Enabling mtauranga-informed management of the Kaipara Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand

摘要

The Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group (IKHMG) promotes the integrated management, inter-agency coordination and kaitiakitanga of the Kaipara Harbour and its catchment. Led by the hap (subtribe) Te Uri o Hau, the group is a collective of stakeholders and community. In 2013, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) and Te Uri o Hau examined the IKHMG to understand what enables and hinders mtauranga-informed management of the Kaipara Harbour. A review of literature relating to mtauranga and environmental resource management found a myriad of issues in integrating indigenous knowledge with science, or with indigenous knowledge holders working with scientists and/or resource managers. Our cross-cultural collaborative research examined to what extent the IKHMG overcame these issues and incorporated mtauranga into planning and decision-making. We make the case that the challenge facing cross-cultural integrated catchment programmes should not be so much how to integrate indigenous knowledge into resource management' but how to integrate indigenous knowledge holders into planning and decision-making' to enable indigenous knowledge holders to articulate management in their own terms as an expression of self-determination. Glossary of Maori words: atua: deity; hap: sub-tribe; Iwi: tribe; Kaitiaki: local hap resource managers; Kaitiakitanga: an ethic of sustainable resource management concerned with the care and protection of mauri; Mana: prestige; authority; control; power; influence; status; spiritual power; charisma - mana is a supernatural force in a person; place or object; Mana whenua: people with authority over tribal land; Mtauranga: body of knowledge and application; Mauri: meta-physical life-essence; Rhui: to put in place a temporary ritual prohibition; closed season; reserve; Rohe: iwi/hap district; area; Taonga: treasure; anything prised - applied to anything considered to be of value including socially or culturally valuable objects; resources; phenomenon; ideas and techniques; Tino Rangatiratanga: authority; control; Wairua: spiritual dimension; Whnau: kin groups