the Race Relations Act 1971</a> and releases reports that serve as educational resources for the public. Its purpose is to “work to promote positive race relations”. </p>
<p>The office has dealt with a number of complaints that have generated national publicity. An example is the <a href="http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/nga-ropu-tautohetohe-maori-protest-movements/page-5">1979 He Taua incident</a>, when a Māori protest group confronted Auckland engineering students who mocked the haka.</p>
<p>But the most influential educational platform for indigenous reconciliation in New Zealand is the media, which have experienced something of a transformation since the 1990s. This reflects, to some extent, the growing awareness of treaty and Māori issues. </p>
<p>Trends that were commonplace in the media 30 years ago – such as the dearth of Māori broadcasters; poor pronunciation of Māori names and words; and, at times, racist reporting of stories involving Māori – are now largely absent. </p>
<p>This transformation also includes programming that focuses on Māori; <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-fourth-eye">Māori language being televised</a> by the main state broadcasting network; and <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=903965060557953;res=IELAPA">the establishment of Māori Television</a> in 2004.</p>
<p>Other public education platforms involve treaty educators, the education system and public education initiatives. Treaty educators, who are invited to present to communities or organisations on a largely voluntary basis, run workshops and produce multiple resources. </p>
<p>The public education system teaches material regarding Māori and the Waitangi Treaty, and also has readily available resources. It does all this despite the treaty <a href="http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Principles/Treaty-of-Waitangi">not being a compulsory educational component or course</a>, although the national curriculum:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… acknowledges the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In effect, public education initiatives have tended to fluctuate. And efforts over time have coincided with nationwide events and political policies, such as the 1990 sesquicentenary celebrations of the signing of the Waitangi Treaty, or the release of the 1995 Fiscal Envelope (the government policy to settle historical grievances).</p>
<h1>Lessons for other countries</h1>
<p>Lessons that other countries can learn from New Zealand’s experience of reconciliation is for indigenous people and governments to have a genuine and robust discussion at the outset of any attempt to resolve grievances. </p>
<p>The government established both the Waitangi Tribunal and the Fiscal Envelope with little or tokenistic consultation with Māori. An approach like this can result in recurring accusations of unfairness because one party clearly has more power when equality is needed for fair and enduring settlements. </p>
<p>Along with efforts to address the past that are satisfactory to both indigenous people and the government, there is the need to better educate the wider public. The New Zealand education system was monocultural for a long time, teaching all that was great about the British Empire with little or no attention to the poor treatment Māori had received. </p>
<p>This resulted in the majority of New Zealand citizens believing that race relations between Māori and the Crown had historically been harmonious, when that was clearly not the case. </p>
<p>Finally, a forum is needed where race issues can be raised and discussed in a mature and sensitive fashion. New Zealand has the Race Relations Conciliator, but that office has been criticised in the past for not having enough legislative clout to impose penalties. </p>
<p>Real progress toward indigenous reconciliation requires fairness and equality. </p>
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<p><em>This is the second article in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/indigenous-reconciliation">series on efforts towards indigenous reconciliation in settler countries around the world</a>. Look out for more snapshots of other countries’ progress in the coming days.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malcolm Mulholland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reconciliation efforts were established in New Zealand 30 years ago to tackle grievances stemming from government initiatives that have seen Māori lose both resources and power.Malcolm Mulholland, Senior Researcher in Maori Studies, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.