https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8501-8714
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Abstract
In settler-colonial nations such as Aotearoa, New Zealand, ecosystem degradation and restoration of coastal estuaries and their catchments are typically framed through a scientific lens and often privilege patriarchal beliefs and epistemologies. A consequence of colonization in Aotearoa is that sediment(ation) pollution is deemed undesirable, and science is needed to control and solve such ecosystem challenges. However, there remains a tendency to prioritize science over other ways of knowing. Therefore, ecosystem management strategies and restoration practices fail to attend to the dynamics of social differentiation within Indigenous groups concerning settler-colonial power. Indigenous peoples bring nuanced ways of knowing and being whereby relational ontologies and ethics are imperative starting points. Relational ontologies reshape knowledge production to ensure more ethical and just relationships with nature. We use an intersectional lens to highlight the gendered, ethnic, and natured dimensions of sediment(ation) pollution. We show how pollution manifests differently across intimate scales (body, local), demonstrating the far-reaching effects of settler-colonialism violence. This article presents Indigenist geo-creative narratives from four Māori women regarding their lived experiences and realities of sediment(ation) pollution. Using practices familiar to and chosen by them, narratives are richly nuanced, political and recalled in relational and affective terms. We intend to disrupt and bring forth a relational vision of sediment(ation) pollution as a socially just and equitable way of managing and restoring ecosystems.
在定居殖民地国家&#(例如&#,新西兰的奥特罗亚&#)&#,通常是从科学的角度去研究海岸河口及流域的生态系统退化和恢复&#,这一过程也往往给父权的信仰和认识论赋以特权。奥特罗亚殖民的后果是不可接受的沉积物&#(沉积&#)污染&#,需要用科学来控制和解决这种生态系统挑战。然而&#,依然存在着科学凌驾于其它认知方法的倾向。因此&#,生态系统管理策略和恢复行为&#,未能考虑土著群体内部在定居者殖民权力上的社会分化。土著民族带来了认知和存在的微妙方法&#,而关系本体论和伦理是这些方法的必然出发点。关系本体论重塑了知识创造&#,确保了更加道德和公正的人与自然关系。我们通过交叉角度&#,强调了沉积物污染的性别、种族和自然化维度。展示了污染在亲密尺度上&#(身体、局部&#)的不同体现以及定居殖民主义暴力的深远影响。利用土著地理创造性叙述&#,我们介绍了四位毛利妇女对沉积物&#(沉积&#)污染的经历和现实。通过选择自己熟悉的方式&#,她们的叙述在关系和情感上体现了丰富的差别性、政治性和回忆性。我们旨在破除并提出沉积物&#(沉积&#)污染的一种关系愿景&#,作为管理和恢复生态系统的社会公正和公平的方式。
En las naciones de colonización con pobladores tales como Aotearoa (Nueva Zelanda), la degradación de los ecosistemas y la restauración de las costas estuarinas y de sus cuencas se enmarcan típicamente a través de una lente científica, a menudo privilegiando creencias y epistemologías patriarcales. Una consecuencia de la colonización de Aotearoa es que la polución por sedimentos y sedimentación se considera indeseable, dejándosele a la ciencia la responsabilidad de controlar y resolver estos retos en los ecosistemas. Sigue vigente la tendencia a dar prioridad a la ciencia sobre otras formas de conocimiento. Por eso, las estrategias del manejo de ecosistemas y las prácticas de su restauración no tienen en cuenta las dinámicas de la diferenciación social dentro de los grupos indígenas, en lo que concierne al poder de los colonos. Los pueblos indígenas contribuyen formas matizadas de conocer y ser en las que ontologías y éticas relacionales son puntos de partida imperativos. Las ontologías relacionales reconfiguran la producción de conocimiento para garantizar unas relaciones más éticas y justas con la naturaleza. Usamos una lente interseccional para relievar las dimensiones de género, étnicas y naturales de la polución por sedimentos y por sedimentación. Mostramos cómo la polución se manifiesta de manera diferente a través de las escalas íntimas (corporal, local), para demostrar los efectos de largo alcance de la violencia del colonialismo con pobladores. Este artículo presenta las narrativas geo-creativas de cuatro mujeres maorí en relación con sus vivencias y las realidades de la polución por sedimentos y sedimentación. Usando prácticas con las cuales están familiarizados, escogidas por ellos mismos, las narrativas aparecen ricamente matizadas, tienen cariz político y se recuerdan en términos relacionales y afectivos. Nuestra intención es perturbar y traer a la palestra una visión relacional de la contaminación por sedimentos y por sedimentación como forma socialmente justa y equitativa de manejar y restaurar ecosistemas.
