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THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PROTECTION OF AUTHOR ’S COPYRIGHT This copy has been supplied by the Library of the University of Otago on the understanding that the following conditions will be observed: 1. To comply with s56 of the Copyright Act 1994 [NZ], this thesis copy must only be used for the purposes of research or private study. 2. The author's permission must be obtained before any material in the thesis is reproduced, unless such reproduction falls within the fair dealing guidelines of the Copyright Act 1994. Due acknowledgement must be made to the author in any citation. 3. No further copies may be made without the permission of the Librarian of the University of Otago. August 2010 KINDLING TIKANGA ENVIRONMENTALISM: THE COM1t10N GROUND OF NATIVE CULTURE AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP Robb Young Hirsch A thesis submitted for the degree of Master ofArts in Geography at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. May 2, 1997 ABSTRACT An innovative regime combining native culture and democracy in community fisheries management has crystallized in New Zealand. While researchers have looked into co­ management of natural resources between communities and governments, and various studies have isolated indigenous ecologies on one hand and highlighted environmentalism in modem society on another, no substantial research has gauged the opportunities for indigenous peoples and the wider citizenry of democratic-capitalistic societies to collaborate as cultures in concert with the environment. This study establishes an international context for such an assessment and explores a national foundation for this cooperation based on tribal heritage and democratic institutions pertaining to environmental law. The primary research, involving local experimentation, concerns the viability of the novel cooperative endeavor called Taiapure-local fishery. I discovered in the principal trial communities in the North and South Islands that its design is compelling if properly understood. Yet the salience of the regime is hampered by external pressures from the commercial fishing industry, control by central government, and by internal lack of solidarity and trust. I conclude that human relationships and the leadership of local people are the keys to success of the New Zealand model and its wider dynamics. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Forecast: Growing Problems; a Native and Civil Solution .... ! Introduction 1, Dilemma of Expansionism 3, Environmental and Tribal Voices 6, A Path Home 8. II. Methodology ..................................................... 19 Finding a Niche: Lessons and Departures from Known Approaches to Culture and Environment 19, Native Environmentalism 22, A People and Place 23. III. Heritage of Maori Cultural Relations in the Natural World ............................................ 29 Beginning 29, Harvesting 34, Grown Accustomed to the Environment 38, A Grounding in Communalism 42, A Natural Way 48, Spiritual-Meta-Physical Relations 53, Tikanga Environmentalism 62. IV. Legacy of Institutional Preservations amidst Historical Change ....................................... 66 Meeting of Waters 66 (From the Treaty to Alienation 68, Persistent Reclamation 70), Continuities in Law and Legislation 70 (Titi Legacy 70, Settling on Mahinga Kai 73, A Legacy in Cultural-Natural Heritage 75, Tikanga Jurisprudence? 77, Resources, Responsibilities and Rangatiratanga 83). V. The Case of Fisheries ........................................... 87 Historical Perspective 87, Commercial Developments 90, A Customary Trade-Off and Opportunity 97, Shields 101 (Aboriginal Title/Tinirau I, Residual Obligations/ Mahinga Mataitai, Treaty Pillars/Taiapure). VI. Prospects for Cross Cultural, Community Management of In-Shore Fisheries .......................................... 107 Forms of Policy 107, Environmental Well-being in Cultural Commons 111. VII. New Zealand's First Taiapure-Local Fishery at Palliser Bay (South Wairarapa, North Island) ............ 116 A Son of the Sun 116, Heritage of the Place and the People 118, New Comers and Local Commercial Perspectives 121, Getting the Ball Rolling 126, Implementation 131, "Give it to the Young People" 134. VIII. A Seed of the South Island (Coastal Otago) ................. 137 Newspaper Politics 137, Interview with the Spokesman 139, Descent of the Local People 142, Listening to the Elders 146 (Brotherhood of Commercial Fishing 149, Recreational Voices 150), Maori Offerings 152 (Taiapure Proposal152, Behind the Written Word 153, View from the Meeting House 155, Kaitiaki Management 157), Wariness or Oneness 159. I X. Promise of Bringing Home Native Culture and Democratic Citizenship ................................... 