Te Waipounamu Research Articles

Educating the Teacher Educators: Embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi Relationships in Ongoing Professional Learning and Development

Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the founding document for Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu New Zealand, establishes Māori authority and sovereignty over lands as well as Māori ways of being, doing and knowing (mātauranga Māori). This article describes how a professional learning and development (PLD) programme for university staff was implemented to increase staff integration of te reo Māori (Māori language) and inclusion of Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnerships and relationships in education. Drawing from Kaupapa Māori principles and Te Tiriti o Waitangi framework, two non-Māori lecturers met with two Māori lecturers to better integrate te reo me kā tikaka Māori (Māori language and cultural practices) into their courses. This pairing was created to ensure that a range of Māori and non-Māori perspectives were recognized. Thematic analysis of PLD session transcripts and critical reflexions have indicated the importance of relational, personalised PLD; access to knowledge, skills, and resources; and safe spaces for risk-taking. Outcomes have included increased motivation, confidence and integration of te reo me kā tikaka Māori throughout programmes and increased confidence as Te Tiriti o Waitangi partners. As a result, the PLD programme has had increased uptake with other staff and has provoked change in teaching and learning.

Teaching Gender and Sexual Diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand: How Hierarchies and Surveillance Shape What is Possible

The ways that gender and sexuality are included within secondary school teaching has implications for students’ understandings and ongoing wellbeing. In this research we interviewed nine educators who work in secondary schools in Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand) about how they approach gender and sexuality within their teaching and what informs these approaches. Foucauldian discourse analysis was used to analyse the interview data. Educators’ approaches to gender and sexuality were shaped by the subject(s) they teach, educational context, and subjectivity in relation to their own gender and sexuality. Educators were conscious of the systems of hierarchy and surveillance within education settings, which often limited their willingness to include content that explored gender and sexual diversity. These findings help inform efforts to create more inclusive school environments and suggest that educators need to feel safe including diverse discourses of gender and sexuality within their teaching.

Weaving place-based knowledge for culturally significant species in the age of genomics: Looking to the past to navigate the future.

Relationships with place provide critical context for characterizing biocultural diversity. Yet, genetic and genomic studies are rarely informed by Indigenous or local knowledge, processes, and practices, including the movement of culturally significant species. Here, we show how place‐based knowledge can better reveal the biocultural complexities of genetic or genomic data derived from culturally significant species. As a case study, we focus on culturally significant southern freshwater kōura (crayfish) in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu (New Zealand, herein Aotearoa NZ). Our results, based on genotyping‐by‐sequencing markers, reveal strong population genetic structure along with signatures of population admixture in 19 genetically depauperate populations across the east coast of Te Waipounamu. Environment association and differentiation analyses for local adaptation also indicate a role for hydroclimatic variables—including temperature, precipitation, and water flow regimes—in shaping local adaptation in kōura. Through trusted partnerships between community and researchers, weaving genomic markers with place‐based knowledge has both provided invaluable context for the interpretation of data and created opportunities to reconnect people and place. We envisage such trusted partnerships guiding future genomic research for culturally significant species in Aotearoa NZ and beyond.

The ecological importance of moss ground cover in dry shrubland restoration within an irrigated agricultural landscape matrix.

Kānuka (Kunzea serotina, Myrtaceae) dryland shrubland communities of the lowland plains of South Island (Te Wai Pounamu), New Zealand (Aoteoroa), contain a ground cover largely consisting of mosses, predominantly Hypnum cupressiforme. There has been no previous study of the role of mosses in this threatened habitat which is currently being restored within a contemporary irrigated and intensively farmed landscape that may be incompatible with this component of the ecosystem.The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of moss ground cover on hydrology, nitrogen (N) availability and vascular plant interactions, and in relation to nutrient spillover from adjacent farmland. Experimental work was a combination of glasshouse experiments and field‐based studies.Extremes of soil temperature and moisture were found to be mediated by the moss carpet, which also influenced N speciation; available N declined with moss depth. The moss layer decreased the amount of germination and establishment of vascular plants but, in some cases, enhanced their growth. Spillover of mineral nitrogen and phosphate from farmland enhanced invasion of exotic grasses which may have benefited from conditions provided by the moss carpet. Synthesis: We found the moss layer to be crucial to ecosystem functioning in these dry habitats with low nutrient substrate. However, when the moss layer is accompanied by nutrient spillover, it has the potential to increase exotic weed encroachment. Our results not only emphasize the importance of non‐vascular plant inclusion in restoration schemes but also highlights the importance of mitigating for nutrient spillover.

