Opening Address: Ngāi Tahu freshwater management and reform
Presenter: Mark Solomon is of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kuri descent, and is from Kaikoura on the east coast of Te Waipounamu. He is the elected Kaiwhakahaere (chair) of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, a position he has held since 1998.
Mark has represented his Kaikoura Rūnanga since 1988 and has contributed to his community in many capacities, ranging from roles as a trustee of Takahanga Marae, the local school board and on the board of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, a position he held from 2001-07.
Mark currently holds directorships on Te Hāpai Mauri Ltd, Te Pātaka o Tangaroa and Te Pātaka o Rauru. He is also a Summit Member of the Hillary Institute and a member of Te Kāwai Taumata.
Mark believes a true rangatira is a servant of the people and reflects this in his role in helping establish the Iwi Chairs Forum and his ambition of kotahitanga for Māori.
Abstract: Mark Solomon will present an opening address focused on the work Ngāi Tahu is currently undertaking around freshwater management and reform.
Water is a taonga of the utmost importance to Ngāi Tahu, playing a central role in the culture, traditions and ongoing identity of the iwi, particularly in relation to the custom of mahinga kai. Ngāi Tahu, along with other iwi, have long held concerns over the degradation of New Zealand's water environments and the erosion of traditional relationships with water, particularly with regard to customary rights, access and management, and have raised water these concerns under the Resource Management Act and to the Waitangi Tribunal over the last three decades. Most recently, however, Ngāi Tahu have sought a more active role in the future of freshwater management through collaborative approaches at both a national and regional level. The overarching drivers for this involvement have been to pursue improvements in water quality and quantity outcomes, as well as the appropriate recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi and the rights and interests of the iwi. Initiatives such as the Land and Water Forum and engagement with crown officials over the New Start of Fresh Water policy programme, as well as the Canterbury Water Management Strategy are providing a platform for the step-change that is required to achieve these goals. Work around the development of key tribal assets that are attempting to provide leadership and balance economy and environment and ongoing support for the recognition of mātauranga within information and decision making processes are also explored.
Making Mātauranga Matter: the role of cultural monitoring and health assessment in water management
Presenter: Craig Pauling
Craig is a descendant of Ngāi Tahu tīpuna Te Ruahikihiki (nō Taumutu), Tūrakautahi (nō Kaiapoi) and Te Rakiwhakaputa (nō Rāpaki) and also has Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha, Ngāti Mutunga, English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry. Craig is passionate about the protection, monitoring, and enhancement of native flora, fauna and ecosystems, particularly as it relates to Ngāi Tahu mahinga kai species, sites and practices.
He is also involved in the Ngāi Tahu cultural and leadership development programme Aoraki Bound and is a trustee of the Te Ara Kākāriki Greenway Canterbury Trust. Craig shares his time between looking after his three tamariki, Mihiroa, Meihana and Tainui and working as the Project Manager for Freshwater at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. He is also involved in waka ama and a founding member of Te Waka Pounamu Outrigger Canoe Club, based in Whakaraupō (Lyttelton Harbour). Craig has worked for Te Rūnanga since 1999, after graduating from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Resource Studies. He also holds Post-Graduate Certificates in Social Science and Applied Science from Lincoln University. He lives in Ōtautahi with his children and partner Janyne who is from Arahura on Te Tai o Poutini/the West Coast.
Abstract: Mātauranga has a valuable role to play in both understanding and measuring the health of the environment, and will be a vital component in maintaining and improving water quality under future management regimes for freshwater. The recently released Land and Water Forum Report supports this and advocates a role for Mātauranga Māori in setting limits, standards and targets, and in ongoing decision making around freshwater. The challenge to making mātauranga matter however is threefold and lies in the development of monitoring standards, methods and processes that adequately reflect mātauranga, the capacity and capability of iwi to undertake and be involved in monitoring, and how this information is actually utilised in decision making. Over the last 10 years, iwi have been developing a number of approaches to respond to these challenges and have begun to build valuable experience that needs to be continued and extended. The 'State of the Takiwā' approach is just one example that utilises a number of methods and aims at allowing tangata whenua to systematically record, collect, collate and report on the cultural health of significant sites, natural resources and the environment within their respective takiwā. Since 2004, it has been used in a number of studies to slowly develop methods and experience amongst iwi and hapū, as well as highlight the role that mātauranga can play in environmental management. This paper provides an overview of the approach, examples of its application as well as recommendations for further research and development in the area of cultural monitoring and health assessment.
Convincing a marae based organisation in a rural area to support a government agency's application for resource consents to itself.
Presenters: Dr Mere Kēpa and Luana Pirihi, Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust, Takahiwai marae, Ruakaka, Northland
Abstract: In this presentation, the presenters will clarify a relationship of co-existence. In this relationship, starting from a standpoint of opposition, we will discuss how and why Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust engages with a government agency, Whangarei District Council, to the benefit of both organisations in the preparation of information for the proposed Ruakaka Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Kanakana/lamprey mātauranga and DIDSON technology: Investigating potential tools to monitor population trends on the Waikawa River, Southland/Murihiku.
Presenters: Dr Jane Kitson, Te Ao Marama Inc , Vincent Leith, Cawthron Institute , Joe Hay, Cawthron Institute, Dean Whaanga, Cawthron Institute
Abstract: The current abundance of kanakana/ lamprey (Geotria australis) is poorly understood. In Southland/Murihiku concern by local Ngāi Tahu about declining numbers of this taonga/treasured species has led to research in the Waikawa River.