165 Results 165 (Local level 165, Nationwide 166), Opportunities 167 (Worldwide Foundations for Cooperation 167), Challenges 170, Responsibilities 17 4 (Public Officials 174, Indigenous Peoples 178, Wider Citizenry 177), Promises 179 (Old and Young, Education of Association, Habituating Harmony), Home 183. X. Bibliography ................................................... 185 ) ~I ,( ·' Dedicated to all cultivators of integrity ,( ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Being here in New Zealand and doing this work in many ways has been a dream come true for me. In my life so far, there are less than a handful of occasions that I can say this about and thus I feel tremendous gratitude. I am grateful to have had the opportunity that was formalized by the Fulbright program. It is an honor to have participated in its legacy of fostering greater peace and understanding through international education and cultural exchange. The idea of this thesis is what earned the fellowship and that the sponsors deemed me qualified to carry it out, I truly appreciate. The two professors and gentlemen from the University of Otago who advised me along the way deserve respectful acknowledgment: Ali Memon, for patiently and prudently backing me from the project's uncertain inception through the development of ,, fieldwork; Peter Holland, for helping me roam common ground effectively and presentably. My concentrated work was done out on the far end of the Otago Peninsula at Otakou Marae and Penguin Place. Those special places inspired me and I thank, respectively, the Maori and Pakeha who made such cherished stays there possible. Furthermore, the anecdotal research I did in two communities of the North and South Island would not have happened if it were not for the local people welcoming me in and divulging their views so openly. All in all I am touched by New Zealand's hospitality, both from the people and the surroundings, and encouraged to respond in kind back in America. Finally I am thankful to my family and friends from home who have supported me without judgment on my heart's flight and who have been here with me emotionally to share in the experience. I FORECAST: GROWING PROBLEMS; A NATIVE AND CIVIL SOLUTION This thesis argues that an environmentalism based on native culture and democratic citizenship offers humanity a way of peaceable belonging in the modem world. The notion of indigenous peoples and westernized societies working together as custodians of the environment may give rise to skepticism, particularly over the dominant society's willingness to transform its ideology to correspond with another way of being. In his writings about Native American wildlife relationships, Calvin Martin concludes, The Indian's was a profoundly different cosmic vision when it came to interpreting ;r Nature -- a vision Western man would never adjust to. There can be no salvation in the Indian's traditional conception of Nature for the troubled environmentalist ... we are confronting here an alien ideology of land-use which is antithetical to the central dogmas of Christianity. And I simply cannot imagine how the two views are capable of reconciliation. The receptor society will tend to keep the alien form ... separate from ... the analogous form ... The traditional native ideology of land-use will not be acceptable to, and is incapable of adoption by, Western man (1978, 187; citing Barnett, 1940 and 1942). This questioning poses another quandary: viz, whether indigenous peoples have the disposition to join with their western counterparts. After a recent history of little choice in the matter, many indigenous people feel indignant about integration and claim that to survive as a distinct culture they need to maintain isolation or self determination. Others have assimilated or been acculturated to the extent that they have forgotten their roots and live unaware of the potential for mutuality. The argument for collaboration that unfolds in this thesis is more promising because the cultural change being advocated is interactive. The western world cannot be expected to take on a completely different mentality, just as indigenous people should not be forced to discard their heritage and assimilate into the mainstream of society. Such change is unjust in one case and unrealistic in the other. At the other extreme, obstinacy and determination not to change is neither constructive nor conducive. to meaningful existence. For better or worse, indigenous peoples are surrounded by a preponderant modernity. The challenge is to embrace its elements in ways that enhance cultural integrity. Likewise, the western world has the evocative challenge to adapt its prevailing culture to other ways: E Pluribus Unum. This thesis affirms that a dynamic equilibrium, where members of indigenous and westernized cultures are receptive to and resolute about change for the common

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