GlossaryFootnote23
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Leane would like to thank ngā wahine o Kaipara, who shared their stories, lived realities, vulnerabilities, good and bad experiences. Thank you for the support and encouragement from the two anonymous reviewers and editorial support from Dr Deborah Dixon. Thank you. Nga mihi nui! This research has ethical approval from the University Of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee 018806.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Leane: conceptualisation, design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript style and writing, manuscript reviews. Karen and Meg: proof-reading. Aleesha, Vicky, Jane, and Te Kahui-iti: data collection, methodological practices, narrative style and writing, proof-reading.
Supplementary Materials
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.
Notes
1. This includes Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, the United States of America, and Canada.
2. With the intent to socialize the ecology via language and words we have utilized the term “sediment(ation) pollution” in contrast to sedimentation or sediment or pollution, which captures a biophysical process elevated to an anthropogenic process. All are common scientific terms used heavily in the Kaipara moana and Aotearoa; in policy, practice, education and knowledge transfer. Sedimentation and pollution are biophysical processes that, we argue, continue to portray a separation from ecologies and biologies, cultures and societies. “Sediment(ation) pollution” is a decolonizing (re)naming to push back on a scientific language and representation of matter that has a cosmos, whakapapa, and has agency; and in a co-constituted relationship with the intimate body. We endeavor to create a relational trigger for the reader, researcher/researched rather than presenting a term that feels distant, unexplainable and separatist.
3. Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa, are known as tangata whenua literally translated as the people of the land.
4. See Makey (Citation2021).
5. In the Māori creation narrative, Papatūānuku is the first female entity, followed by Hine-ahu-one, who was created out of clay by Tāne at Kurawaka and was women of the Earth. The next Atua wahine (goddess) is Hine-tītama, the first human form, who fled to the underworld and became Hine-nui-te-pō after discovering that her husband, Tāne, was also her father. Whenua is the term for natural earth or land. It is also the term for placenta thus whenua is a constant reminder that Māori women are born out of the womb of the primeval mother Papatūānuku (Marsden Citation2003).
6. In contemporary society, healthy soils contain the spiritual life-force essence known as mauri that flows through this complicated whakapapa relationship, and which symbolizes the bond that holds the universe together (Marsden Citation2003, 44). Human activity can diminish or enhance and uphold the mana of soil (Hutchings, Smith, and Harmsworth Citation2018). For those dependent on healthy natural ecosystems, relations with mauri is what matters; mutually living with the nonhuman world where the affective dimension of spirituality matters.
7. The lead author, a nonIndigenous woman, has collaborated on various environmental projects and issues in her role as IKHMG coordinator and as co-researcher/-participant and has worked alongside Aleesha, Te Kahui-iti, Vicky, and Jane in both roles.
8. This included photographs, film, media (social, print), reports, books and writings; also, gifts, awards and Integrated Kaipara Harbor Management Group (IKHMG Citation2010) tee-shirts and other products or materials produced for their restoration programme.
9. Such as use of the Māori language, access to customary lands, participation in tribal activities, and inclusion in family celebrations (Durie Citation2004).
10. Resource consent for 35 years was granted (Te Uri o Hau Settlement Trust Citation2011, Energy News Citation2012)
11. Composed by Hirini Melbourne and most well-known protest songs from the 1980s, to highlight Māori rights, racial discrimination and injustices carried out by the New Zealand government (Sheehan Citation2016).
12. For land use, resource use and development and growth.
13. Deprivation comprises material and social aspects, in which material deprivation referred to the goods, services, resources, amenities, physical and living environments, while social deprivation comprised the roles, relationships, functions, customs, rights and responsibilities of membership of society and its subgroups. We note that concepts of cultural wellbeing (such as assemblages of relations between people, morethanhuman, places and material objects) are not included in the index, therefore does not adequately provide a robust indicator of the social-material status of Māori men, women and children (Panelli and Tipa Citation2007). Within this context, individuals can therefore experience multiple forms of deprivation and they may have a cumulative effect (Exeter et al. Citation2017, 19). There is a high level of deprivation in areas of the Kaipara. A significant portion of the Kaipara District ranks 7 on the deprivation scale where 10 is the most deprived population which is Y’s area.
14. For reading on this examples include: (Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee Citation2018; Ngā Ripo Whānau Ora Collective Citation2017; Smale Citation2019; The Treasury Citation2016; Waitangi Tribunal Citation2019a, Citation2019b; CitationYong etal. na).
15. Due to the depth of this subject we can not fully detail here in this article but is the focus of a further publication by the authors.
