Tū iho nei, tākoto ake nei: Building Māori climate resilience from the ground up and the top down
Mike Smith presenting at the National Iwi Chairs Forum
The Climate Change Iwi Leaders Group was established four years ago during the November 2018 National Iwi Chairs Forum, where the new rōpū was tasked with the enormously important mandate of building Māori climate resilience.
Prominent Māori activist and professional Māori development leader, Mike Smith, has been working on weaving together the Te Ao Māori climate response, with the often purely science-driven world of climate change.
"The climate change challenge for Māori society is about sustainable living arrangements and development, as much as it is about natural hazards management such as risks associated with flooding, storms and coastal erosion," says Mike. “Our mission is to bring together engagement, understanding, empowerment and implementation to drive Māori-led climate resilience strategies.”
Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua, ko au – I am the land, and the land is me.
Hinekaa Mako presenting at the Tairawhiti Climate Summit 2020. Credit: Tina Ngata
Hinekaa Mako works with the Climate Change Iwi Leaders Group, saying climate change has been brought to the doorstep of many Māori communities - from flooding of marae, erosion of ancestral lands, and bush fires.
“The idea of extreme fire events used to evoke thoughts of the burning Amazon forest, the California wildfires, and Australian bushfires. Now, we think of events like the Port Hills fire, and the Pidgeon Valley bushfires in Nelson in 2018,” says Hinekaa. “Our climate has changed, and our job is to support Māori to mitigate the impact of these climate events on their lives, while also campaigning on behalf of Māori for the kind of change needed to mitigate climate change altogether.”
Māori are intrinsically connected to the land, its mountains, rivers and the underlying whakapapa which ties all together. Kaitiakitanga – guardianship – is a core value in Te Ao Māori, and much of Māori tikanga is rooted in respect to the land, the environment, and the native species. Climate change threatens these taonga, and the whakapapa that passed these values down.
“Returning to the way our ancestors orientated themselves and the relationships of our communities within our natural environments, we acknowledge whakapapa as the foundational framework to describe how we structure and prioritise our thinking now,” says Mike.
The CCILG engagement plan includes a series of iterative regional engagement hui while ongoing discussions will continue with nationwide networks and the Crown to develop a high-level strategy. It uses the Ātuatanga framework, consisting of the following pou:
MANA ĀTUA - the most significant authority of Ātuatanga, which resides and is manifest in the systems and structural integrity of our natural world.
MANA TANGATA - the authority of relationships between people and our organisations, with respect to Mana Ātua
MANA WHENUA - the decision-making authority to manage the natural resources, within the inter-relationships of Mana Tangata, with respect to Mana Ātua
Mā whero, mā pango ka oti ai te mahi - With red and black the work will be complete
For the Climate Change Iwi Leaders Group, a core part of the kaupapa includes engaging with iwi, whānau and hapū to advocate for Māori-led environmental decision making. This includes advocating for better environmental practices within households – recycling, low plastic use, transport decision-making – to engaging with iwi and rōpū to support and advise on regional and national climate change strategies.
“We set up these hui around the country, which we visit as guests at marae and other meeting places to engage with Māori around climate change,” says Hinekaa. “It’s not so much about creating big solutions, it’s more about starting the conversation and changing the mindsets of Māori towards climate change.”
Mauri o te Moana National Hui
“COVID really forced us to adapt and instead move many of these hui online, which in itself is reflective of climate change in a way,” says Hinekaa. “Already, we need to be making different decisions around the environmental cost of travel, which in this context was brought on due to a global pandemic. Pandemics in themselves can also be linked back to environmental causes. It’s all connected.”
Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua - As people disappear from sight, the land remains
Another area that the CCILG operates in, is Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. This involves creating interactive maps of spatial and geographic data, which can show the impact of climate change on ancestral lands at a geographic level. It can show things like which marae may find themselves underwater in the coming decades, or which rivers may dry up in future droughts, linked to the degree of global climate warming.
This information is developed in collaboration with ancestral knowledge of the land, scientists and experts, facilitated by the CCILG. It can help whānau, hapū and iwi to make decisions for the future of their lands and resources that may be affected by climate change.
The above image is of the Whanganui tidal river mouth, Whanganui town on the Northern side of the Awa & the small red icon on the South-East is Putiki Marae and surrounding papakainga. It includes many whānau homes, as well as the marae, the Kohanga Reo, Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Atihaunui ā Pāpārangi, kaumatua flats, historic church & urupā. This is Hinekaa’s Ūkaipō & where her mothers, mothers, mother is buried. - Image courtesy of IHIRANGI 2021
I orea te tuatara ka patu ki waho - A problem is solved by continuing to find solutions
Further, the CCILG engages in policy recommendations and advocacy work on behalf of Māori, with the Crown. Climate change is a challenging area to be operating in, and it can often be a crowded, technical space. Hinekaa acknowledges the need for a variety of institutions in Aotearoa to be working towards the same goal.
“Our approach to climate change is by-Māori, for-Māori, leaning into principles of rangatiratanga to guide our work,” says Hinekaa. “But we also need the Crown to be pulling its weight in the kāwanatanga sphere to mandate climate policy across its institutes in the right direction. Similarly, we also need the private sector to continue progressing the development of new climate technologies. The key is to have a common goal – which we should all have in regard to climate change.”
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari kē he toa takitini - My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, it was the success of a collective
Ngāti Haua
Another initiative being driven by the CCILG is the Ihirangi network. Ihirangi is a network of marae, whānau, wider hapū, Māori community organisations, iwi authorities, the Māori science community, Māori in civil defence and hazard response networks, and Māori in social, cultural, environmental networks.
“Ihirangi is focused on sharing information to build Māori climate networks, and crisis management capacity. We aim to provide a hub to connect and share resources, expertise and knowledge,” says Mike. “Our resilience planning and actions promote an integrated whole of society climate response with whānau, hapū, iwi Māori, Māori organisations, local and central government and non-government organisations.”
Hinekaa says that as their own approach to building indigenous climate resilience deepens, the team would like to share learnings and resources with other indigenous cultures across the globe.
“For centuries, indigenous populations were living across the globe, each with their own mātauranga and knowledge of how to care for the land they lived in,” says Hinekaa. “Indigenous cultures have been living in harmony with the land for generations. There is untapped knowledge and lessons to be shared across indigenous populations around the world that can greatly help us all to respond to climate change.”
The sense of kotahitanga (oneness), mohiotanga (knowledge sharing) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) in Māori climate resilience planning set it apart as a response to climate change. All of this is reflected in the CCILG’s dual-track approach.
Tū iho nei, tākoto ake nei: top-down, bottom-up.