Kaitiakitanga: How Māori are leading the way on environmentalism and sustainability
Poipoia te kakano, kia puawai - Nurture the seed and it will blossom
From species like the delicate hīhī birds through to our mighty kauri trees – many of our native taonga are under threat.
For hundreds of years, Māori have safeguarded native species like these, and upheld the value of kaitiakitanga – guardianship. The environment and all its taonga are considered sacred, directly linked to a person’s whakapapa through the surrounding maunga, awa, and moana that have each played a role in nurturing Māori. These treasures are considered ancestors in their own right and must be protected and treated with respect.
Image credit: Department of Conservation – Inquisitive Kea checks out a camera
In the pre-settler era, Māori ensured their hunting, fishing, and food growing practices were in line with protecting and sustaining the environment. These practices included only hunting and fishing for food and not sport, only trapping birds in seasons when they weren’t breeding, and placing rāhui on areas where native flora and fauna needed to replenish. The link between the mauri (life force) of the whenua and the wellbeing of the people was a defining value in how Māori lived in harmony with the land.
The state of environmental decline in the years following colonisation is indisputable. Many native species have been lost to hunting, invasive pest species and disease introduction. The climate has warmed in line with the rest of the world, leading to rising sea levels, eroding coastlines, and wildfires.
Climate change response and conservation initiatives are becoming prevalent around Aotearoa and many Māori rōpū are leading the way. Māori respectfully lived in harmony with the environment before many of the challenges it faces today arose, and Māori must be a part of the solution here in Aotearoa.
Para Kore
Established in 2008, Para Kore - meaning Zero Waste - seeks to equip Māori organisations such marae, kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa, and wānanga with strategies to become zero waste.
Para Kore provides an innovative education programme for whānau, hapū, and iwi that equips participating rōpū with the knowledge to transform their communities towards a zero-waste future. This includes moving up the waste hierarchy, building a circular economy, increasing biodiversity, supporting climate justice and action, regenerating ecosystems and importantly, igniting the collective aspiration to return to a Zero Waste Aotearoa.
Since Para Kore was founded:
531 rōpū (marae, community organisations, kura, kōhanga reo, whare karakia) currently signed up with Para Kore
Para Kore is available in 16 regions throughout Aotearoa
Para Kore rōpū are achieving a 67% reduction in waste
More than 571,670 kilograms (571.67 tonnes) of waste has been diverted from the landfill
The Para Kore whānau are passionate about and committed to a carbon-neutral, zero waste Aotearoa that rebalances our connections with Ranginui and Papatūānuku.
Kai Ika and Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae
He kai te rongoā, he rongoā te kai - Food is medicine and medicine is food. This is the guiding principle of the Kai Ika initiative. In Aotearoa, tonnes of fish heads and frames are discarded each year, despite still being a viable source of kaimoana – seafood.
Fishing advocacy group LegaSea teamed up with Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae a few years ago, delivering surplus fish frames and heads to the marae to be distributed amongst whānau. In the past three years they've delivered about 90,000 kilograms of fish heads and frames to the marae.
Moana New Zealand, a Māori-owned fishing company is now involved, giving enough fresh fish heads and frames to hundreds of families at the marae weekly.
Tūhoe Tuawhenua Trust
Tūhoe Tuawhenua Trust is a Māori organisation based deep in the bush of Ruatāhuna Valley on the East Coast. They run a sustainable honey company, Manawa Honey, to generate an income stream to fund their rangatahi programme, Te Whare o Rehua. This programme works to connect tamariki and rangatahi with kaiako (tutors) in traditional Māori skills and mātauranga sharing.
One of the streams of this programme includes teaching the next generation the traditional environmental management skills of their ancestors. Rangatahi are taken into the bush for weekend trips where they are taught about native species in the area, sustainable food harvesting, and conservation practices like pest trapping.
Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata, haere whakamua – Care for the land, care for the people, go forward.
One of the brilliant trends we see across the rōpū Te Kāwai Toro are privileged to work with is, is how the practices of caring for the land and caring for the people intersect. Even in these modern examples, we see how caring for the land by minimising waste and teaching environmental traditions, is also often a way to care for the people.
Often sustainability practices are at the heart of all that Māori do. A lot can be learned from Māori on how we treat the whenua and world around us, as well as each other.
Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi – with your basket, and my basket, the people will thrive.