16. A group of Māori and Pākēha wahine sat together to talk, share, tell and show. Aleesha is part of this group and at one nohonoho Aleesha used sculpture storywork. Her work process included encouraging the joining in and participation of other wahine so that they are part of her story (Figure 4).
17. Refer to Glossary for translation of Māori language into English.
18. We define knowledge production as knowing, being and doing.
19. Included homes, marae, restoration sites and degraded sites, and places of work.
20. For area or location, defined as “a state of observable and demonstrable disadvantage relative to the local community or the wider society or nation to which an individual, family or group belongs” (Exeter et al. Citation2017, 19). Index uses indicators of non-home ownership and non-car ownership, employment, crime, and income, access to services like medical, supermarkets, and schools.
21. See Supplemental Material.
22. Mana whenua name for the Cape Reinga Peninsula of the far north, North Island, Aotearoa.
23. Many translations sourced from https://māoridictionary.co.nz/.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Leane Makey
LEANE MAKEY is a critical social-environmental researcher in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]. Her first post-graduate degree was in marine ecology at James Cook University of Queensland, Australia. Her research interests include nature-culture discourses (onto-epistemologies, practices) and intersectionality research in ecosystem-based management, restoration practices, and problematising challenges. She has been a practitioner in this space both in New Zealand and Australia and is still working alongside Indigenous peoples and communities to assist with implementing their ideology of ecosystem management and restoration.
Karen Fisher
KAREN FISHER (Māori/Pākehā, iwi affiliations: Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui) is an Associate Professor in the School Environment at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]. She is a human geographer with research interests in environmental governance and the politics of resource use. She has been involved in a number of collaborative transdisciplinary research projects that focus on knowledge production for sustainability in the context of freshwater and marine environments in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her current research involves applying intersectional feminist and postcolonial theories to explore the creation and implementation of new co-governance arrangements between Māori iwi (tribes) and the New Zealand Government over the management of rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Meg Parsons
MEG PARSONS is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]. As a self-described Māori/Pākehā/Other hybrid her research reflects her ambiculturality and diverse life experiences. Her research journey started as an undergraduate studying history and human geography at the University of Waikato before undertaking her PhD at the University of Sydney, and she worked extensively in Australia before returning to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2013. Her current research draws on decolonial and feminist theorising to explore how Indigenous and other marginalised people conceptualise and respond to changing environmental conditions, and the ways in which Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies are considered in environmental governance and management.
Aleesha Bennett
ALEESHA BENNETT is a descendant of the iwi Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine. Born and bred in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has lived in the Kaipara moana region for 20 years and currently resides in Dargaville with her family. E-mail: [email protected]. She has worked for Nga Whenua Rahui and Department of Conservation on pest and weed management projects and more recently delivering a Kaipara hapū ecosystem health monitoring programme for Kaipara youth, growing and (re)planting sand dune lake catchments. She is passionate about the environment and looking after what we have for future generations. Mauriora.
Vicky Miru
VICKY MIRU is of the iwi Te Uri o Hau, from Tinopai and Pouto on the Kaipara harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]. She is a teacher of Māori waiata and kapa haka or singing, song writing and dance performance. Vicky is active in delivering a Kaipara hapū ecosystem health monitoring programme for Kaipara youth, and working with local schools to grow and (re)plant coastal edges and waterways of the Kaipara moana.
Te Kahui-iti Morehu
TE KAHUI-ITI MOREHU (iwi affiliations: Te Taou, Ngāti Whātua Tuturu). Born and breed in Kaipara. E-mail: [email protected]. Was taught to read and write by her grandfather, Eriapa Uruamo, by candlelight in a humble dirt floor, two roomed bach at Whenuanui where she was bought up by her grandparents with three of her cousins. On behalf of her whanau, Te Kahui-iti negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi settlement of historical grievances and the future prosperity of the hapū. Te Kahui-iti operates Wahi Awhina in Te Awaroa every Wednesday to Friday where all secondhand goods are free.
Jane Sherard
JANE SHERARD (iwi affiliations: Te Taou, Ngāti Whātua Tuturu, Te Uri o Hau) supports and advocates her whanau, hapū, and iwi perspective in governance and management roles such as working with local and national government, and the Kaipara Moana Remediation Programme Joint Committee. With a Diploma in Advanced Management (2010) and Diploma in Māori Governance and Leadership (2017) Jane is involved with Kaipara sustainable business opportunities and furthering kaitiakitanga capacity and capability. She was recently elected by her peers to Nga Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara Development Trust. Jane is connected to Ōtakanini-Haranui and Reweti marae. E-mail: [email protected].