Toitū te whenua, matatū ana te wao nui o tāne: A cultural health monitoring and assessment approach for indigenous New Zealand forests: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

Abstract

The rights, roles and responsibilities of Māori as kaitiaki or environmental guardians are increasingly being acknowledged in the public sphere in Aotearoa New Zealand. National biodiversity policy and legislation encourages Māori participation in indigenous forest management. For the most part however, current forest policy initiatives and management practices continue to be dominated by Western scientific thinking often at the expense of Māori knowledge systems. Opportunities and tools for engagement in cross-cultural communication between Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing are rare although they are increasing. For cultural information to be effectively relayed it needs to be presented in ways that are reflective of a Māori worldview but at the same time the communication also needs to be coherent to decision makers. Culturally-based monitoring and assessment techniques have proven to be effective at achieving these ends. Kaupapa Māori and action research methodologies are presented and brought together as complementary methodologies that underpin this thesis. This involved a collaborative approach involving three tribal groups in the Motueka catchment and four mandated kaitiaki to a research team to work alongside the principal researcher. An outcome of the research was the co-creation of a Ketewhaihua toolkit for assessing the state of health of indigenous forests from an indigenous Māori perspective. An Atua framework, based on ancient Māori cosmology and spiritual guardians, was used to help derive and structure a set of culturally-based environmental indicators and a prototype toolkit. The prototype Ketewhaihua was tested by the research team at six forests sites in the Motueka and Riwaka catchments over four seasons in 2013. Qualitative and quantitative data were recorded and analysed following each round of forest visits and iteratively used to help improve the performance of the developing toolkit. The developed Ketewhaihua is culturally robust and technically sound and can be used both for the collection of data as well as a learning tool. The toolkit offers a unique approach in addressing practical problems of managing indigenous forests. The Ketewhaihua provides Māori with a new toolkit to improve both their practice of kaitiakitanga and their participation in the sustainable management of indigenous forests. Knowledge gained will assist tribal groups to provide advice to government authorities, corporates and private entities and to manage indigenous forests in ways of knowing familiar to Māori. Other Indigenous peoples may be inspired to develop similar culturally-based tools to improve the management of their natural resources and assert their rights at the local, national and international levels.