Maori Perspectives

Forest and Bird, Issue 292, 1 May 1999, Page 3

Maori Perspectives

As members proud of our organization’s 75-year record, we were delighted the November 1998 issue devoted a section to visioning the society’s next quarter century. We were stimulated by the range of thoughtful opinion presented by you and your five colleagues, but also we were left with serious misgivings at what was not said. Where was the recognition of partnership with Maori? Apart from Gordon Stephenson’s mention of advice to rural marae on native plantings and your own aside about ‘socially concerned [members]... sharing concerns with other groups and Maori’, there was no acknowledgement that Maori should and will have a major role in shaping the ecological future of this country. Are we blind to the centrality for Maori of concerns about this land and its life-forms embodied in their self-definition as tangata whenua, ‘people of the land’? We believe our society will be guilty of both neglect and arrogance if we rely solely on the brief 150 years of Pakeha experience of New Zealand ecosystems to the exclusion of the 1000 or more years of Maori experience. It is from this experience that the ecological concepts kaitiaki (guardian), mauri (life force), wairua (spirit) and whenua (land as nurturer) have emerged. There is much here for us to learn. We believe the environmental future of New Zealand can best be prospered in relationship with Maori. John Broomfield, Pelorus Sound Susan Forbes, Paekakariki Hill Peter Horsley, Palmerston North Geoff Park, Wellington Joan Ropiha, Wellington