It’s a Matter of Trust: Ngāi Tahu Democratic Processes and Māori Pākehā Research Partnership

The Ngāi Tahu indigenous Māori community of Aotearoa/New Zealand successfully maintained 150 years of legal grievance against the British Crown following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and colonization. The importance of women leaders, the guiding role of elders, the long-term commitment to intergenerational health for all tribal members, the democratic processes in the current context for Ngāi Tahu iwi within Aotearoa and engagement with the legal system was crucial in building towards a post-conflict society. Alongside this there were and are creative empowerment processes that nourished cultural vitality. This paper shares a ‘conversational exchange’ about the processes that occurred after Treaty of Waitangi settlement was reached, as the tribe stepped into the challenge of navigating the complicated additional corporate, bureaucratic, governance, and legal structures. The eldest Māori woman from Ōtākou Marae, Te Waipounamu (South Island), describes her experience of listening to the old people, going to tribal hui (meetings) and creating support and services in the Māori community. Her words, presented in full, modelling innovative methodology that prioritises the role of transparent Southern Māori and Pākehā conversation in a post-settlement environment. The relationship of trust between the authors, representing two cultures with a history of colonization, grew over several decades of shared discussion, cultural supervision and listening. Our kōrero (conversation) begins with one question: What are the effects of democracy on sustainable culture and community?

Morphological analyses support recognition of three new threatened species of bracteate–prostrate

Statistical analyses of two morphological datasets, including 190 newly measured specimens, showed that individuals of Myosotis (Boraginaceae) from Te Waipounamu / South Island, Aotearoa, New Zealand, identified a priori with three different informal tag names, belong to the bracteate–prostrate group, are morphologically distinct from each other and from other species, and merit scientific description. Myosotis hikuwai Meudt, Prebble & G.M.Rogers is known from one location near Wānaka (Otago), has an unusual erect, spring annual habit, and is most similar to M. brevis and M. glauca, with which it is sympatric. Myosotis venticola Meudt & Prebble comprises plants that were sometimes previously identified as M. cheesemanii from certain ranges in Otago and southern Canterbury, but with retrorse trichomes present on the abaxial and adaxial side of the rosette leaves. Myosotis ultramafica Meudt, Prebble & Rance comprises individuals from ultramafic sites in certain ranges in Southland, and is most similar to M. cheesemanii and M. lyallii. We recommend that all three new species are listed as Threatened under the New Zealand Threat Classification System. In addition to descriptions and illustrations, the three new species are also included in a revised key to the nineteen species of southern hemisphere bracteate–prostrate Myosotis.

A city profile of Ōtautahi Christchurch

This city profile provides a transdisciplinary story of Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. We take a socio-cultural history approach to describe multiple disruptions that have led to the city's current urban form and community resilience, with a specific emphasis on the experiences of Māori since colonisation. Ōtautahi Christchurch is the ancestral home of Ngāi Tahu people who exercise mana whenua - Indigenous sovereignty with respect to land, derived from genealogy and occupation. The area was colonised in the early 1800s and the city's strong colonial English ties are still visible in the city's layout, public spaces, urban representations, and architecture. Te Waipounamu South Island lies in an active fault zone resulting in high seismic activity. The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence 2010-2012 had a significant impact on the health of local communities, infrastructure and economies across the region. Subsequent recovery and long-term regeneration strategies across the region have been developed and partly implemented to date. Citizens embrace collaborative temporary urban projects to bridge the gap between emergency response and urban recovery with a return of Māori influence post-quake. This type of place-making contributes to the re-establishment of a sense of place in Ōtautahi Christchurch and a continuous engagement focused in reconnecting the citizens with the city. With this city profile we contribute to the field of critical geographies by sharing the cultural lessons learnt on indigenous resilience to disasters recovery, which may be of relevance to other cities facing ecological and cultural disruptions.

