Te Ao Māori

= Te Awaroa: project for restoring New Zealand rivers

Description

Anne Salmond:

The health and well-being of rivers and streams across New Zealand is a matter of deep and rising concern for most New Zealanders. Communities, farmers, industry and iwi (Māori descent groups) are making the restoration of their waterways a high priority, but in most cases, they operate independently. Rivers run from mountains to the sea, through forests, farms, towns and cities, and their well-being must be a shared concern.

This project is inspired by Māori philosophies and mātauranga (ancestral knowledge) about waterways, along with the environmental sciences, internet technologies and the science of complex networks. The research team will seek to understand how best to foster new relationships among people, land and waterways that will contribute to prosperous, successful futures.

In the relational universe of Te Ao Māori (the Maori world), people are one element in the cosmic genealogical web known as whakapapa, linked with all other life-forms.The tears of Rangi (the Sky Father) became the first streams and rivers, the lifeblood of the land. Rivers are a wellspring of identity, binding people with the land.

In the Land and Water Forum, a convergence between iwi ideas and values about fresh water, the environmental sciences and relational thinking from the West became evident, with the participants discovering a surprising degree of common ground.

This project proposes to explore this convergence through two pilot studies of waterways restoration – Ōkahu Bay in Auckland with Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrakei and the Waimatā River along with its iwi and other stakeholders near Gisborne. The first catchment is heavily urbanized and modified, and the second is influenced by rural and urban processes.

We plan to investigate how cutting-edge scientific techniques and the science of complex networks can be combined with kaitiaki (guardianship) practices and online media to generate effective problem-solving networks that re-engage communities with their rivers, and restore these vital waterways to a state of ora – health and well-being.

This study will be a pilot for a wider ‘Whaiora’ research programme that will involve other researchers through Nga Pae o te Maramatanga Centre for Research Excellence and Te Whare Kura research grouping at The University of Auckland. This will seek to draw upon mātauranga (ancestral knowledge) and environmental and social sciences to investigate relations between people, land, sea and waterways that contribute to their prosperity and well-being."