Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Indigenous Knowledges of forest and biodiversity management: how the watchfulness of Māori complements and contributes to disaster risk reduction:

Indigenous Knowledges of forest and biodiversity management: how the watchfulness of Māori... The United Nations Sendai Framework 2015-30 for disaster risk reduction (DRR) reaffirms the role of Indigenous Knowledges (IK) as complementing and contributing to more effective DRR. This hard won space for IK comes as Indigenous communities voluntarily contribute to the local management of disasters, including wildfire and threats to biodiversity in forest ecosystems. The effectiveness of Indigenous practices in addressing hazards is based on traditional knowledges and empirical observations that inform active roles in environmental management. However, it is still not clear how IK complements and contributes to DRR. This article analyses interviews with elders, researchers, and community members and identifies how mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) on forests and biodiversity is embodied to inform Indigenous watchfulness as a tactical approach in contributing to more effective DRR strategies. Keywords Māori, Indigenous knowledge, disaster risk reduction, fire, biodiversity, biosecurity (see, for example, Kuz, 2020). Cultural burning is a set of Introduction fire management tools used by Indigenous Peoples for a Globally, forest ecosystems are under immense pressure from number of purposes including pest management and ease of many decades of unsustainable development, introduced access and amenity, an array of traditional techniques to by imperial and colonial structures and now exacerbated “enhance the health of land and its people” (Drake, 2020, p. by climate change. Indigenous communities have been 47). At the same time, a new concern was the number of identified with these ecosystems by policy makers and animals killed by these fires; figures of over one billion scientists for two broad reasons: their unique and animals were touted (United Nations Environment intrinsically valued cultures (United Nations, 2009), and Programme, 2020). The survival of unique Australian the insights from Indigenous Knowledges (IK) that are species was threatened, and important ecosystems increasingly seen as filling gaps in the management of, dangerously reduced in size and viability; the IK of First among other things, hazards and risks (United Nations Australians is seen as providing solutions to prevent or Convention on Biological Diversity, 2018). In this paper, mitigate future disasters. we draw on interviews with Māori researchers, elders, and However, First Australians and other Indigenous Peoples community representatives to discuss how mātauranga are constantly responding to multiple and overlapping Māori (Māori knowledge; the IK of Māori) about forest and disasters and emergencies that undermine their efforts to their ecosystems can complement the management of the reduce disaster risks (Lambert, 2014b). This is despite the hazards of wildfire and biodiversity loss and contribute to Sendai Framework and its paradigm shift in DRR, from disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in New Zealand. earlier strategies of managing disasters once they occurred Wildfire is now a significant hazard to many societies, in some areas the most significant (Meng et al., 2015), and particularly for those communities that live in close University of Saskatchewan, Canada Te Tira Whakamātaki/Māori Biosecurity Network, New Zealand proximity to forests and/or rely on these resources for income, resources, and cultural identity. As news reports on Corresponding author: the 2019–2020 Australian wildfires began to appear Simon Lambert, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, worldwide, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultural Canada. burning practices began to be cited by mainstream news Email: slambert360@gmail.com Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 369 to minimizing the risk of disasters and building societal is the body of concepts and practices brought by Polynesian resilience to future events. Supported by 187 member settlers to Aotearoa New Zealand, inclusive of “values and states (including New Zealand), the Sendai Framework attitudes . . . [and] knowledge thought to be lost and now acknowledges IK as complementing and contributing to currently under recovery.” The knowledge held by more effective DRR (United Nations Office for Disaster Indigenous communities exists only in relationship with Risk Reduction, 2015): processes, places and people (Agrawal, 2002; Berkes et al., 2000; Sillitoe, 1998): one-size-fits-all assumptions are Section 24 (i): To ensure the use of traditional, indigenous and incorrect. As with all IK, Māori knowledges exist with a local knowledge and practices, as appropriate, to complement past, a present and a future, and these knowledges continue scientific knowledge in disaster risk assessment and the to be used and adapted to suit contemporary challenges, and development and implementation of policies, strategies, are continuosly incorporated into people’s lives. plans, and programs of specific sectors, with a cross-sectoral While IK may have a role in addressing DRR, such approach, which should be tailored to localities and to the knowledge continues to be at risk of misappropriation context; through the structural racism of colonial legacies; Māori researchers themselves are at risk (Kidman & Chu, 2019; Section 36 (a) (v): Indigenous peoples, through their Naepi et al., 2020). Indigenous data sovereignty has become experience and traditional knowledge, provide an important contribution to the development and implementation of plans another platform on which Indigenous Peoples demand and mechanisms, including for early warning. change (Kukutai & Taylor, 2016). To reduce these complexities of Indigenous interests in DRR, we focus on The New Zealand DRR strategy, launched April 2019, Māori forest practices and practitoners to unpack how IK notes a role for IK in its inclusion of Māori concepts and might complement and contribute to disaster risk reduction. institutions, using the term whakaoranga, “the rescue, recovery and restoration of sustainable wellbeing” (Ministry Methodology of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, 2019, p. 21). This process is to be underpinned by Māori cultural values In this article we first briefly review IK on forest, fire and and informed by mātauranga Māori. But the integration of biological heritage. This literature frames our interviews IK such as mātauranga Māori into DRR and other science and workshops where kaumātua (elders), community programmes to build the now ubiquitous outcome of members and Māori postgraduates and researchers were resilience “invites a fundamental question that must be recorded discussing knowledge, research, collaboration, continually revisited” (Bohensky & Maru, 2011, p. 11): science, emergency and disasters. Transcribed interviews whose resilience is being increased? How is mātauranga were uploaded into NVivo (Version 12) (QSR International, Māori “complementing and contributing” to better DRR, as 2014) and key themes identified and coded. Our participants called for in the Sendai Framework? were involved in many local and national organizations, Social and ecological resilience are linked, although including the Environment Court, Regional Councils, exactly how is poorly understood (Adger, 2000). marae (traditional Māori community spaces), school Indigenous scholarship highlights the decline in wellbeing committees, and tribal Trusts; some also participated in of Indigenous communities as they experienced the loss of international networks. All were taking part in increasingly keystone species, the eradication of traditional food and urgent decision-making where maintaining ethical and fibre sources, in favour of colonial land-use patterns, and empowered space for IK is difficult during ongoing and the decline of surrounding and supporting ecosystems overlapping emergencies that increasingly include wildfire (Brännlund & Axelsson, 2011; Daschuk, 2013; Dunbar- and biosecurity events (Lambert et al., 2018). All Ortiz, 2014; Whyte, 2018). These biodiversity losses were participants have roles in which their observations, their disastrous, and many if not most Indigenous Peoples have watchfulness, are fundamental to the continued development yet to recover from this ecocide. Reducing the risk of and relevance of, in this case, mātauranga Māori. disasters, as called for by the Sendai Framework and reiterated by New Zealand’s DRR strategy, requires empirical observations on localized vulnerabilities, attuned Traditional Indigenous to local-sourced solutions. We interpret this as watchfulness, management of forests and and while it does not exclude data gathered by remote biodiversity sensing, in many regions around the world it will be Colonization saw Indigenous Peoples dispossessed Indigenous knowledge holders and their communities who from their territories and resources, a history often framed are in situ eyewitnesses to locally specific disaster risks in terms of disaster. For Māori, colonial legislation that impact forest such as wildfires and pest and disease systematically stripped away control of the environment incursions. (J. Hayward, 2003; Orange, 1987), including the 1874 and As the UN has reiterated in the Declaration on the Rights 1885 Forests Acts which were motivated in part by public— of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2007) Indigenous that is, non-Māori—concern for “the great conflagrations Peoples have the right to protect their IK. These knowledges of timber-bearing forests” (McLintock, 1966, para. 2.). are more than just content. Ataria et al. (2018, p. 2) point out Other legislation denied Māori access to resources and that mātauranga Māori is “linked to Māori identity and [is] facilitated the introduction of new species, some of which a unique part of the identity of all New Zealand citizens.” It 370 AlterNative 17(3) became significant pests (Grey, 1994). Choosing and 2011). In the words of a participant (Māori research, male, prioritizing disaster risks (Tierney, 2014) or pests (Lambert 56), “In many respects, our culture, our thinking, our & Mark-Shadbolt, 2021) are deeply political and cultural language, our customs are derived from our natural acts. Rather than gloss over all the implications of New environment. Who we are as a people is [in] some ways Zealand settler colonialism (see Tawhai & Grey-Sharp, reflective of our local environment.” Early anthropologists 2013 for exemplary analyses) we simply draw attention to were often astounded at the detailed knowledges of species, the structural racism of colonial approaches to risks and ecosystem functioning, and indicators often referred to as hazards while as Indigenous communities are denied many Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Houde (2007, p. basic needs. 4) argued that “the most understood aspect” of this The evidence for ancient and effective Indigenous fire knowledge was “the body of factual, specific observations management is now extensive (Pyne, 2012), as is evidence that TEK holders are capable of generating.” of the systematic removal of Indigenous Peoples and While wildfire is a growing risk to New Zealand’s oppression of their environmental practices (Purdy, forests, Māori also have concern at the risks from pests 2020). Cultural burning is the deliberate lighting of and diseases, highlighted by two recent threats to low-intensity fires to reduce fuel loads, thus preventing biodiversity. Kauri (Agathis australis) Dieback, caused by a high-intensity fires, and often giving other benefits such Phytophthora, is spreading through remnant Kauri forests as encouraging new plant growth and drawing in prey of these culturally significant species. IK was integrated in species (Bowman et al., 2011). Colonial era legislation, several programmes (Chetham & Shortland, 2013) and a political marginalization, and ongoing jurisdiction issues rahui (Māori traditional ban or quarantine) promoted to have undermined cultural burning (Zahara, 2020). Too quarantine disease-free stands. Myrtle Rust, wind-borne often, the watchfulness of Indigenous communities is so and prevalent throughout the world, threatens several plant constrained as to mean they can only predict and watch species of cultural and economic value to Māori such as disasters unfold. pōhutukawa (Metrosideros kermadecensis) and Mānuka. Proof for similar fire practices by Māori is less clear but Again, communities collaborated in a policy-driven, has strengthened. Cumberland (1962) argued for the deliberate science-informed programme (Lambert et al., 2018), use of fire in hunting moa, and Perry et al. (2012) found that ultimately formalized as the Māori Biosecurity Network/Te prior to the arrival of Māori, forest fires were rare (see also Tira Whakamātaki (The Watchful Ones) (Te Tira Ogden et al., 1998). Williams (2009) reviews an extensive Whakamataki, 2018). The incursion of Myrtle Rust and the literature that records traditional fire management in loss of kauri have been framed as disasters, requiring urgent horticulture including warming soils, clearing vegetation, responses and the engagement of community members as providing nutrients. Maxwell et al. (2016) present evidence “eyes on the ground” (Mark-Shadbolt, 2017, n.p.). This is that Moriori (Indigenous People of the Chatham Islands) not to limit Indigenous participation as mere conduits of were actively managing their