Archaeological science meets Māori knowledge to model pre-Columbian sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) dispersal to Polynesia's southernmost habitable margins.

Most scholars of the subject consider that a pre-Columbian transpacific transfer accounts for the historical role of American sweet potato Ipomoea batatas as the kūmara staple of Indigenous New Zealand/Aotearoa Māori in cooler southwestern Polynesia. Archaeologists have recorded evidence of ancient Polynesian I. batatas cultivation from warmer parts of generally temperate-climate Aotearoa, while assuming that the archipelago’s traditional Murihiku region in southern South Island/Te Waipounamu was too cold to grow and store live Polynesian crops, including relatively hardy kūmara. However, archaeological pits in the form of seasonal Māori kūmara stores (rua kūmara) have been discovered unexpectedly at Pūrākaunui on eastern Murihuku’s Otago coast, over 200 km south of the current Polynesian limit of record for premodern I. batatas production. Secure pit deposits that incorporate starch granules with I. batatas characteristics are radiocarbon-dated within the decadal range 1430–1460 CE at 95% probability in a Bayesian age model, about 150 years after Polynesians first settled Te Waipounamu. These archaeological data become relevant to a body of Māori oral history accounts and traditional knowledge (mātauranga) concerning southern kūmara, incorporating names, memories, landscape features and seemingly enigmatic references to an ancient Murihiku crop presence. Selected components of this lore are interpreted through comparative exegesis for correlation with archaeological science results in testable models of change. In a transfer and adaptation model, crop stores if not seasonal production technologies also were introduced from a warmer, agricultural Aotearoa region into dune microclimates of 15th-century coastal Otago to mitigate megafaunal loss, and perhaps to support Polynesia’s southernmost residential chiefdom in its earliest phase. A crop loss model proposes that cooler seasonal temperatures of the post-1450 Little Ice Age and (or) political change constrained kūmara supply and storage options in Murihiku. The loss model allows for the disappearance of kūmara largely, but not entirely, as a traditional Otago crop presence in Māori social memory.

The Wealth of Knowledge: Land-Grab Universities in a British Imperial and Global Context