Māngai Piri/Niagara Falls on the Waikawa River is a site where the tradition of kanakana harvest continues. Here the fish are taken at night by hand off the rocks on their way up the falls.
The primary research aim is to develop an effective index of kanakana population abundance which can be linked to the practice of mahinga kai (food resource use). Doing so will enable the kaitiaki to conduct the monitoring, interpret the results and integrate matauranga/knowledge into the management of this resource.
In 2009 visual count monitoring of kankana was conducted at Māngai Piri/Niagara Falls; a rock formation that is a physical impediment to migration. Simultaneous recording of harvest tohu/signs indicated possible issues with these counts as a population index. Concentrated kanakana migrations are more likely during higher river flows; however, kanakana are less visible on the rocks at these times because of increased turbidity and the ability of the fish to bypass the falls.
In some other fisheries with poor water clarity Dual-Frequency Identification Sonar (DIDSON) has been used to determine population abundance. The DIDSON system uses sound to produce images of fish at ranges up to 15 metres in high-frequency mode (1.8 MHz) and up to 40 metres in low-frequency mode (1.2 MHz).
In September 2010 DIDSON technology counted the number of migrating kanakana, in association with measurements of river flow, level, electrical conductivity and turbidity. Visual counts were also conducted at two nearby traditional harvesting sites, in order to quantify how effective the count monitoring is as an index of kanakana abundance in the Waikawa River. This research is funded by Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga, the New Zealand Māori Centre of Research Excellence.
In this presentation we will provide an overview of this research, show preliminary results and present on the application of DIDSON technology for fisheries monitoring.
Water Management : A Kaitiakitanga Approach
Presenter: Dr Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa
Abstract: The increasing demand for water is being manifest is many ways, with perhaps the recent dissolution of the democratically elected Environment Canterbury the most extreme example. That action is likely the inevitable outcome of the current (flawed?) system of managing water – one that is based entirely upon economic return.
An alternative can be found by employing a kaitiakitanga approach to water management. Indeed a kaitiakitanga approach would require watershed (catchment) management, with water comprising a key component of the whole system.
Current research in the Tarawera Watershed driven by a kaitiakitanga approach is yielding illuminating results. The whakapapa of waters are being quantified using isotopes. This work was required to determine the input of naturally occurring geothermal contaminants versus anthropogenic contaminants into the Tarawera River.
Another angle is work being undertaken on riparian wetland buffers – the important role of wetlands for healthy watersheds is well understood. Current best-practice for determining placement of wetlands within a watershed optimises by minimising cost, whilst maximising positive social outcomes, pollutant removal and other environmental benefits. This work is focusing on the hitherto little studied effect on cultural well-being.
We propose that a kaitiakitanga aproach to watershed management is far more relevant for contemporary society.
Water Scarcity in a Capitalist World : Waiora in Te Ao Māori. The contrasting dichotomy of water management and governance.
Presenter: Dr Te Kipa Kepa Brian Morgan
Abstract: Capitalist societies consider water to be a common good, freely available for optimised exploitation approaching conceptual tipping points ideally without destroying the ecosystem.
The driver for such a paradigm is economic return. To enhance this process, water is now conceptualised as the four water use definitions; water supply, wastewater, storm water, and ground water; which now attempt to integrate the historically separate management of these engineering challenges into a more efficient whole.
Fritjov Capra has suggested new approaches are necessary however capitalist societies are also highly averse to change due to the perceived threat of altered risk frameworks.
Conversely wai is considered a taonga by indigenous peoples, such as Māori, and is defined in terms of its physical and spiritual states. The mauri of wai is all important and kaitiakitanga determines to enhance or at least maintain its mauri, for its intrinsic value but also for the long-term survival of the ecosystems upon which we depend for survival.
While one paradigm leads to water scarcity, the other introduces metaphysical links that prevent economic value from dominating decision making. Does the alternative offered by indigenous perspectives hold the solutions for the current impasses being faced regarding water management in many local authorities in Aotearoa NZ today?
Tukituki Water Storage Scheme: Cultural Values and relationship to water quality for Tangata Whenua
Presenter: Dr Benita Wakefield Research Fellow, Te Manga Māori, EIT, Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi,
Abstract: Extreme climate change patterns have led to at least four years of severe drought within the Central Hawke's Bay Ruataniwha Plains over the last six years. The Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) is unde3rgoing a feasibility study to develop water storage dams along and beside the Tukituki River. There is a heavy demand on water for irrigation in agricultural, horticultural and other uses.
For years local marae and hapu have been expressing their concerns on the impacts of water take of the waterways which has resulted in significant decline of tuna, fresh water koura, fresh water mussels and other taonga species. There are now several streams that are dried up for longer periods of the year and many of the streams have unsustainable minimum flows and poor water quality affecting the health of ecosystems and taonga species.
The Heretaunga-Tamatea Claim was lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal in 2003 and is seeking cultural and commercial redress of land based assets and natural resources. This includes co-management arrangements over the rivers and streams within the Ruataniwha Plains. There will also be the challenge of cleaning up the rivers and waterways which requires a holistic management approach of the Ruataniwha catchment that includes seven main water ways, streams and tributaries.
The high demand on the rivers and waterways will continue to be an ongoing challenge for Central Hawke's Bay Ruataniwha region. The water irrigation scheme is one ambitious solution which must take into account the cultural values of Tangata Whenua. All nine marae must also be participating in any decision making and development of the proposed river irrigation scheme.