Addressing environmental degradation is complex and expensive, and at times an almost insurmountable task. Irrespective of the challenges it is important that active kaitiaki continue to strive towards more sustainable land use practices (CS03/38363) and the ideal of a healthier and more vibrant ancestral landscape:
Some of them writing it off and say, we’ll never get back to that but a lot are saying it is not that long ago that I can remember it, we can get back there. But it is about having that dreaming as well. (CS04/29710)
Adoption of practices that are more cognisant of and mitigate the negative effects of land use activities on the surrounding environment is another option. Diversification could be one option to encourage land use practices that are more consistent with kaitiakitanga (CS03/36413) and as one participant argued this is an area where hapū need to lead by example:
Actually we might be better off putting that land [currently farmed] to inanga spawning. You can do it very cheaply. It is also a way of saying to the community to environmental groups… to everybody, its leading, leading by example. Creating a resource that all of our whānau can partake in. So it might not have a direct financial benefit to any particular group but as far as instilling some of those older values, I think more diversification, not let’s just do farming. (CS03/38363)
Sustainable farming or at least practices that mitigate environmental degradation could be pursued (CS04/34552). Participants in this study placed an emphasis on thinking more creatively about land use options. Land users need to take more responsibility for the affects of their action and be more respectful of the interests of others, “We need to be a bit more sensible, we’ve
become greedy... we have to pull back a bit and make some compromises”
(CS04/34390). However, despite the notion of kaitiakitanga providing hapū with a sound basis for culturally appropriate interactions with the environment, it is not a simple task or easy to influence the behaviour of others to ensure that kaitiakitanga is a key driver of land use practices, “There’s an assumption that
we [the landowner] can tell farmers [the leasee] what to do... fence off your stock. Don’t spray. The reality is that we can’t” (CS08/4085).
CONCLUSION
As discussed throughout this thesis, the introduction of colonial economy and settler government facilitated the transformation of the Aotearoa New Zealand physical, political and cultural landscapes modifying not only the environment, but also introducing substantial change to Māori culture, knowledge and practices. Developments in the agricultural sector afforded the greatest threat to the values and practices of kaitiakitanga through the introduction of a new system of resource use and development that was underpinned by economic development and commodification of natural resources. This position remains a fundamental driver today and continues to
impinge on a shift towards land use practices that are more cognisant of kaitiakitanga and sustainable development.
Māori participation in agriculture was initially self motivated to capitalise on opportunities presented by contact with Europeans. As the colonial state was established resource use and management was driven by legislation and policies that facilitated the exploitation of natural resources, the antithesis of kaitiakitanga, and Māori were encouraged to comply. Use of land in Māori title
was restricted to transfer of title or productive agricultural use and required hapū to discard customary values and practices related to the access and use of the ancestral landscape. Māori environmental knowledge, ways of knowing and associated practice became fragmented and its development disrupted. This change in relationship with the environment also had significant consequences for Māori authority and the stability of Māori social institutions.
As European notions of land tenure and land use began to dominate resource use and management in Aotearoa New Zealand Māori relationships with whenua began to change. Through coercion Māori became active participants in the agricultural industry and complicit partners in the transformation of the ancestral landscape contributing to resource depletion and environmental degradation. Therefore Māori have a social responsibility to be part of the process to address these issues.
Alienation from the ancestral landscape was a common experience for Māori communities. As a consequence opportunities to continue customary activities and practices declined as Māori authority was undermined. Māori did protest challenges to their authority however the growth in European numbers and the presence of instruments of the state established European control over the natural environment. Māori became powerless to continue to exercise a substantive measure of kaitiakitanga.
Political pressure from Māori to recognise and provide for Māori authority has been a sustained feature of Māori-Crown relations. In the area of environmental policy this has been encapsulated in efforts to gain recognition of and provisions for kaitiakitanga. Such claims for the contemporary expression of customary practices and activities are based on the value and importance that hapū still apply to the ancestral landscape.
The Whakaki Lake case study combined with active kaitiaki experiences and aspirations related to restoring the mauri of lakes and waterways indicate that hapū have retained a strong sustainability culture - Toitūtanga. The concept of Toitūtanga is used in this doctoral thesis to refer to the capacity of whenua to contribute to the continuance and sustainability of Māori culture, social units and identity. The base word toitū is taken from the whakatauki ―whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua‖, literally ―people pass on but the land remains.‘ A more elegant translation that better captures the essence of the concept of toitū is ―...as the light of the eve and the life of living things fade from sight, only the land is seen to remain, constant and enduring‖ (Waitangi Tribunal, 1988b, p. preface). Therefore Toitūtanga is related to constancy and endurance and references the resilience of communities and the retention of the life sustaining capacity of the ancestral landscape.
The concept of toitū within a cosmo-genealogical narrative also reinforces the critical importance of sustainability – ―toitū te marae a Tane, toitū te marae a Tangaroa, toitū te iwi.‖ Ropata Taylor translates this passage as, ―...when the realm of Tane and the domains of Tangaroa are sustained so too is
the future of humanity‖ (Taylor, 2006, p. 3). Again a central theme is the maintenance of the mauri of the whenua. Therefore the term toitūtanga is able to encapsulate key precepts related to a Māori understanding of the environment that enhance mauri171 and emphasise continuity and reciprocity.
This chapter has argued that a primary function of whenua continues to be the nurturing, shaping and grounding of whānau, hapū and iwi who have maintained a long and reciprocal association with place. Links to whenua continues to ground hapū within a geographical space, facilitating a connection to tupuna, supporting claims to contemporary tribal authority, and providing a basis for spiritual and cultural identity, and customary practices and activities. It is argued that these connections are highly valued and critical for providing the basis and motivation for acting in a manner consistent with kaitiakitanga. This study confirms that retaining the mauri of the ancestral landscape remains a key role of contemporary practitioners of kaitiakitanga and that the survival and prosperity of the hapū is linked to the ability to protect the mauri of whenua. I have argued that maintaining mana whenua is dependent on establishing an intimacy with the ancestral landscape and that kaitiakitanga activities are preoccupied with enhancement and protection. While the practices used to express kaitiakitanga may have altered, the primary cosmo-genealogical directive of toitū te whenua, toitū te tangata, remains.
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