The Wealth of Knowledge:Land-Grab Universities in a British Imperial and Global Context Caitlin P. A. Harvey (bio) the colonial legacy of the American land-grant university traced by the Land-Grab Universities (LGU) project, of public universities "built not just on Indigenous land, but with Indigenous land," reveals a far-reaching pattern of institutional development that relied on the leasing and selling of enormous tracts of expropriated Indigenous lands to raise universities' endowment capital.1 The mechanism effecting this tremendous land redistribution was the Morrill Act (1862). Yet while it was the largest, the Morrill Act was not the only legislative grant of Indigenous land made to fund higher education in the United States or among settler societies worldwide. Contextualizing the LGU findings within the larger history of land-grant universities in British settlement societies makes clear that the American land-grant phenomenon was just one episode in the expanding territoriality of settler-colonial universities. Particularly in Canada and New Zealand but also in Australia and South Africa, fledgling public universities received substantial blocks of unceded Indigenous territory as financing from their governments. The development of America's educational institutions, therefore, did not unfold in isolation from the trends established in other Anglo-dominant settler societies. When we consider the land-grant university in British imperial and global perspective, the full territoriality of land-grant universities comprises over 15 million acres spread over three continents (table 1). Settlers' provincial and federal governments sponsored land-grant institutions with the aim of applying scientific methods to agriculture, fostering technological innovation, and creating an internationally competitive yet civic-minded workforce.2 In New Zealand (Aotearoa) in 1869, for instance, the Province of Otago's legislators issued deeds of 100,000 acres for the University of Otago, followed by another 100,000 acres on the South Island (Te Waipounamu) in the 1870s.3 The Ngāi Tahu disputed this reallocation. But with the New Zealand Wars ongoing and swayed by the complaints of Otago University's largest land lessee, Robert Campbell, the colonial state evicted the Māori landholders.4 [End Page 97] Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Aggregate Totals of University Land by Grant and Location In England, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had long relied on the rental income generated by landholding. Even today, the Oxbridge colleges "are among the largest institutional landowners" in land-scarce England.5 Settler societies carried on this European custom on a larger and more devastating scale. Particularly where capital was lacking from benefactions, fees, or government subsidies, the resort to land-granting was continuous. As early as 1619, the British government assigned 10,000 acres to a "Henrico College" in Virginia. Warfare with the Powhatan Confederacy and chronic underpopulation ensured that this institution was short-lived.6 Reaching forward to the nineteenth century and prior to the Morrill Act, The Constitutional History of New York indicates that in 1846 the U.S. [End Page 98] government released to "Tennessee 1,300,000 acres of public land in that state for the endowment of a college."7 This land, nearly the size of Delaware, lay to the "south and west of the Congressional reservation line." Supposedly "vacant and unappropriated Lands" existed there after the violent removal of the Cherokee.8 In nearly the same moment, one of the earliest educational land grants in British North America went to King's College, a precursor to the University of Toronto, in 1828. An Anglican bishop, John Strachan, secured 225,944 acres of valuable Crown Reserves for the new college.9 It is likely that much of this property once supported the Mississaugas of New Credit (Mississauga Ojibwa). Under the strain of recurring Indigenous-settler skirmishes, the Mississaugas ceded 250,808 acres of their land—covering most of what is now the city of Toronto and region of York—first to the British Crown in 1787 and then to the Upper Canadian government in 1805. The Toronto Purchase, as these agreements became known, followed the influx of Loyalists into Upper Canada after the American Revolutionary War.10 Following Canadian Confederation in 1867, institutions of higher learning repeated Toronto's (and, by then, also...

The Wealth of Knowledge: <em>Land-Grab Universities</em> in a British Imperial and Global Context