forests for food, medicines, data, Māori participation has led to concrete policy changes, building materials, encouraging fast growing successional resourcing and capacity building for communities, and species for fuel, as well as protecting some trees for protection informed voices in ongoing debates about the prevention or against wind damage. Stone and Langer (2015) review the mitigation of future fires and biosecurity events. As climate historical knowledge on Māori fire use, augmented by oral change, economic crises and ongoing unsustainable histories from three kaūmatua One of their participating development exacerbate the risks of disaster (IPCC, 2021), kaūmatua mentioned buring undergrowth to facilitate moving including impacts on forest health, watchfulness has never through the bush, quite a common use in other parts of the been more important. world (see Stewart, 2002, for North American examples). The literature they found recorded a range of uses of fire, in Disaster risk reduction and the role addition to cooking and heating and ceremonies. The narratives recorded by Stone and Langer present the for Indigenous knowledge quotidian nature of fire, it’s lighting and care, and also The integration of IK into the Sendai Framework is an awareness of the hazardous nature of uncotrolled fire. acknowledgement of the ancient wisdom Indigenous Modern fire regimes have seen an increase in the frequency Peoples accumulate and refine through intergenerational of wildfires in New Zealand (Anderson et al., 2008), and transfer of community observations of local hazards Watt et al. (2019) argue this risk will increase by over 70 (Lambert & Scott, 2019). Colonial interpretations of per cent in 2040, and over 80 per cent by 2090. Tepley et al. hazard, risk, emergency, and disaster expose structural (2016) found the high flammability of vegetation that racism and ongoing oppression: colonization can be develops after fire—scrubby mānuka (Leptospermum interpreted as disaster risk creation: scoparium) and kānuka (Kunzea ericoides)—and the long time needed for forest recovery were key to determining One of the greatest disasters, I think, is being Indigenous which regions may be near a tipping point from relatively people in a society that is not based in Indigenous values. So, minor changes in land-use or climate change. Wildfire is a it’s almost like we exist as being’s clinging to an extinct hazard with increasing risks to Māori cultural and economic identity in a world that does not support it to flourish. That interests. then filters down to influence many of the other ways that we New Zealand’s forests are an important resource but know and recognize disaster. And one of the main things that we fight at home in terms of trying to survive, is trying to keep also a foundation of Māori identity (Waitangi Tribunal, Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 371 our identity. And that identity is largely linked to natural He went on to argue that Māori knowledge holders accept resources. (Female, 47) and adapt to multiple knowledge systems: Colonization and the associated alienation of Māori and So even though we might talk about traditional knowledge in one sense, when we actually use the term mātauranga Māori other Indigenous Peoples from their lands, waters, we’re actually talking about a continuum of knowledge forms resources and cultures is not only a disaster but sets up right through to that fusion with more contemporary Western ongoing disasters. This can be seen in the threat from knowledge. It’s really still a Māori led or Indigenous way of climate change to New Zealand ecosystems and on Māori thinking about a problem or an issue. (Male, 51) cultural and economic resources, although as King et al. (2010) point out, these impacts will vary across tribes and This ability of Indigenous knowledge holders to be communities. The 2017 Port Hills fire, a peri-urban fire remarkably adept at intellectual diversity was echoed by in Canterbury, was a significant event in a province still another participant: recovering from the devastating earthquakes of 2011. Although only one life was lost—a helicopter pilot— Māori experts have been experts at picking the best things out several homes were destroyed and many people of both cultures: technology is a case in point. They are happy evacuated. The costs to the regional council and fire to use something if it makes the job or the process go more service were NZ $7.9 million (M. Hayward, 2017). Ngāi smoothly. And it’s almost as if religion was seen in that same light, as there were some really good aspects that Māori liked Tahu, the local Māori tribe, deployed their own systems and took it and used it and still use it today, but still are of support while also cooperating with official government absolutely comfortable moving into the more traditional space agencies (Radio New Zealand, 2017). This role in when and where that’s needed and required, and only they will response and recovery echoes the Māori response to the know best when to do that. But it just seemed they could just, 2011 earthquake (Lambert, 2014a; Yumagulova et al., without flicking an eyelid, just move seamlessly between the 2021): Māori cultural institutions and practices remain two. (Māori research, male, 51) valid in disaster response and recovery. While Indigenous fire and biodiversity approaches Other studies have also shown this intellectual promiscuity increasingly coincide with Western science in and pragmatism among Indigenous thinkers. Battiste and community and societal DRR strategies, the experiences Henderson (2009, p. 5) argue that IK are trans-systemic, of Indigenous Peoples have been the inappropriate use of their IK and the slow and difficult development and [a] part of the collective genius of humanity of Indigenous implementation of effective policies. What does it mean Peoples that exists in the context of their learning and knowing for IK to complement and contribute to DRR? In asking from the places where they have lived, hunted, explored, migrated, farmed, raised families, built communities, and “whose resilience is increased?,” we looked for echoes, survived for centuries despite sustained attacks on the peoples, parallels and insights of DRR from the experiences of their languages, and culture. our participants in their use and understanding of mātauranga Māori. Mātauranga Maori and other IK do not fit easily within academic disciplines. We see that our experts are members Results of loose communities of practice in which various knowledges are available. We thank an anonymous reviewer Over the course of several projects, kaumātua, researchers, for this insight. and community members were interviewed—separately The grounded and active nature of IK was expressed by and in recorded workshops—on fire and biosecurity issues a kuia (old woman) in discussion with a Māori researcher: in New Zealand (Ataria et al., 2018; Ataria & Mark- Shadbolt, 2015; Mark-Shadbolt et al., 2018; Scott, 2019). Kuia: It’s not to say that your opinion is We have organized selected quotes into several categories wrong, but yours is just another to better show how mātauranga Māori frames how opinion. But how sincere is that kaumātua and community members understand their roles opinion of yours if you have never in protecting forests and forest biodiversity. lived it? Māori Researcher: So maybe that was why there’s Mātauranga Māori been no [Māori] word for knowledge, because it’s such a First, the breadth, relevance, and validity of IK is a constant personal thing. Everyone has their challenge from discipline-framed research and researchers. own experience. One participant summarized mātauranga Māori as: Māori Researcher: There is no generic word. So, I was just thinking, in Māori, “Ko . . . a term that probably came through in the late 19th century mārama koe?” Ko mōhio koe?’’; to differentiate the Māori worldview from non-Māori. And it’s more of an action, rather than a what’s happened is that term now is embracing a wide range of noun word: “Do you understand knowledge forms, rather than just the “traditional.” It’s actually starting to embrace all those. (Male, 56) this knowledge?” 372 AlterNative 17(3) Here, we see the power and dynamism of IK as a living Our parents taught us how to be fire safe. They taught us a lot of tikanga and safety, how to cook on an open fire . . . how to database and not a static set of facts. Likewise, all light the open fire . . . you only put so much wood under, and participants appreciated the importance of intellectual the embers had to be way back. There was a whole safety property which is often explicitly claimed by a research approach. How to be safe with fire. Today, we don’t do that to institutions via research agreements. Indigenous Peoples our children because today it is totally different, it’s all have challenged Western assumptions of ownership and switches and buttons. (Kaumātua, female, 70s) control with experiences of theft and inhumane display of Indigenous bodies, living and dead (Aranui, 2018). But While older participants grew up with fire, many traditional parallels within our community of practice of the academic practices were discontinued and the mātauranga about fire interest in attribution and citation was echoed by a Māori risks was much reduced. As far as identifying and reducing researcher: risks, another of our participants noted a lack of leadership in risk management: Māori have huge value on knowledge and that needs to be communicated, that needs to be understood. Often knowledge One of the things that the iwi specified, in terms of its is used, people are given knowledge and they take that leadership, is that you must be located in the community. Now knowledge for themselves. There’s a whole understanding that’s fine if you’re located in Christchurch or Wellington, around the need to acknowledge where that knowledge comes where you have a pool of each kind of people. But if you’re at from. Again, that’s something that’s actually not dissimilar home out on____, you’re not going to have those types of from Western science. It’s very important to acknowledge people who are used to working in those types of processes or where you get information from. (Male, 53) institutions, or can even communicate like that. The ability to assess . . . and respond [to] the needs of your people, to keep them safe, is quite limited. (Female, 47) Fire hazard While Māori are now predominantly urban (over 85%), It is not simply that DRR needs Indigenous knowledge rural districts still contain significant Māori communities holders, but also Indigenous knowledge holders who can on traditional territories, maintaining repositories of mobilize their IK for the purposes of policy, legislation, and cultural assets, and with intergenerational relationships regulation. with a biological heritage. As climate change leads to hotter and drier conditions, iwi (tribe) and hapū (sub-tribe) Intergenerational transmission of IK authorities must prepare for more urgent events as well as the long-term climate change. The Port Hills Fire destroyed The transmission of knowledge to a succeeding generation conservation areas valued by local iwi with the loss of was an issue that concerned kaumātua: cultural and ecological values. Māori also have significant economic interests in biodiversity including forestry and How do we transfer that [knowledge] to the next generation? farming ventures (Nana et al., 2011). Regarding risks to We touched on it again this morning, looking at maybe this is these resources, one participant noted, about three different levels at this stage. We have our rangatahi [young people], like these ones here that are in ngā whare When you talk of “risk” and “hazard,” I don’t think we wānanga [houses of learning]. Then we have our own tamariki actually have Māori words for those terms. So, it’s got me [children] and mokopuna [grand children] that have been thinking, well, what is the context? What is the language that raised in the cities and then we have our tamariki and mokopuna we use to describe those types of things? And I guess what that have been raised offshore. (Male, 60s) comes to mind when you talk about risk, risk reduction, are some basic values that I think that Māori have, like Two kaumātua, describing the traditional practices of manaakitanga which is the notion of the responsibility for mentoring people into roles, recalled that Māori would caring for things, both animate and inanimate things . . . observe their own children and young people: kaitiakitanga, stewardship of natural resources and the notion of creating benefit and wellbeing for your community, for Transfer[ing] that mātauranga and that information to them by your people. (Male, 53) watching them grow up amidst us on the marae. Then we would get a good insight into just what is the skills that that In these comments, we see the dynamism of how IK child has, where would she strategically be placed to be utilised interprets new realities as mātauranga Māori provided . . . to serve their people. (Male, 60s) an intellectual grounding for interpreting risk and risk reduction. Unfortunately, many participants were Ongoing migration to urban areas was seen by this experiencing the decline of mtauranga. In many rural kaumātua as disrupting this intergenerational transfer of Māori communities, the use of fire to dispose of waste has IK: long been a practice; for some households, it is a cheaper and easier method of disposal than transporting waste to Now we have a lot of our children living in the cities, and facilities which charge for disposal (Langer & McGee, offshore. That [traditional] process is not as strong as what it 2017). An interesting quote from one of our focus groups used to be, because a lot of them are living away. And now. . . gives an Elder’s childhood experience: a lot of us are having to share with maybe other youth from Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 373 other iwi. Maybe not the in-depth detail, but about certain Our participants are continuing their collaboration in things, about the way we work in certain areas . . . looking for this programme that now includes the kaumātua being ways on how we engage them now. (Male, 60s) supported in designing and implementing their own research programme. What follows is a discussion on how we interpret our results in the light of wider DRR discussions Empirical observations as watchfulness that seek to engage with IK and IK holders and practitioners. Key themes restated throughout all interviews and wānanga were the difficulties in being heard, understood, and seeing positive change. An Elder was asked his thoughts on the Discussion role of forests in supporting his wellbeing: Disasters and emergencies provide a powerful lens to analyse society and its understanding and use of Well, you didn’t visibly see it, you felt it. It was mauri [life knowledges. What has become apparent to some non- force]. It’s visible by smell, and by feel . . . Feel the wind Indigenous DRR experts is that IK provide insight in blowing in your face, and feel sometimes water dripping down addressing disaster risks, and may even be decisive in off the trees onto you, feeling good, feeling healthy, the fresh air, hearing water trickling down in the stream as you’re some pressing concerns such as wildfire mitigation getting close to it, or seeing the spray spewing over the waters and biodiversity protection. Our participants challenge and that. It’s all those things that make up that health. . . . I call assumptions that resilience is universally and evenly it the mauri. Mauri is something that is not that easy to describe. improved through strategies of engagement between I’ve seen it translated as life force, but it’s not just that. It’s a Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous societies. Success hell of a lot more than that, and I think I’ve tried to describe it in complementing and contributing from an Indigenous in a whole lot of [ways]. It’s all the things that the senses feel, perspective will always be contingent on local settings. and the body feels. It’s physical. You can feel it physically, you The kaumātua, researchers and community members we can feel it mentally, you can feel it spiritually. (Male, 70s) spoke to emphasize that mātauranga Māori is place specific, collectively owned and claimed, and action-oriented. The health of forests was important to the same Elder who Kaumātua we spoke with were extremely careful about was asked about the current biosecurity management of their claims to know something, always referencing their Kauri Dieback: “Is it working, is it not working?” source and basing their understanding primarily on personal experience, that is data gathered by their own eyes and ears. Of course it’s not working! We’re doing all these management Attribution is as important for Indigenous knowledge as it things, and it’s not making any difference. It’s still spreading. is for academic citation indices. While they also defaulted To me, if these things were working, it would be confined to where you’ve already found it. So obviously, they’re not to oral transmission, the words spoken to us only represent working. a small fraction of what they know. Indigenous rights and the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples must be integrated It is not just identifying hazards but closely observing them into data management if their contributions to DRR are to with insight and understanding of the wider contexts be treated equitably, ethically, professionally, and—dare –including a temporal continuum of long past and distant we say—productively. future– and being empowered to act on these understandings. While having confidence in their knowledge, and often As one participant said about their collaboration in excited by the prospects of collaboration with science, biodiversity management: participants expressed frustration at the lack of opportunity, respect or power at local, regional, and global scales in Based on all those different knowledges . . . the ecosystems framing and implementing DRR strategies that are effective plan should be different in every region. Because you know the for their communities. Drawing out insights for effective different ecosystems there . . . we test something, we try it. DRR requires the creation and maintenance of culturally And we observe it and document it. Just the same as [scientists] safe and empowered spaces for Indigenous contributions. would, but it’s our solution. (Female, 39) An extension of this safety and empowerment is needed in response to the increasing sophistication and reach of data One Elder, commenting on the government’s biosecurity gathering. Remote-sensing technologies, satellite imagery, responses to Kauri Dieback, was adamant in the efficacy of electronic surveillance, and massively improved computing karakia (prayer): power are behind many state and private operations, including environmental management, that threaten I’ve said a number of times that I’ve just prayed, karakia, that Indigenous citizens (Lambert & Henry, 2020). These myrtle rust stays out of our rohe [district]. You can look, none technologies of distanced digital watchfulness outpace the of these are dying from myrtle rust, I’m pretty sure. And I still ability of societies to understand and control. Our believe that that’s . . . what’s keeping it out. We still haven’t participants recognized science and technology communities found any within our rohe. (Male, 70s) as important to the risk management issues they faced. But the cultural lens remains, indeed is perhaps more refined Removing the sacredness of these ecosystems leaves what and polished through the experiences of collaboration; one participant called maroke or dry and arid relationships, however, poor those experiences was. where nature is interpreted as services, a passive subject Urbanization, mentioned by one kaumātua regretful at instead of, in the words of our participant, “this connectivity losing young tribal members to the allure of city life, around wairua [spirit] and balance” (male, 53). 374 AlterNative 17(3) complicates Indigenous lives including the risks they face. Conclusion While the Port Hills fire might be a wake up call for New IK on forest and biodiversity management have had a Zealanders, as were the Christchurch earthquakes, the 2019 resurgence within disaster risk reduction discourse as mosque shootings by a white supremacist and now the increasing and overlapping disasters reveal knowledge Covid 19 pandemic, the reality is these events sit within a gaps in reducing the risks to forests and their biological trajectory of history that has also provided the tools and heritage from fires, pests and diseases. Such knowledges mechanisms to prepare, reduce, respond, and recover from are now seen by policy makers, scientists, and various non- such events. Yet, such tools are not universally available, Indigenous communities as insightful and valuable in and the speed at which decisions must be taken—or framed providing scale-dependent, often location-specific, as they must be taken by some participants—challenges all information on more effective disaster risk reduction. knowledges. While the Sendai Framework provides the most explicit Indigenous DRR began with tradition, has endured acceptance of IK, and sees these knowledges as providing imperial and colonial oppression, and is now responding to collaborative synergies, the validity of IK can exist only equally harsh neoliberal forces (Bargh, 2007) that continue within Indigenous defined parameters, delineated, and to embed disaster risk creation. Matthewman (2015, p. 169) patrolled—to greater or lesser extent, and not without argues that in many instances “[t]he disaster has already internal challenges—by their own holders and happened”; society has structured disaster into development practitioners. Importantly, we find the physical presence and all we can do is to “work our way out if it.” And so risks of knowledge holders and practitioners on the ground— to New Zealand’s biodiversity from ongoing biosecurity their watchfulness—is fundamental to how IK continues to events and more frequent and larger wildfires increase, inform disaster risk reduction. despite ongoing political rhetoric and growing research Indigenous communities will interpret their dollars (National Science Challenge Biological Heritage, vulnerabilities as risks to their cultures in addition to their 2019). Yet Indigenous voices continue to nimbly articulate physical, financial, and social wellbeings. The experts these the hazards, risks, and disasters they face. Ironically, these communities have trained and defer to are adept at holding voices may find wider acceptance as disasters increase in and using diverse approaches to understanding the world scale, intensity, and impact. around them. Indigenous communities play by similar rules During the course of this research it became clear that as science communities, valuing expertise and experience, the focus on IK, carried by key informants (primarily being firmly transparent on attribution, wanting to secure elders and community environmental guardians) was and protect data, and wanting to disseminate and teach. somewhat misguided. Rather, it was the knowledge holders For IK to truly complement and contribute to disaster risk and practitioners embodying these knowledges in a reduction, Indigenous rights and cultural values must physical presence on the land and in the forests that were first be acknowledged and then actively supported by the means by which their mātauranga would complement those who wish to understand, and benefit from them. and contribute to wider strategic aims. Their presence in Knowledge holders and practitioners must be safe to the forests needed to be transferred more than translated move through their forests, and over their lands and for decision-making in strategic approaches to mitigating waters. Acknowledgement of IK in DRR at UN, regional damage and minimizing future hazards, in other words and national levels must now move beyond rhetoric and DRR: be matched by resources, official support, empowered engagement, safe opportunities, and appropriate action at How do [we] ensure the wellbeing of the knowledge? Which community levels. in itself acknowledges ‘How to ensure the wellbeing of the knowledge holders’? (Female, 30s) Glossary This is not to dismiss the potential of IK to complement and hapū sub-tribe contribute to DRR as called for in the Sendai Framework. iwi tribe Rather, we acknowledge the contingency of empowered kaitiakitanga stewardship of natural resources; engagement. One interesting outcome of these discussions environmental guardianship was the evolution of a project out of concerns for elder kānuka Kunzea ericoides wellbeing. We argue that while their knowledge is karakia prayer obviously important, it is the lived experience of knowledge kaumātua elders Kauri Agathis australis holders and practitioners within expanding—and perhaps Kuia old woman, grandmother sometimes contracting—but always porous communities Kumara sweet potato of practice that provide a mandate to watch over specific mānuka Leptospermum scoparium forests and ecosystems. Their watchfulness built on past mātauranga Māori Māori knowledge; the IK of Māori rights and sovereignty must be combined with modern marae traditional Māori community spaces acknowledgement of rights and necessary empowerment maroke dry, arid to then inform policy, regulatory, and legislative contexts. mauri life force; all the things the senses feel; Only then will the aspirational Sendai Framework goals physical, mental and spiritual feelings lead to more effective strategies off DRR for Indigenous mokopuna grandchildren Peoples. Moriori Indigenous People of the Chatham Islands Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 375 ngā whare wānanga houses of learning; usually a tertiary Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2000). Rediscovery of education institution or university traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ngāi Tahu predominant Māori tribe, South Island, Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1251–1262. New Zealand Bohensky, E. L., & Maru, Y. (2011). Indigenous knowledge, pōhutukawa Metrosideros kermadecensis science, and resilience: What have we learned from a decade rāhui Māori traditional ban or quarantine of international literature on “integration”? Ecology and rangatahi young people Society, 16(4), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04342- rohe district 160406 tamariki children Bowman, D. M. J. S., Balch, J., Artaxo, P., Bond, W. J., Cochrane, Te Tira Whakamātaki The Watchful Ones; the Māori Biosecurity M. A., D’Antonio, C. M., DeFries, R., Johnston, F. H., Keeley, Network J. E., Krawchuk, M. A., Kull, C. A., Mack, M., Moritz, M. A., tikanga appropriate practices Pyne, S., Roos, C. I., Scott, A. C., Sodhi, N. S., & Swetnam, whakaoranga recovery, restoration T. W. (2011). The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. Journal of Biogeography, 38(12), 2223–2236. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x Declaration of conflicting interests Brännlund, I., & Axelsson, P. (2011). Reindeer management The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with during the colonization of Sami lands: A long-term respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this perspective of vulnerability and adaptation strategies. article. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 1095–1105. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.03.005 Funding Chetham, J., & Shortland, T. (2013). Kauri cultural health indicators: Monitoring framework. https://www.cbd.int/ The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support financial/micro/newzealand-kci-monitoring.pdf for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Cumberland, K. B. (1962). Moas and men: New Zealand about authors would like to thank SCION for funding that helped A.D. 1250. Geographical Review, 52(2), 151–173. https:// support this research. doi.org/10.2307/212954 Daschuk, J. (2013). Clearing the plains: Disease, politics of ORCID iD starvation, and the loss of Aboriginal life. University of Simon Lambert https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7744-6372 Regina Press. Drake, C. (2020). Cultural burning and the interstices of two References vernacular cultural forms. In G. Suartika, & J. Nichols Adger, N. W. (2000). Sociological and ecological resilience: (Eds.), Reframing the vernacular: Politics, semiotics, Are they related? Progress in Human Geography, 24, and representation (pp. 43–54). Springer. https://doi. 347–364. org/10.1007/978-3-030-22448-6_4. Agrawal, A. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and the politics of Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous peoples’ history of the classification. Blackwell. United States. Beacon Press. Anderson, S. A. J., Doherty, J. J., & Pearce, G. (2008). Grey, A. (1994). Aotearoa and New Zealand: A historical Wildfires in New Zealand from 1991 to 2007. New geography. Canterbury University Press. Zealand Journal of Forestry, 53(3), 19–22. https://www. Hayward, J. (Ed.). (2003). Local government and the Treaty of researchgate.net/profile/H_Pearce/publication/297477998_ Waitangi. Oxford University Press. Wildfires_in_New_Zealand_from_1991_to_2007/ Hayward, M. (2017, July 6). High rural firefighting costs l in ks / 56 e 7e f e d0 8a e b 6f 9 3f 5 4d a 4a / Wi l df ir e s -i n- N e w- for the Port Hills fires. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/ Zealand-from-1991-to-2007.pdf national/94346662/high-rural-firefighting-costs-for-the- Aranui, A. K. (2018). Te Hokinga Mai O Ngā Tūpuna: Māori port-hills-fires perspectives of repatriation and the scientific research of Houde, N. (2007). The six faces of traditional ecological knowledge: ancestral remains [Doctoral thesis]. Victoria University. Challenges and opportunities for Canadian co-management Ataria, J., & Mark-Shadbolt, M. (2015). Mātauranga Māori arrangements. Ecology and Society, 12(2), 34. https://www. characterisations of NZ’s biodiversity: Whakamanahia ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss2/art34/main.html ngā mātauranga o nehe hai oranga tangata, oranga taiao. International Panel on Climate Change. (2021) Climate Change National Science Challenge Biological Heritage. 2021: The Physical Science Basis. IPCC. Ataria, J., Mark-Shadbolt, M., Mead, A. T. P., Prime, K., Doherty, Kidman, J., & Chu, C. (2019). “We’re not the hottest J., Waiwai, J., Ashby, T., Lambert, S., & Garner, G. O. (2018). ethnicity”: Pacific scholars and the cultural politics of Whakamanahia Te mātauranga o te Māori: Empowering New Zealand universities. Globalisation, Societies and Māori knowledge to support Aotearoa’s aquatic biological Education, 17(4), 489–499. https://doi.org/10.1080/147 heritage. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater 67724.2018.1561247 Research, 52(4), 467–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288330 King, D., Penny, G., & Severne, C. (2010). The climate change .2018.1517097 matrix facing Maori society. In R. Nottage, D. Wratt, J. Bargh, M. (Ed.). (2007). Resistance: An Indigenous response to Bornman, & K. Jones (Eds.), Climate Change Adaption neoliberalism. Huia Publishers. in New Zealand: Future scenarios and some sectoral Battiste, M., & Henderson, J. Y. (2009). Naturalizing Indigenous perspectives (pp. 100–111). New Zealand Climate Change knowledge in Eurocentric education. Canadian Journal Centre/NIWA. of Native Education, 32(1), 5–18. http://cyber.usask.ca/ Kukutai, T., & Taylor, J. (Eds.). (2016). Indigenous data login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/755262421? sovereignty: Toward an agenda. Australian National accountid=14739 University Press. 376 AlterNative 17(3) Kuz, M. (2020, February). Fighting “bad” fire with good: Pasifika pathways within the academy. The New Zealand Australia revisits an Aboriginal tradition. Christian Annual Review of Education, 24, 142–159. https://doi. Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia- org/10.26686/nzaroe.v24i0.6338 Pacific/2020/0207/Fighting-bad-fire-with-good-Australia- Nana, G., Stokes, F., & Molano, W. (2011). The asset base, revisits-an-Aboriginal-tradition income, expenditure and GDP of the 2010 Maori economy. Lambert, S. (2014a). Indigenous peoples and urban disaster: Business and Economic Research Ltd (BERL). Māori responses to the 2010-12 Christchurch earthquakes. National Science Challenge Biological Heritage. (2019). New Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 18(1), Zealand’s biological heritage national science challenge: 39–48. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/2014-1/ Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho strategy 2019-2024. https://bioheritage. AJDTS_18-1_Lambert.pdf nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/STRATEGY-FINAL- Lambert, S. (2014b). Maori and the Christchurch earthquakes: JULY092018.pdf The interplay between Indigenous endurance and resilience Ogden, J., Basher, L. E. S., & McGlone, M. (1998). Botanical through a natural disaster. MAI Journal, 3(2), 165–180. briefing: Fire, forest regeneration and links with early human http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/sites/default/files/MAI_Jrnl_ habitation: Evidence from New Zealand. Annals of Botany, V3_iss2_Lambert.pdf 81(6), 687–696. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbo.1998.0637 Lambert, S., & Henry, R. (2020). Surveilling Indigenous Orange, C. (1987). The Treaty of Waitangi. Bridget Williams communities in a time of pandemic. Surveillance & Society, Books. 18(3), 422–425. Perry, G. L. W., Wilmshurst, J. M., McGlone, M. S., & Napier, Lambert, S., & Mark-Shadbolt, M. (2021). Indigenous biosecurity: A. (2012). Reconstructing spatial vulnera bility to forest loss Past, present and future. In R. Francis & K. Baker (Eds.), by fire in pre-historic New Zealand. Global Ecology and Routledge handbook of biosecurity and invasive species Biogeography, 21(10), 1029–1041. https://doi.org/10.1111/ (pp. 55–65). Routledge. j.1466-8238.2011.00745.x Lambert, S., & Scott, J. C. (2019). International disaster risk Purdy, D. (2020). Green gatekeeping: Coloniual conservation reduction strategies and Indigenous peoples. International and the Jemez Principles [Doctoral thesis]. McQuarie Indigenous Policy Journal, 10(2), Article 2. University. Lambert, S., Waipara, N., Black, A., Mark-Shadbolt, M., & Pyne, S. (2012). Fire: Nature and culture. Reaktion Books. Wood, W. (2018). Indigenous biosecurity: Māori responses QSR International. (2014). QSR NVivo 10. to Kauri Dieback and Myrtle Rust in Aotearoa New Zealand. Radio New Zealand. (2017). Homes Razed as Port Hills Fire In J. Urquhart, M. Marzano, & C. Potter (Eds.), The human Spreads. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/324523/homes- dimensions of forest and tree health: Global perspectives razed-as-port-hills-fire-spreads (pp. 109–137). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319- Scott, J. C. (2019). Exploration of Indigenous practices and 76956-1_5 knowledge concerning natural hazards and risk reduction Langer, E. R., & McGee, T. K. (2017). Wildfire risk awareness and case studies: Aotearoa/New Zealand and Iqaluit/Nunavut, prevention by predominantly Māori rural residents, Karikari Canada. Gates Foundation. Peninsula, Aotearoa New Zealand. International Journal Sillitoe, P. (1998). The development of Indigenous knowledge: of Wildland Fire, 26(9), 820–828. https://doi.org/10.1071/ A new applied anthropology. Current Anthropology, 39(2), WF16133 223–252. https://doi.org/10.1086/204722 Mark-Shadbolt, M. (2017). Biosecurity [Report to Natural Stewart, O. C. (2002). Forgotten fires: Native Americans and the Resource Iwi Leaders Group]. Te Tira Whakamataki. transient wilderness. University of Oklahoma Press. Mark-Shadbolt, M., Wood, W., & Ataria, J. (2018, February). Stone, G., & Langer, L. (2015). Te ahi i te ao Māori: Māori use Why aren’t people listening? Māori scientists on why rāhui of fire: Traditional use of fire to inform current and future are important. The Spinoff. https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02- fire management in New Zealand. MAI Journal, 4(1): 02-2018/why-arent-people-listening-maori-scientists-on- 15–28. http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/content/te-ahi-i-te-ao- why-rahui-are-important/ m%C4%81ori-m%C4%81ori-use-fire-traditional-use-fire- inform-current-and-future-fire Matthewman, S. (2015). Disasters, risks and revelation: Making Tawhai, V., & Gray-Sharp, K. (2013). Always speaking: The sense of our times. Palgrave Macmillan. Treaty of Waitangi and public policy. Huia Publishers. Maxwell, J. J., Howarth, J. D., Vandergoes, M. J., Jacobsen, G. Tepley, A., Veblen, T., Perry, G., Stewart, G., Naficy, C. (2016). E., & Barber, I. G. (2016). The timing and importance of Positive feedbacks to fire-driven deforestation following arboriculture and agroforestry in a temperate East Polynesia human colonization of the South Island of New Zealand. Society, the Moriori, Rekohu (Chatham Island). Quaternary Ecosystems 19(8): 1325–1344. https://doi.org/10.1007/ Science Reviews, 149(Suppl. C), 306–325. https://doi. s10021-016-0008-9. org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.08.006 Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. (2017). Port hills fires. https://ngaitahu. McLintock, A. H. (1966). Early forest legislation. http://www. iwi.nz/our_stories/port-hills-fires/ TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/forestry/page-3 Te Tira Whakamataki. (2018). https://ttw.nz/ Meng, Y., Deng, Y., & Shi, P. (2015). Mapping forest wildfire risk Tierney, K. (2014). The social roots of risk: Producing disasters, of the world. In P. Shi & R. Kasperson (Eds.), World atlas promoting resilience. Stanford Business Books. of natural disaster risk (pp. 261–275). Springer. https://doi. United Nations. (2007). United Nations Declaration on the org/10.1007/978-3-662-45430-5_14 Rights of Indigenous Peoples. https://www.un.org/ Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. (2019). development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wpcontent/uploads/ National disaster resilience strategy: Rautaki ā-Motu sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf Manawaroa Aituā. United Nations. (2009). State of the world’s Indigenous peoples. Naepi, S., McAllister, T. G., Thomsen, P., Leenen-Young, M., http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP/en/ Walker, L. A., McAllister, A. L., Theodore, R., Kidman, J., SOWIP_web.pdf & Suaaliia, T. (2019). The pakaru “pipeline”: Māori and Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 377 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. (2018). Whyte, K. P. (2018). Indigenous science (fiction) for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Secretariat of the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate Convention on Biological Diversity/United Nations. https:// change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and www.cbd.int/history/ Space, 1(1–2), 224–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148 United Nations Environment Programme. (2020, January 22). 48618777621 Ten impacts of the Australian bushfires. https://www. Williams, E. (2009). Maori fire use and landscape changes in unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ten-impacts- Southern New Zealand. The Journal of the Polynesian australian-bushfires Society, 118(2), 175–189. http://www.jstor.org/stable United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. (2015). Sendai /20707481 framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-30. United Nations. Yumagulova, L., Phibbs, S., Kenney, C. M., Yellow Old Woman- Waitangi Tribunal. (2011). Ko Aotearoa tenei: Tuatahi/This is Munro, D., Christianson, A., McGee, T. K., & Whitehair, New Zealand: Vol. 1. R. (2021). The role of disaster volunteering in Indigenous Watt, M. S., Kirschbaum, M. U. F., Moore, J. R., Pearce, H. G., communities. Environmental Hazards, 20, 45–62. https:// Bulman, L. S., Brockerhoff, E. G., & Melia, N. (2019). doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2019.1657791 Assessment of multiple climate change effects on plantation Zahara, A. (2020). Breathing fire into landscapes that burn: forests in New Zealand. Forestry: An International Journal Wildfire management in a time of alterlife. Engaging Science, of Forest Research, 92, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/ Technology, and Society, 6, 555. https://doi.org/10.17351/ forestry/cpy024 ests2020.429 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples SAGE

Indigenous Knowledges of forest and biodiversity management: how the watchfulness of Māori complements and contributes to disaster risk reduction:

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/indigenous-knowledges-of-forest-and-biodiversity-management-how-the-JrarPCAR60

References (68)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga
ISSN
1177-1801
eISSN
1174-1740
DOI
10.1177/11771801211038760
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The United Nations Sendai Framework 2015-30 for disaster risk reduction (DRR) reaffirms the role of Indigenous Knowledges (IK) as complementing and contributing to more effective DRR. This hard won space for IK comes as Indigenous communities voluntarily contribute to the local management of disasters, including wildfire and threats to biodiversity in forest ecosystems. The effectiveness of Indigenous practices in addressing hazards is based on traditional knowledges and empirical observations that inform active roles in environmental management. However, it is still not clear how IK complements and contributes to DRR. This article analyses interviews with elders, researchers, and community members and identifies how mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) on forests and biodiversity is embodied to inform Indigenous watchfulness as a tactical approach in contributing to more effective DRR strategies. Keywords Māori, Indigenous knowledge, disaster risk reduction, fire, biodiversity, biosecurity (see, for example, Kuz, 2020). Cultural burning is a set of Introduction fire management tools used by Indigenous Peoples for a Globally, forest ecosystems are under immense pressure from number of purposes including pest management and ease of many decades of unsustainable development, introduced access and amenity, an array of traditional techniques to by imperial and colonial structures and now exacerbated “enhance the health of land and its people” (Drake, 2020, p. by climate change. Indigenous communities have been 47). At the same time, a new concern was the number of identified with these ecosystems by policy makers and animals killed by these fires; figures of over one billion scientists for two broad reasons: their unique and animals were touted (United Nations Environment intrinsically valued cultures (United Nations, 2009), and Programme, 2020). The survival of unique Australian the insights from Indigenous Knowledges (IK) that are species was threatened, and important ecosystems increasingly seen as filling gaps in the management of, dangerously reduced in size and viability; the IK of First among other things, hazards and risks (United Nations Australians is seen as providing solutions to prevent or Convention on Biological Diversity, 2018). In this paper, mitigate future disasters. we draw on interviews with Māori researchers, elders, and However, First Australians and other Indigenous Peoples community representatives to discuss how mātauranga are constantly responding to multiple and overlapping Māori (Māori knowledge; the IK of Māori) about forest and disasters and emergencies that undermine their efforts to their ecosystems can complement the management of the reduce disaster risks (Lambert, 2014b). This is despite the hazards of wildfire and biodiversity loss and contribute to Sendai Framework and its paradigm shift in DRR, from disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in New Zealand. earlier strategies of managing disasters once they occurred Wildfire is now a significant hazard to many societies, in some areas the most significant (Meng et al., 2015), and particularly for those communities that live in close University of Saskatchewan, Canada Te Tira Whakamātaki/Māori Biosecurity Network, New Zealand proximity to forests and/or rely on these resources for income, resources, and cultural identity. As news reports on Corresponding author: the 2019–2020 Australian wildfires began to appear Simon Lambert, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, worldwide, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultural Canada. burning practices began to be cited by mainstream news Email: slambert360@gmail.com Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 369 to minimizing the risk of disasters and building societal is the body of concepts and practices brought by Polynesian resilience to future events. Supported by 187 member settlers to Aotearoa New Zealand, inclusive of “values and states (including New Zealand), the Sendai Framework attitudes . . . [and] knowledge thought to be lost and now acknowledges IK as complementing and contributing to currently under recovery.” The knowledge held by more effective DRR (United Nations Office for Disaster Indigenous communities exists only in relationship with Risk Reduction, 2015): processes, places and people (Agrawal, 2002; Berkes et al., 2000; Sillitoe, 1998): one-size-fits-all assumptions are Section 24 (i): To ensure the use of traditional, indigenous and incorrect. As with all IK, Māori knowledges exist with a local knowledge and practices, as appropriate, to complement past, a present and a future, and these knowledges continue scientific knowledge in disaster risk assessment and the to be used and adapted to suit contemporary challenges, and development and implementation of policies, strategies, are continuosly incorporated into people’s lives. plans, and programs of specific sectors, with a cross-sectoral While IK may have a role in addressing DRR, such approach, which should be tailored to localities and to the knowledge continues to be at risk of misappropriation context; through the structural racism of colonial legacies; Māori researchers themselves are at risk (Kidman & Chu, 2019; Section 36 (a) (v): Indigenous peoples, through their Naepi et al., 2020). Indigenous data sovereignty has become experience and traditional knowledge, provide an important contribution to the development and implementation of plans another platform on which Indigenous Peoples demand and mechanisms, including for early warning. change (Kukutai & Taylor, 2016). To reduce these complexities of Indigenous interests in DRR, we focus on The New Zealand DRR strategy, launched April 2019, Māori forest practices and practitoners to unpack how IK notes a role for IK in its inclusion of Māori concepts and might complement and contribute to disaster risk reduction. institutions, using the term whakaoranga, “the rescue, recovery and restoration of sustainable wellbeing” (Ministry Methodology of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, 2019, p. 21). This process is to be underpinned by Māori cultural values In this article we first briefly review IK on forest, fire and and informed by mātauranga Māori. But the integration of biological heritage. This literature frames our interviews IK such as mātauranga Māori into DRR and other science and workshops where kaumātua (elders), community programmes to build the now ubiquitous outcome of members and Māori postgraduates and researchers were resilience “invites a fundamental question that must be recorded discussing knowledge, research, collaboration, continually revisited” (Bohensky & Maru, 2011, p. 11): science, emergency and disasters. Transcribed interviews whose resilience is being increased? How is mātauranga were uploaded into NVivo (Version 12) (QSR International, Māori “complementing and contributing” to better DRR, as 2014) and key themes identified and coded. Our participants called for in the Sendai Framework? were involved in many local and national organizations, Social and ecological resilience are linked, although including the Environment Court, Regional Councils, exactly how is poorly understood (Adger, 2000). marae (traditional Māori community spaces), school Indigenous scholarship highlights the decline in wellbeing committees, and tribal Trusts; some also participated in of Indigenous communities as they experienced the loss of international networks. All were taking part in increasingly keystone species, the eradication of traditional food and urgent decision-making where maintaining ethical and fibre sources, in favour of colonial land-use patterns, and empowered space for IK is difficult during ongoing and the decline of surrounding and supporting ecosystems overlapping emergencies that increasingly include wildfire (Brännlund & Axelsson, 2011; Daschuk, 2013; Dunbar- and biosecurity events (Lambert et al., 2018). All Ortiz, 2014; Whyte, 2018). These biodiversity losses were participants have roles in which their observations, their disastrous, and many if not most Indigenous Peoples have watchfulness, are fundamental to the continued development yet to recover from this ecocide. Reducing the risk of and relevance of, in this case, mātauranga Māori. disasters, as called for by the Sendai Framework and reiterated by New Zealand’s DRR strategy, requires empirical observations on localized vulnerabilities, attuned Traditional Indigenous to local-sourced solutions. We interpret this as watchfulness, management of forests and and while it does not exclude data gathered by remote biodiversity sensing, in many regions around the world it will be Colonization saw Indigenous Peoples dispossessed Indigenous knowledge holders and their communities who from their territories and resources, a history often framed are in situ eyewitnesses to locally specific disaster risks in terms of disaster. For Māori, colonial legislation that impact forest such as wildfires and pest and disease systematically stripped away control of the environment incursions. (J. Hayward, 2003; Orange, 1987), including the 1874 and As the UN has reiterated in the Declaration on the Rights 1885 Forests Acts which were motivated in part by public— of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2007) Indigenous that is, non-Māori—concern for “the great conflagrations Peoples have the right to protect their IK. These knowledges of timber-bearing forests” (McLintock, 1966, para. 2.). are more than just content. Ataria et al. (2018, p. 2) point out Other legislation denied Māori access to resources and that mātauranga Māori is “linked to Māori identity and [is] facilitated the introduction of new species, some of which a unique part of the identity of all New Zealand citizens.” It 370 AlterNative 17(3) became significant pests (Grey, 1994). Choosing and 2011). In the words of a participant (Māori research, male, prioritizing disaster risks (Tierney, 2014) or pests (Lambert 56), “In many respects, our culture, our thinking, our & Mark-Shadbolt, 2021) are deeply political and cultural language, our customs are derived from our natural acts. Rather than gloss over all the implications of New environment. Who we are as a people is [in] some ways Zealand settler colonialism (see Tawhai & Grey-Sharp, reflective of our local environment.” Early anthropologists 2013 for exemplary analyses) we simply draw attention to were often astounded at the detailed knowledges of species, the structural racism of colonial approaches to risks and ecosystem functioning, and indicators often referred to as hazards while as Indigenous communities are denied many Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Houde (2007, p. basic needs. 4) argued that “the most understood aspect” of this The evidence for ancient and effective Indigenous fire knowledge was “the body of factual, specific observations management is now extensive (Pyne, 2012), as is evidence that TEK holders are capable of generating.” of the systematic removal of Indigenous Peoples and While wildfire is a growing risk to New Zealand’s oppression of their environmental practices (Purdy, forests, Māori also have concern at the risks from pests 2020). Cultural burning is the deliberate lighting of and diseases, highlighted by two recent threats to low-intensity fires to reduce fuel loads, thus preventing biodiversity. Kauri (Agathis australis) Dieback, caused by a high-intensity fires, and often giving other benefits such Phytophthora, is spreading through remnant Kauri forests as encouraging new plant growth and drawing in prey of these culturally significant species. IK was integrated in species (Bowman et al., 2011). Colonial era legislation, several programmes (Chetham & Shortland, 2013) and a political marginalization, and ongoing jurisdiction issues rahui (Māori traditional ban or quarantine) promoted to have undermined cultural burning (Zahara, 2020). Too quarantine disease-free stands. Myrtle Rust, wind-borne often, the watchfulness of Indigenous communities is so and prevalent throughout the world, threatens several plant constrained as to mean they can only predict and watch species of cultural and economic value to Māori such as disasters unfold. pōhutukawa (Metrosideros kermadecensis) and Mānuka. Proof for similar fire practices by Māori is less clear but Again, communities collaborated in a policy-driven, has strengthened. Cumberland (1962) argued for the deliberate science-informed programme (Lambert et al., 2018), use of fire in hunting moa, and Perry et al. (2012) found that ultimately formalized as the Māori Biosecurity Network/Te prior to the arrival of Māori, forest fires were rare (see also Tira Whakamātaki (The Watchful Ones) (Te Tira Ogden et al., 1998). Williams (2009) reviews an extensive Whakamataki, 2018). The incursion of Myrtle Rust and the literature that records traditional fire management in loss of kauri have been framed as disasters, requiring urgent horticulture including warming soils, clearing vegetation, responses and the engagement of community members as providing nutrients. Maxwell et al. (2016) present evidence “eyes on the ground” (Mark-Shadbolt, 2017, n.p.). This is that Moriori (Indigenous People of the Chatham Islands) not to limit Indigenous participation as mere conduits of were actively managing