SHARED LANDSCAPES: OWNERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE OF ŌHIWA HARBOUR (AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND) By Tanja Rother A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology Victoria University of Wellington 2016 Abstract This thesis explores narratives of property and ownership in natural resources, particularly common property resources such as the foreshore and seabed. Using the Ōhiwa Harbour as a case study, I investigate property relations between Māori, Pākehā and official agencies in respect to the natural environment in an evolving ‘third space’ in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this space, conflicting narratives on the ‘ownership’ of common property resources hold centre stage. This research addresses a gap in the literature concerning everyday Māori- Pākehā relations in owning and governing natural common goods, taking both the community and local government levels into account. Its principal questions are: How do property relations inform people’s capacity to act collectively across cultural meanings? How might intercultural communities utilise legal pluralism to facilitate decolonisation in natural resource governance? Can nature be given the agency it is sometimes declared to have? Overarching these and other research questions is an investigation of how far commoning has progressed in the case-study area and whether this might form the basis for new developments for the concept of the commons. Informed by theories relating to both the commons and institutions which embody collective action, I employ a three-layered approach to property that distinguishes cultural ideologies, legal-institutional frameworks of rights, and actual social relationships and practices. I show that this mixed theoretical and empirical approach can be usefully tested through in-depth ethnographic fieldwork. In particular, my participation in everyday interactions of kaitiaki, care groups and the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy partnership has revealed important nuances, synergies and differences between the different layers of property relations. I propose separate institutions for collective action are emerging at the community level that have started to borrow cultural concepts from each other, although their practices remain largely disconnected. At the local government level, too, the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy partnership embodies common and intercultural ownership and offers an important stage for iwi and hapū representation. There are rich ‘commoning’ opportunities at both the community and the local government levels for the exercise of transformative i power regarding the local normative order. The self- and multi-level governance of common properties such as the Ōhiwa Harbour could be fostered if ideas of the commons would be embraced more broadly, including at a national governmental level. The sense of shared ownership in the landscape that tāngata whenua and Pākehā express provides, moreover, opportunities to move beyond the formal Crown-Māori reconciliation processes that have largely excluded Pākehā. For these reasons alone, future research into the knowledge commons is crucial. The thesis contends that commons research in Aotearoa New Zealand needs to critically engage with concepts such as rangatiratanga, kaitiakitanga and stewardship, both per se and because their realisation appears to be a quest not only for Māori but for a growing number of Pākehā who question ongoing marketization and seek alternatives to public and private ownership. The thesis findings also point to other areas of research which could benefit from a commons approach, such as Pākehā and Māori memory of the transformation of landscapes, and issues related to farming, forestry and particularly freshwater. Based on an in-depth study of both the current imaginary of the commons, and practical progress on institutionalising collective action at Ōhiwa Harbour, this thesis contributes to and opens the way for future thinking on shared, socially and ecologically sustainable landscapes. ii Acknowledgments This PhD research would have not been possible without the generous support of many people. Foremost, I would like to thank all tāngata whenua and local people at Ōhiwa Harbour who welcomed me into their place so warmly and shared their knowledge, observations and activities with me. My sincere thanks are dedicated to the following people (in no particular order): Tim Senior, Trevor Ransfield, Margaret and Stuart Slade, Karen and David Steel, Rick Yorke, Meg and Mike Collins, Beverley Hughes, Ray Thompson, Derek Gosling, Te Kei Merito, Ian and Jenny Snowsill, Maude Edwards, Maui Manuel, Simon Stokes, Mike Houghton, Fiona Hennessey, Edward Gee, Mike Jones, Kenny MacCracken, Mithuna Sothieson, Christine Chambers, Andrew Glaser, Bridget Palmer, David and Theresa Gee, Brian Spake, Tom Teneti, Bruce Pukepuke, Sarah van der Boom, Aroha Wikotu, Richard Wikotu, Hugh Lovelock, Steve Napier, Eugene Hunia, Kero Te Pau, Wiki Mooney, Wallace Aramoana, Jeff Farrell, Pat Richardson, Geraldine and Ross Hulbert, Pete and Mary MacLaren, Victoria Radley, Susan Lee, Josie Mortensen, Tracey Hillier, Malcolm Whitaker, Jim (Toopi Kohere) Wikotu, Nika Rua, Tane Rakuraku, Kataraina Belshaw, Stephen Lamb, John Hohapata-Oke, Kura Paul-Burke, Phill Harris, Gill Browne, and Paul and Anne Robin. I gained a new personal understanding of what it means to feel attached to place from all of you. I would also like to thank Barbara MacLennan and Laurie Durand, and Meg Gaddum and Bob Wishart, who provided me with perfect homes to experience the Harbour. At Victoria University, I firstly thank my two supervisors Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich and Richard Hill. I am enormously grateful for your thorough feedback, continuous guidance, encouragement and the trust you had in me throughout this journey. I thank the academic staff at the School of Social and Cultural Studies and the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies for their interest and for providing inspiration for my work. I am grateful for having been able to learn from fellow students at the School, especially Tanja Schubert-McArthur and Rachael Fabish, and the ‘anthro ladies’. I would like to acknowledge the support I received from the School’s administrative team. I am also grateful for the financial support I received through the Victoria University PhD scholarship, submission scholarship and the various grants that allowed me to prepare and conduct my fieldwork, and present it at the International Association for the Study of the Commons’ 3rd iii European Regional Meeting, ‘From generation to generation – the use of commons in a changing society’ in Umeå, Sweden, in September 2014. I also thank Professor Graham Smith, Dr Huhana Smith, Franz and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Mark Derby, and Rapata Wiri for their input into my research. I am also hugely indebted to Tamika Simpson for her help with the editing and moral support, Sylee Gore, Alice O’Donoghue and Anna Turner-Major for their very generous proofreading efforts, and my dear friend Ulrike Krüger who also helped with the proofreading. I thank Geraldine Hulbert for her assistance in transcribing interviews. My parents, brother, family and friends in Germany and Aotearoa New Zealand, thank you for your love and encouragement. Last but not least, I thank Tilmann Loewe, my love, whom I met half-way through this journey, for being there for me when I needed him and grounding me in the final phase of writing this thesis. I end these acknowledgements with the first whakataukī (proverb) I learnt in Te Reo Māori: Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. With your basket and my basket the people will thrive. Tēnā koutou katoa – Thank you to you all. iv Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments................................................................................................................. iii List of Te Reo Māori words and concepts ............................................................................. vi List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... viii Part One: Researching the Ownership and Governance of Common Property ........................ 1 1.1 Theoretical Framework and Key Concepts ...................................................................... 2 1.2 Literature Review and Research Context ...................................................................... 17 1.3 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 26 1.4 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 27 Part One - Concluding Remarks and Thesis Outline ............................................................ 40 Part Two: People and the ‘Common Property’ of Ōhiwa Harbour .......................................... 42 2. People and Experience of Place .................................................................................... 43 3. The Human Appropriation of Ōhiwa Harbour .............................................................. 60 3.1 Polynesian Conquest and European Colonisation .................................................... 61 3.2 Current Property Relations ......................................................................................