The Wealth of Knowledge:Land-Grab Universities in a British Imperial and Global Context Caitlin P. A. Harvey (bio) the colonial legacy of the American land-grant university traced by the Land-Grab Universities (LGU) project, of public universities "built not just on Indigenous land, but with Indigenous land," reveals a far-reaching pattern of institutional development that relied on the leasing and selling of enormous tracts of expropriated Indigenous lands to raise universities' endowment capital.1 The mechanism effecting this tremendous land redistribution was the Morrill Act (1862). Yet while it was the largest, the Morrill Act was not the only legislative grant of Indigenous land made to fund higher education in the United States or among settler societies worldwide. Contextualizing the LGU findings within the larger history of land-grant universities in British settlement societies makes clear that the American land-grant phenomenon was just one episode in the expanding territoriality of settler-colonial universities. Particularly in Canada and New Zealand but also in Australia and South Africa, fledgling public universities received substantial blocks of unceded Indigenous territory as financing from their governments. The development of America's educational institutions, therefore, did not unfold in isolation from the trends established in other Anglo-dominant settler societies. When we consider the land-grant university in British imperial and global perspective, the full territoriality of land-grant universities comprises over 15 million acres spread over three continents (table 1). Settlers' provincial and federal governments sponsored land-grant institutions with the aim of applying scientific methods to agriculture, fostering technological innovation, and creating an internationally competitive yet civic-minded workforce.2 In New Zealand (Aotearoa) in 1869, for instance, the Province of Otago's legislators issued deeds of 100,000 acres for the University of Otago, followed by another 100,000 acres on the South Island (Te Waipounamu) in the 1870s.3 The Ngāi Tahu disputed this reallocation. But with the New Zealand Wars ongoing and swayed by the complaints of Otago University's largest land lessee, Robert Campbell, the colonial state evicted the Māori landholders.4 [End Page 97] Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Aggregate Totals of University Land by Grant and Location In England, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had long relied on the rental income generated by landholding. Even today, the Oxbridge colleges "are among the largest institutional landowners" in land-scarce England.5 Settler societies carried on this European custom on a larger and more devastating scale. Particularly where capital was lacking from benefactions, fees, or government subsidies, the resort to land-granting was continuous. As early as 1619, the British government assigned 10,000 acres to a "Henrico College" in Virginia. Warfare with the Powhatan Confederacy and chronic underpopulation ensured that this institution was short-lived.6 Reaching forward to the nineteenth century and prior to the Morrill Act, The Constitutional History of New York indicates that in 1846 the U.S. [End Page 98] government released to "Tennessee 1,300,000 acres of public land in that state for the endowment of a college."7 This land, nearly the size of Delaware, lay to the "south and west of the Congressional reservation line." Supposedly "vacant and unappropriated Lands" existed there after the violent removal of the Cherokee.8 In nearly the same moment, one of the earliest educational land grants in British North America went to King's College, a precursor to the University of Toronto, in 1828. An Anglican bishop, John Strachan, secured 225,944 acres of valuable Crown Reserves for the new college.9 It is likely that much of this property once supported the Mississaugas of New Credit (Mississauga Ojibwa). Under the strain of recurring Indigenous-settler skirmishes, the Mississaugas ceded 250,808 acres of their land—covering most of what is now the city of Toronto and region of York—first to the British Crown in 1787 and then to the Upper Canadian government in 1805. The Toronto Purchase, as these agreements became known, followed the influx of Loyalists into Upper Canada after the American Revolutionary War.10 Following Canadian Confederation in 1867, institutions of higher learning repeated Toronto's (and, by then, also...

Economic re-colonisation: Financialisation, indigeneity and the epistemic violence of resolution

The 1998 Ngāi Tahu-Crown Te Tiriti o Waitangi-Treaty of Waitangi settlement represents a long battle for justice concerning Te Waipounamu (South Island) of Aotearoa, New Zealand. We focus on the resolution practices of the New Zealand Government and the impacts of financialising historic harm as economic techniques dominate the articulation of resolution. The paper challenges three main ideas. First, it illustrates a logical impossibility in a process of ‘resolution’ determined by the Crown. Second, it challenges the financialisation rhetoric applied in ‘resolving’ harm caused. Third, it challenges the imposition of economic control in requiring Ngāi Tahu to establish a corporate structure to be eligible to receive settlement. These three elements constitute ‘economic re-colonisation’ by denying alternative approaches to resolution and knowledge and consequently, the rhetoric of resolution constitutes ‘epistemic violence’.

An Indigenous self-determination social movement response to COVID-19

For Māori in New Zealand, COVID-19 is remarkable in two particular ways. First, we bet the odds for the first time in contemporary history. Forecasts predicted that Māori would have double the infection and mortality rates of non-Māori. However, as at June 2020, Māori have a disproportionately lower infection rate than non-Māori. This is perhaps the only example in our contemporary history of the Māori community having better social outcomes than non-Māori. Second is that attribution is due, perhaps not exclusively, but materially to a self-determination social movement within our Indigenous communities that the pandemic response unveiled and accelerated. This article comments on this self-determination social movement, with a particular focus on how that movement has manifested within the South Island of New Zealand. We specifically draw on the work of Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, the South Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to illustrate our analysis.

