Role of indigenous Māori people in collaborative water governance in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Informed by debates in recent literature on indigenous peoples’ role in water governance, our research examines recent initiatives to enhance the role of Māori in water governance in Aotearoa/New Zealand based on the case of recently reinvented hybrid governance arrangements for Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere. The water governance landscape in New Zealand has been significantly reconfigured in the last 25 years, with wide-ranging changes precipitated by the neo-liberal agendas of recent governments. Running alongside this neo-liberal agenda was the revival of indigenous rights language during the 1970s, a reflection of growing political recognition of the aboriginal customary natural resource ownership and management rights. Set within this geo-political context, we argue that three factors, property rights, globalisation and the regulatory planning environment for management, both enable and constrain indigenous people to govern natural resources within a post-colonial society such as New Zealand.