their forests for food, medicines, data, Māori participation has led to concrete policy changes, building materials, encouraging fast growing successional resourcing and capacity building for communities, and species for fuel, as well as protecting some trees for protection informed voices in ongoing debates about the prevention or against wind damage. Stone and Langer (2015) review the mitigation of future fires and biosecurity events. As climate historical knowledge on Māori fire use, augmented by oral change, economic crises and ongoing unsustainable histories from three kaūmatua One of their participating development exacerbate the risks of disaster (IPCC, 2021), kaūmatua mentioned buring undergrowth to facilitate moving including impacts on forest health, watchfulness has never through the bush, quite a common use in other parts of the been more important. world (see Stewart, 2002, for North American examples). The literature they found recorded a range of uses of fire, in Disaster risk reduction and the role addition to cooking and heating and ceremonies. The narratives recorded by Stone and Langer present the for Indigenous knowledge quotidian nature of fire, it’s lighting and care, and also The integration of IK into the Sendai Framework is an awareness of the hazardous nature of uncotrolled fire. acknowledgement of the ancient wisdom Indigenous Modern fire regimes have seen an increase in the frequency Peoples accumulate and refine through intergenerational of wildfires in New Zealand (Anderson et al., 2008), and transfer of community observations of local hazards Watt et al. (2019) argue this risk will increase by over 70 (Lambert & Scott, 2019). Colonial interpretations of per cent in 2040, and over 80 per cent by 2090. Tepley et al. hazard, risk, emergency, and disaster expose structural (2016) found the high flammability of vegetation that racism and ongoing oppression: colonization can be develops after fire—scrubby mānuka (Leptospermum interpreted as disaster risk creation: scoparium) and kānuka (Kunzea ericoides)—and the long time needed for forest recovery were key to determining One of the greatest disasters, I think, is being Indigenous which regions may be near a tipping point from relatively people in a society that is not based in Indigenous values. So, minor changes in land-use or climate change. Wildfire is a it’s almost like we exist as being’s clinging to an extinct hazard with increasing risks to Māori cultural and economic identity in a world that does not support it to flourish. That interests. then filters down to influence many of the other ways that we New Zealand’s forests are an important resource but know and recognize disaster. And one of the main things that we fight at home in terms of trying to survive, is trying to keep also a foundation of Māori identity (Waitangi Tribunal, Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 371 our identity. And that identity is largely linked to natural He went on to argue that Māori knowledge holders accept resources. (Female, 47) and adapt to multiple knowledge systems: Colonization and the associated alienation of Māori and So even though we might talk about traditional knowledge in one sense, when we actually use the term mātauranga Māori other Indigenous Peoples from their lands, waters, we’re actually talking about a continuum of knowledge forms resources and cultures is not only a disaster but sets up right through to that fusion with more contemporary Western ongoing disasters. This can be seen in the threat from knowledge. It’s really still a Māori led or Indigenous way of climate change to New Zealand ecosystems and on Māori thinking about a problem or an issue. (Male, 51) cultural and economic resources, although as King et al. (2010) point out, these impacts will vary across tribes and This ability of Indigenous knowledge holders to be communities. The 2017 Port Hills fire, a peri-urban fire remarkably adept at intellectual diversity was echoed by in Canterbury, was a significant event in a province still another participant: recovering from the devastating earthquakes of 2011. Although only one life was lost—a helicopter pilot— Māori experts have been experts at picking the best things out several homes were destroyed and many people of both cultures: technology is a case in point. They are happy evacuated. The costs to the regional council and fire to use something if it makes the job or the process go more service were NZ $7.9 million (M. Hayward, 2017). Ngāi smoothly. And it’s almost as if religion was seen in that same light, as there were some really good aspects that Māori liked Tahu, the local Māori tribe, deployed their own systems and took it and used it and still use it today, but still are of support while also cooperating with official government absolutely comfortable moving into the more traditional space agencies (Radio New Zealand, 2017). This role in when and where that’s needed and required, and only they will response and recovery echoes the Māori response to the know best when to do that. But it just seemed they could just, 2011 earthquake (Lambert, 2014a; Yumagulova et al., without flicking an eyelid, just move seamlessly between the 2021): Māori cultural institutions and practices remain two. (Māori research, male, 51) valid in disaster response and recovery. While Indigenous fire and biodiversity approaches Other studies have also shown this intellectual promiscuity increasingly coincide with Western science in and pragmatism among Indigenous thinkers. Battiste and community and societal DRR strategies, the experiences Henderson (2009, p. 5) argue that IK are trans-systemic, of Indigenous Peoples have been the inappropriate use of their IK and the slow and difficult development and [a] part of the collective genius of humanity of Indigenous implementation of effective policies. What does it mean Peoples that exists in the context of their learning and knowing for IK to complement and contribute to DRR? In asking from the places where they have lived, hunted, explored, migrated, farmed, raised families, built communities, and “whose resilience is increased?,” we looked for echoes, survived for centuries despite sustained attacks on the peoples, parallels and insights of DRR from the experiences of their languages, and culture. our participants in their use and understanding of mātauranga Māori. Mātauranga Maori and other IK do not fit easily within academic disciplines. We see that our experts are members Results of loose communities of practice in which various knowledges are available. We thank an anonymous reviewer Over the course of several projects, kaumātua, researchers, for this insight. and community members were interviewed—separately The grounded and active nature of IK was expressed by and in recorded workshops—on fire and biosecurity issues a kuia (old woman) in discussion with a Māori researcher: in New Zealand (Ataria et al., 2018; Ataria & Mark- Shadbolt, 2015; Mark-Shadbolt et al., 2018; Scott, 2019). Kuia: It’s not to say that your opinion is We have organized selected quotes into several categories wrong, but yours is just another to better show how mātauranga Māori frames how opinion. But how sincere is that kaumātua and community members understand their roles opinion of yours if you have never in protecting forests and forest biodiversity. lived it? Māori Researcher: So maybe that was why there’s Mātauranga Māori been no [Māori] word for knowledge, because it’s such a First, the breadth, relevance, and validity of IK is a constant personal thing. Everyone has their challenge from discipline-framed research and researchers. own experience. One participant summarized mātauranga Māori as: Māori Researcher: There is no generic word. So, I was just thinking, in Māori, “Ko . . . a term that probably came through in the late 19th century mārama koe?” Ko mōhio koe?’’; to differentiate the Māori worldview from non-Māori. And it’s more of an action, rather than a what’s happened is that term now is embracing a wide range of noun word: “Do you understand knowledge forms, rather than just the “traditional.” It’s actually starting to embrace all those. (Male, 56) this knowledge?” 372 AlterNative 17(3) Here, we see the power and dynamism of IK as a living Our parents taught us how to be fire safe. They taught us a lot of tikanga and safety, how to cook on an open fire . . . how to database and not a static set of facts. Likewise, all light the open fire . . . you only put so much wood under, and participants appreciated the importance of intellectual the embers had to be way back. There was a whole safety property which is often explicitly claimed by a research approach. How to be safe with fire. Today, we don’t do that to institutions via research agreements. Indigenous Peoples our children because today it is totally different, it’s all have challenged Western assumptions of ownership and switches and buttons. (Kaumātua, female, 70s) control with experiences of theft and inhumane display of Indigenous bodies, living and dead (Aranui, 2018). But While older participants grew up with fire, many traditional parallels within our community of practice of the academic practices were discontinued and the mātauranga about fire interest in attribution and citation was echoed by a Māori risks was much reduced. As far as identifying and reducing researcher: risks, another of our participants noted a lack of leadership in risk management: Māori have huge value on knowledge and that needs to be communicated, that needs to be understood. Often knowledge One of the things that the iwi specified, in terms of its is used, people are given knowledge and they take that leadership, is that you must be located in the community. Now knowledge for themselves. There’s a whole understanding that’s fine if you’re located in Christchurch or Wellington, around the need to acknowledge where that knowledge comes where you have a pool of each kind of people. But if you’re at from. Again, that’s something that’s actually not dissimilar home out on____, you’re not going to have those types of from Western science. It’s very important to acknowledge people who are used to working in those types of processes or where you get information from. (Male, 53) institutions, or can even communicate like that. The ability to assess . . . and respond [to] the needs of your people, to keep them safe, is quite limited. (Female, 47) Fire hazard While Māori are now predominantly urban (over 85%), It is not simply that DRR needs Indigenous knowledge rural districts still contain significant Māori communities holders, but also Indigenous knowledge holders who can on traditional territories, maintaining repositories of mobilize their IK for the purposes of policy, legislation, and cultural assets, and with intergenerational relationships regulation. with a biological heritage. As climate change leads to hotter and drier conditions, iwi (tribe) and hapū (sub-tribe) Intergenerational transmission of IK authorities must prepare for more urgent events as well as the long-term climate change. The Port Hills Fire destroyed The transmission of knowledge to a succeeding generation conservation areas valued by local iwi with the loss of was an issue that concerned kaumātua: cultural and ecological values. Māori also have significant economic interests in biodiversity including forestry and How do we transfer that [knowledge] to the next generation? farming ventures (Nana et al., 2011). Regarding risks to We touched on it again this morning, looking at maybe this is these resources, one participant noted, about three different levels at this stage. We have our rangatahi [young people], like these ones here that are in ngā whare When you talk of “risk” and “hazard,” I don’t think we wānanga [houses of learning]. Then we have our own tamariki actually have Māori words for those terms. So, it’s got me [children] and mokopuna [grand children] that have been thinking, well, what is the context? What is the language that raised in the cities and then we have our tamariki and mokopuna we use to describe those types of things? And I guess what that have been raised offshore. (Male, 60s) comes to mind when you talk about risk, risk reduction, are some basic values that I think that Māori have, like Two kaumātua, describing the traditional practices of manaakitanga which is the notion of the responsibility for mentoring people into roles, recalled that Māori would caring for things, both animate and inanimate things . . . observe their own children and young people: kaitiakitanga, stewardship of natural resources and the notion of creating benefit and wellbeing for your community, for Transfer[ing] that mātauranga and that information to them by your people. (Male, 53) watching them grow up amidst us on the marae. Then we would get a good insight into just what is the skills that that In these comments, we see the dynamism of how IK child has, where would she strategically be placed to be utilised interprets new realities as mātauranga Māori provided . . . to serve their people. (Male, 60s) an intellectual grounding for interpreting risk and risk reduction. Unfortunately, many participants were Ongoing migration to urban areas was seen by this experiencing the decline of mtauranga. In many rural kaumātua as disrupting this intergenerational transfer of Māori communities, the use of fire to dispose of waste has IK: long been a practice; for some households, it is a cheaper and easier method of disposal than transporting waste to Now we have a lot of our children living in the cities, and facilities which charge for disposal (Langer & McGee, offshore. That [traditional] process is not as strong as what it 2017). An interesting quote from one of our focus groups used to be, because a lot of them are living away. And now. . . gives an Elder’s childhood experience: a lot of us are having to share with maybe other youth from Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 373 other iwi. Maybe not the in-depth detail, but about certain Our participants are continuing their collaboration in things, about the way we work in certain areas . . . looking for this programme that now includes the kaumātua being ways on how we engage them now. (Male, 60s) supported in designing and implementing their own research programme. What follows is a discussion on how we interpret our results in the light of wider DRR discussions Empirical observations as watchfulness that seek to engage with IK and IK holders and practitioners. Key themes restated throughout all interviews and wānanga were the difficulties in being heard, understood, and seeing positive change. An Elder was asked his thoughts on the Discussion role of forests in supporting his wellbeing: Disasters and emergencies provide a powerful lens to analyse society and its understanding and use of Well, you didn’t visibly see it, you felt it. It was mauri [life knowledges. What has become apparent to some non- force]. It’s visible by smell, and by feel . . . Feel the wind Indigenous DRR experts is that IK provide insight in blowing in your face, and feel sometimes water dripping down addressing disaster risks, and may even be decisive in off the trees onto you, feeling good, feeling healthy, the fresh air, hearing water trickling down in the stream as you’re some pressing concerns such as wildfire mitigation getting close to it, or seeing the spray spewing over the waters and biodiversity protection. Our participants challenge and that. It’s all those things that make up that health. . . . I call assumptions that resilience is universally and evenly it the mauri. Mauri is something that is not that easy to describe. improved through strategies of engagement between I’ve seen it translated as life force, but it’s not just that. It’s a Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous societies. Success hell of a lot more than that, and I think I’ve tried to describe it in complementing and contributing from an Indigenous in a whole lot of [ways]. It’s all the things that the senses feel, perspective will always be contingent on local settings. and the body feels. It’s physical. You can feel it physically, you The kaumātua, researchers and community members we can feel it mentally, you can feel it spiritually. (Male, 70s) spoke to emphasize that mātauranga Māori is place specific, collectively owned and claimed, and action-oriented. The health of forests was important to the same Elder who Kaumātua we spoke with were extremely careful about was asked about the current biosecurity management of their claims to know something, always referencing their Kauri Dieback: “Is it working, is it not working?” source and basing their understanding primarily on personal experience, that is data gathered by their own eyes and ears. Of course it’s not working! We’re doing all these management Attribution is as important for Indigenous knowledge as it things, and it’s not making any difference. It’s still spreading. is for academic citation indices. While they also defaulted To me, if these things were working, it would be confined to where you’ve already found it. So obviously, they’re not to oral transmission, the words spoken to us only represent working. a small fraction of what they know. Indigenous rights and the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples must be integrated It is not just identifying hazards but closely observing them into data management if their contributions to DRR are to with insight and understanding of the wider contexts be treated equitably, ethically, professionally, and—dare –including a temporal continuum of long past and distant we say—productively. future– and being empowered to act on these understandings. While having confidence in their knowledge, and often As one participant said about their collaboration in excited by the prospects of collaboration with science, biodiversity management: participants expressed frustration at the lack of opportunity, respect or power at local, regional, and global scales in Based on all those different knowledges . . . the ecosystems framing and implementing DRR strategies that are effective plan should be different in every region. Because you know the for their communities. Drawing out insights for effective different ecosystems there . . . we test something, we try it. DRR requires the creation and maintenance of culturally And we observe it and document it. Just the same as [scientists] safe and empowered spaces for Indigenous contributions. would, but it’s our solution. (Female, 39) An extension of this safety and empowerment is needed in response to the increasing sophistication and reach of data One Elder, commenting on the government’s biosecurity gathering. Remote-sensing technologies, satellite imagery, responses to Kauri Dieback, was adamant in the efficacy of electronic surveillance, and massively improved computing karakia (prayer): power are behind many state and private operations, including environmental management, that threaten I’ve said a number of times that I’ve just prayed, karakia, that Indigenous citizens (Lambert & Henry, 2020). These myrtle rust stays out of our rohe [district]. You can look, none technologies of distanced digital watchfulness outpace the of these are dying from myrtle rust, I’m pretty sure. And I still ability of societies to understand and control. Our believe that that’s . . . what’s keeping it out. We still haven’t participants recognized science and technology communities found any within our rohe. (Male, 70s) as important to the risk management issues they faced. But the cultural lens remains, indeed is perhaps more refined Removing the sacredness of these ecosystems leaves what and polished through the experiences of collaboration; one participant called maroke or dry and arid relationships, however, poor those experiences was. where nature is interpreted as services, a passive subject Urbanization, mentioned by one kaumātua regretful at instead of, in the words of our participant, “this connectivity losing young tribal members to the allure of city life, around wairua [spirit] and balance” (male, 53). 374 AlterNative 17(3) complicates Indigenous lives including the risks they face. Conclusion While the Port Hills fire might be a wake up call for New IK on forest and biodiversity management have had a Zealanders, as were the Christchurch earthquakes, the 2019 resurgence within disaster risk reduction discourse as mosque shootings by a white supremacist and now the increasing and overlapping disasters reveal knowledge Covid 19 pandemic, the reality is these events sit within a gaps in reducing the risks to forests and their biological trajectory of history that has also provided the tools and heritage from fires, pests and diseases. Such knowledges mechanisms to prepare, reduce, respond, and recover from are now seen by policy makers, scientists, and various non- such events. Yet, such tools are not universally available, Indigenous communities as insightful and valuable in and the speed at which decisions must be taken—or framed providing scale-dependent, often location-specific, as they must be taken by some participants—challenges all information on more effective disaster risk reduction. knowledges. While the Sendai Framework provides the most explicit Indigenous DRR began with tradition, has endured acceptance of IK, and sees these knowledges as providing imperial and colonial oppression, and is now responding to collaborative synergies, the validity of IK can exist only equally harsh neoliberal forces (Bargh, 2007) that continue within Indigenous defined parameters, delineated, and to embed disaster risk creation. Matthewman (2015, p. 169) patrolled—to greater or lesser extent, and not without argues that in many instances “[t]he disaster has already internal challenges—by their own holders and happened”; society has structured disaster into development practitioners. Importantly, we find the physical presence and all we can do is to “work our way out if it.” And so risks of knowledge holders and practitioners on the ground— to New Zealand’s biodiversity from ongoing biosecurity their watchfulness—is fundamental to how IK continues to events and more frequent and larger wildfires increase, inform disaster risk reduction. despite ongoing political rhetoric and growing research Indigenous communities will interpret their dollars (National Science Challenge Biological Heritage, vulnerabilities as risks to their cultures in addition to their 2019). Yet Indigenous voices continue to nimbly articulate physical, financial, and social wellbeings. The experts these the hazards, risks, and disasters they face. Ironically, these communities have trained and defer to are adept at holding voices may find wider acceptance as disasters increase in and using diverse approaches to understanding the world scale, intensity, and impact. around them. Indigenous communities play by similar rules During the course of this research it became clear that as science communities, valuing expertise and experience, the focus on IK, carried by key informants (primarily being firmly transparent on attribution, wanting to secure elders and community environmental guardians) was and protect data, and wanting to disseminate and teach. somewhat misguided. Rather, it was the knowledge holders For IK to truly complement and contribute to disaster risk and practitioners embodying these knowledges in a reduction, Indigenous rights and cultural values must physical presence on the land and in the forests that were first be acknowledged and then actively supported by the means by which their mātauranga would complement those who wish to understand, and benefit from them. and contribute to wider strategic aims. Their presence in Knowledge holders and practitioners must be safe to the forests needed to be transferred more than translated move through their forests, and over their lands and for decision-making in strategic approaches to mitigating waters. Acknowledgement of IK in DRR at UN, regional damage and minimizing future hazards, in other words and national levels must now move beyond rhetoric and DRR: be matched by resources, official support, empowered engagement, safe opportunities, and appropriate action at How do [we] ensure the wellbeing of the knowledge? Which community levels. in itself acknowledges ‘How to ensure the wellbeing of the knowledge holders’? (Female, 30s) Glossary This is not to dismiss the potential of IK to complement and hapū sub-tribe contribute to DRR as called for in the Sendai Framework. iwi tribe Rather, we acknowledge the contingency of empowered kaitiakitanga stewardship of natural resources; engagement. One interesting outcome of these discussions environmental guardianship was the evolution of a project out of concerns for elder kānuka Kunzea ericoides wellbeing. We argue that while their knowledge is karakia prayer obviously important, it is the lived experience of knowledge kaumātua elders Kauri Agathis australis holders and practitioners within expanding—and perhaps Kuia old woman, grandmother sometimes contracting—but always porous communities Kumara sweet potato of practice that provide a mandate to watch over specific mānuka Leptospermum scoparium forests and ecosystems. Their watchfulness built on past mātauranga Māori Māori knowledge; the IK of Māori rights and sovereignty must be combined with modern marae traditional Māori community spaces acknowledgement of rights and necessary empowerment maroke dry, arid to then inform policy, regulatory, and legislative contexts. mauri life force; all the things the senses feel; Only then will the aspirational Sendai Framework goals physical, mental and spiritual feelings lead to more effective strategies off DRR for Indigenous mokopuna grandchildren Peoples. Moriori Indigenous People of the Chatham Islands Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 375 ngā whare wānanga houses of learning; usually a tertiary Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2000). Rediscovery of education institution or university traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ngāi Tahu predominant Māori tribe, South Island, Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1251–1262. New Zealand Bohensky, E. L., & Maru, Y. (2011). Indigenous knowledge, pōhutukawa Metrosideros kermadecensis science, and resilience: What have we learned from a decade rāhui Māori traditional ban or quarantine of international literature on “integration”? Ecology and rangatahi young people Society, 16(4), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04342- rohe district 160406 tamariki children Bowman, D. M. J. S., Balch, J., Artaxo, P., Bond, W. J., Cochrane, Te Tira Whakamātaki The Watchful Ones; the Māori Biosecurity M. A., D’Antonio, C. M., DeFries, R., Johnston, F. H., Keeley, Network J. E., Krawchuk, M. A., Kull, C. A., Mack, M., Moritz, M. A., tikanga appropriate practices Pyne, S., Roos, C. I., Scott, A. C., Sodhi, N. S., & Swetnam, whakaoranga recovery, restoration T. W. (2011). The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. Journal of Biogeography, 38(12), 2223–2236. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x Declaration of conflicting interests Brännlund, I., & Axelsson, P. (2011). Reindeer management The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with during the colonization of Sami lands: A long-term respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this perspective of vulnerability and adaptation strategies. article. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 1095–1105. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.03.005 Funding Chetham, J., & Shortland, T. (2013). Kauri cultural health indicators: Monitoring framework. https://www.cbd.int/ The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support financial/micro/newzealand-kci-monitoring.pdf for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Cumberland, K. B. (1962). Moas and men: New Zealand about authors would like to thank SCION for funding that helped A.D. 1250. Geographical Review, 52(2), 151–173. https:// support this research. doi.org/10.2307/212954 Daschuk, J. (2013). Clearing the plains: Disease, politics of ORCID iD starvation, and the loss of Aboriginal life. University of Simon Lambert https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7744-6372 Regina Press. Drake, C. (2020). Cultural burning and the interstices of two References vernacular cultural forms. In G. Suartika, & J. Nichols Adger, N. W. (2000). Sociological and ecological resilience: (Eds.), Reframing the vernacular: Politics, semiotics, Are they related? Progress in Human Geography, 24, and representation (pp. 43–54). Springer. https://doi. 347–364. org/10.1007/978-3-030-22448-6_4. Agrawal, A. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and the politics of Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous peoples’ history of the classification. Blackwell. United States. Beacon Press. Anderson, S. A. J., Doherty, J. J., & Pearce, G. (2008). Grey, A. (1994). Aotearoa and New Zealand: A historical Wildfires in New Zealand from 1991 to 2007. New geography. Canterbury University Press. Zealand Journal of Forestry, 53(3), 19–22. https://www. Hayward, J. (Ed.). (2003). Local government and the Treaty of researchgate.net/profile/H_Pearce/publication/297477998_ Waitangi. Oxford University Press. Wildfires_in_New_Zealand_from_1991_to_2007/ Hayward, M. (2017, July 6). High rural firefighting costs l in ks / 56 e 7e f e d0 8a e b 6f 9 3f 5 4d a 4a / Wi l df ir e s -i n- N e w- for the Port Hills fires. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/ Zealand-from-1991-to-2007.pdf national/94346662/high-rural-firefighting-costs-for-the- Aranui, A. K. (2018). Te Hokinga Mai O Ngā Tūpuna: Māori port-hills-fires perspectives of repatriation and the scientific research of Houde, N. (2007). The six faces of traditional ecological knowledge: ancestral remains [Doctoral thesis]. Victoria University. Challenges and opportunities for Canadian co-management Ataria, J., & Mark-Shadbolt, M. (2015). Mātauranga Māori arrangements. Ecology and Society, 12(2), 34. https://www. characterisations of NZ’s biodiversity: Whakamanahia ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss2/art34/main.html ngā mātauranga o nehe hai oranga tangata, oranga taiao. International Panel on Climate Change. (2021) Climate Change National Science Challenge Biological Heritage. 2021: The Physical Science Basis. IPCC. Ataria, J., Mark-Shadbolt, M., Mead, A. T. P., Prime, K., Doherty, Kidman, J., & Chu, C. (2019). “We’re not the hottest J., Waiwai, J., Ashby, T., Lambert, S., & Garner, G. O. (2018). ethnicity”: Pacific scholars and the cultural politics of Whakamanahia Te mātauranga o te Māori: Empowering New Zealand universities. Globalisation, Societies and Māori knowledge to support Aotearoa’s aquatic biological Education, 17(4), 489–499. https://doi.org/10.1080/147 heritage. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater 67724.2018.1561247 Research, 52(4), 467–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288330 King, D., Penny, G., & Severne, C. (2010). The climate change .2018.1517097 matrix facing Maori society. In R. Nottage, D. Wratt, J. Bargh, M. (Ed.). (2007). Resistance: An Indigenous response to Bornman, & K. Jones (Eds.), Climate Change Adaption neoliberalism. Huia Publishers. in New Zealand: Future scenarios and some sectoral Battiste, M., & Henderson, J. Y. (2009). Naturalizing Indigenous perspectives (pp. 100–111). New Zealand Climate Change knowledge in Eurocentric education. Canadian Journal Centre/NIWA. of Native Education, 32(1), 5–18. http://cyber.usask.ca/ Kukutai, T., & Taylor, J. (Eds.). (2016). Indigenous data login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/755262421? sovereignty: Toward an agenda. Australian National accountid=14739 University Press. 376 AlterNative 17(3) Kuz, M. (2020, February). Fighting “bad” fire with good: Pasifika pathways within the academy. The New Zealand Australia revisits an Aboriginal tradition. Christian Annual Review of Education, 24, 142–159. https://doi. Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia- org/10.26686/nzaroe.v24i0.6338 Pacific/2020/0207/Fighting-bad-fire-with-good-Australia- Nana, G., Stokes, F., & Molano, W. (2011). The asset base, revisits-an-Aboriginal-tradition income, expenditure and GDP of the 2010 Maori economy. Lambert, S. (2014a). Indigenous peoples and urban disaster: Business and Economic Research Ltd (BERL). Māori responses to the 2010-12 Christchurch earthquakes. National Science Challenge Biological Heritage. (2019). New Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 18(1), Zealand’s biological heritage national science challenge: 39–48. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/2014-1/ Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho strategy 2019-2024. https://bioheritage. AJDTS_18-1_Lambert.pdf nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/STRATEGY-FINAL- Lambert, S. (2014b). Maori and the Christchurch earthquakes: JULY092018.pdf The interplay between Indigenous endurance and resilience Ogden, J., Basher, L. E. S., & McGlone, M. (1998). Botanical through a natural disaster. MAI Journal, 3(2), 165–180. briefing: Fire, forest regeneration and links with early human http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/sites/default/files/MAI_Jrnl_ habitation: Evidence from New Zealand. Annals of Botany, V3_iss2_Lambert.pdf 81(6), 687–696. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbo.1998.0637 Lambert, S., & Henry, R. (2020). Surveilling Indigenous Orange, C. (1987). The Treaty of Waitangi. Bridget Williams communities in a time of pandemic. Surveillance & Society, Books. 18(3), 422–425. Perry, G. L. W., Wilmshurst, J. M., McGlone, M. S., & Napier, Lambert, S., & Mark-Shadbolt, M. (2021). Indigenous biosecurity: A. (2012). Reconstructing spatial vulnera bility to forest loss Past, present and future. In R. Francis & K. Baker (Eds.), by fire in pre-historic New Zealand. Global Ecology and Routledge handbook of biosecurity and invasive species Biogeography, 21(10), 1029–1041. https://doi.org/10.1111/ (pp. 55–65). Routledge. j.1466-8238.2011.00745.x Lambert, S., & Scott, J. C. (2019). International disaster risk Purdy, D. (2020). Green gatekeeping: Coloniual conservation reduction strategies and Indigenous peoples. International and the Jemez Principles [Doctoral thesis]. McQuarie Indigenous Policy Journal, 10(2), Article 2. University. Lambert, S., Waipara, N., Black, A., Mark-Shadbolt, M., & Pyne, S. (2012). Fire: Nature and culture. Reaktion Books. Wood, W. (2018). Indigenous biosecurity: Māori responses QSR International. (2014). QSR NVivo 10. to Kauri Dieback and Myrtle Rust in Aotearoa New Zealand. Radio New Zealand. (2017). Homes Razed as Port Hills Fire In J. Urquhart, M. Marzano, & C. Potter (Eds.), The human Spreads. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/324523/homes- dimensions of forest and tree health: Global perspectives razed-as-port-hills-fire-spreads (pp. 109–137). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319- Scott, J. C. (2019). Exploration of Indigenous practices and 76956-1_5 knowledge concerning natural hazards and risk reduction Langer, E. R., & McGee, T. K. (2017). Wildfire risk awareness and case studies: Aotearoa/New Zealand and Iqaluit/Nunavut, prevention by predominantly Māori rural residents, Karikari Canada. Gates Foundation. Peninsula, Aotearoa New Zealand. International Journal Sillitoe, P. (1998). The development of Indigenous knowledge: of Wildland Fire, 26(9), 820–828. https://doi.org/10.1071/ A new applied anthropology. Current Anthropology, 39(2), WF16133 223–252. https://doi.org/10.1086/204722 Mark-Shadbolt, M. (2017). Biosecurity [Report to Natural Stewart, O. C. (2002). Forgotten fires: Native Americans and the Resource Iwi Leaders Group]. Te Tira Whakamataki. transient wilderness. University of Oklahoma Press. Mark-Shadbolt, M., Wood, W., & Ataria, J. (2018, February). Stone, G., & Langer, L. (2015). Te ahi i te ao Māori: Māori use Why aren’t people listening? Māori scientists on why rāhui of fire: Traditional use of fire to inform current and future are important. The Spinoff. https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02- fire management in New Zealand. MAI Journal, 4(1): 02-2018/why-arent-people-listening-maori-scientists-on- 15–28. http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/content/te-ahi-i-te-ao- why-rahui-are-important/ m%C4%81ori-m%C4%81ori-use-fire-traditional-use-fire- inform-current-and-future-fire Matthewman, S. (2015). Disasters, risks and revelation: Making Tawhai, V., & Gray-Sharp, K. (2013). Always speaking: The sense of our times. Palgrave Macmillan. Treaty of Waitangi and public policy. Huia Publishers. Maxwell, J. J., Howarth, J. D., Vandergoes, M. J., Jacobsen, G. Tepley, A., Veblen, T., Perry, G., Stewart, G., Naficy, C. (2016). E., & Barber, I. G. (2016). The timing and importance of Positive feedbacks to fire-driven deforestation following arboriculture and agroforestry in a temperate East Polynesia human colonization of the South Island of New Zealand. Society, the Moriori, Rekohu (Chatham Island). Quaternary Ecosystems 19(8): 1325–1344. https://doi.org/10.1007/ Science Reviews, 149(Suppl. C), 306–325. https://doi. s10021-016-0008-9. org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.08.006 Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. (2017). Port hills fires. https://ngaitahu. McLintock, A. H. (1966). Early forest legislation. http://www. iwi.nz/our_stories/port-hills-fires/ TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/forestry/page-3 Te Tira Whakamataki. (2018). https://ttw.nz/ Meng, Y., Deng, Y., & Shi, P. (2015). Mapping forest wildfire risk Tierney, K. (2014). The social roots of risk: Producing disasters, of the world. In P. Shi & R. Kasperson (Eds.), World atlas promoting resilience. Stanford Business Books. of natural disaster risk (pp. 261–275). Springer. https://doi. United Nations. (2007). United Nations Declaration on the org/10.1007/978-3-662-45430-5_14 Rights of Indigenous Peoples. https://www.un.org/ Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. (2019). development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wpcontent/uploads/ National disaster resilience strategy: Rautaki ā-Motu sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf Manawaroa Aituā. United Nations. (2009). State of the world’s Indigenous peoples. Naepi, S., McAllister, T. G., Thomsen, P., Leenen-Young, M., http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP/en/ Walker, L. A., McAllister, A. L., Theodore, R., Kidman, J., SOWIP_web.pdf & Suaaliia, T. (2019). The pakaru “pipeline”: Māori and Lambert and Mark-Shadbolt 377 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. (2018). Whyte, K. P. (2018). Indigenous science (fiction) for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Secretariat of the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate Convention on Biological Diversity/United Nations. https:// change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and www.cbd.int/history/ Space, 1(1–2), 224–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148 United Nations Environment Programme. (2020, January 22). 48618777621 Ten impacts of the Australian bushfires. https://www. Williams, E. (2009). Maori fire use and landscape changes in unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ten-impacts- Southern New Zealand. The Journal of the Polynesian australian-bushfires Society, 118(2), 175–189. http://www.jstor.org/stable United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. (2015). Sendai /20707481 framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-30. United Nations. Yumagulova, L., Phibbs, S., Kenney, C. M., Yellow Old Woman- Waitangi Tribunal. (2011). Ko Aotearoa tenei: Tuatahi/This is Munro, D., Christianson, A., McGee, T. K., & Whitehair, New Zealand: Vol. 1. R. (2021). The role of disaster volunteering in Indigenous Watt, M. S., Kirschbaum, M. U. F., Moore, J. R., Pearce, H. G., communities. Environmental Hazards, 20, 45–62. https:// Bulman, L. S., Brockerhoff, E. G., & Melia, N. (2019). doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2019.1657791 Assessment of multiple climate change effects on plantation Zahara, A. (2020). Breathing fire into landscapes that burn: forests in New Zealand. Forestry: An International Journal Wildfire management in a time of alterlife. Engaging Science, of Forest Research, 92, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/ Technology, and Society, 6, 555. https://doi.org/10.17351/ forestry/cpy024 ests2020.429

Journal

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples – SAGE

Published: Aug 18, 2021

Keywords: Māori; Indigenous knowledge; disaster risk reduction; fire; biodiversity; biosecurity

There are no references for this article.