In Wakefield’s laboratory: Tangata Whenua into property/labour in Te Waipounamu

This article follows the alchemical political economy of Edward Gibbon Wakefield for whom Kāi Tahu whenua served as a laboratory. Wakefield’s clever formula for the transubstantiation of an incendiary social situation in Britain into new terrain for capital was designed to secure the transplantation of English economic and social relations to the colonies to ensure the persistence of a landless class compelled to sell their labour for wages. Ingeniously, the transport of that labour to the colonies was to be paid for by the market in land in the new colony: Kāi Tahu would be made to fund their own colonisation. I track the fate of capital’s settler dream for ready land and labour as it was brought into being by the New Zealand Company, subsequently taken over by the Crown, and as it continues into our present. The argument is divided into two parts. The first is the classical moment of primitive accumulation, clearing people from the land to provide a market in land and labour, ‘legal’ dispossession, and commodification. The second is the more recent continuation of the initial processes of dispossession and commodification as these assert themselves in processes of redress and as they are expressed in the corporatisation of Ngāi Tahu.

He korowai o Matainaka / The cloak of Matainaka: Traditional ecological knowledge in climate change adaptation – Te Wai Pounamu, New Zealand

He korowai o Matainaka / The cloak of Matainaka: Traditional ecological knowledge in climate change adaptation – Te Wai Pounamu, New Zealand

Māori Issues

Māori Issues Margaret Mutu The 2017 general election delivered twenty-nine members of Parliament of Māori descent, twenty of whom are in government, with eight of those becoming ministers. Māori also featured in sporting successes, especially women's rugby and men's softball. At the same time, racism against Māori became more blatant as decisions to allow Māori to have their own representation in local government were all successfully overturned. Māori continue to be disproportionately impacted by the effects of poverty in stark contrast to the Pākehā (European) population, which enjoys relative affluence. That drew criticism [End Page 202] yet again from two United Nations treaty bodies as Māori continue to be denied our rights under both Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since coming to power in late 2017, the new government has appeared to be more caring than the last, but little has changed for the large number of Māori struggling to survive in increasingly harsh socioeconomic conditions while still trying to protect our natural resources from overexploitation. Before reviewing these issues, we will pause to remember a number of leaders we lost during this period, all of whom spent their lives fighting to achieve justice for Māori. Ngāi Tahu of Te Waipounamu (the South Island) lost some well-loved and widely respected elders and leaders. Trevor Howse passed away in May 2017. He helped organize and drive Ngāi Tahu's treaty claim behind the scenes, collating a vast amount of the information that was presented to the Waitangi Tribunal. He was also part of the Ngāi Tahu team that spearheaded the negotiation process and resulted in one of the biggest treaty claims settlements to date (Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu 2014). So too was Kuao Langsbury, who passed away in October. He first took a leadership role in Ngāi Tahu in 1961 when he was elected the chair of Ōtākou Rūnanga at the age of twenty-five (Waatea News 2017a). Then in January 2018 it was the gentle elder, leader, and Māori language, culture, and history teacher Kukupa Tirikātene. He provided advice and support for Ngāi Tahu's leadership and contributed to the recovery of their dialect of the Māori language. Tirikātene came from a family of long-serving members of Parliament. His father, Sir Eruera, his sister, Whetū (Tirikātene-Sullivan), and his nephew, Te Rino, have all served as members of Parliament for the Southern Māori or Te Tai Tonga electorate (Waatea News 2018b). Artist, teacher, master carver, and heritage advocate Dr Cliff Whiting of Te Whānau a Apanui passed away in July 2017. He worked on a number of modern-day meetinghouses including the spectacular Te Hono ki Hawaiki on Rongomaraeroa Marae at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Te Kupenga o Te Mātauranga at Palmerston North Teachers' College, Maru Kaitatea on Takahanga Marae in Kaikoura, and Tahu Pōtiki on Te Rau Aroha Marae in Bluff. He also undertook large-scale murals for a number of government buildings including the New Zealand MetService, the National Library of New Zealand, and the Christchurch High Court (Hunt 2017). Strong, outspoken, yet gentle Māori rights advocate Nuki Aldridge of Ngāpuhi passed away in November 2017. His expertise and knowledge of northern history was legend, particularly that relating to the formation of the collective of leaders, Te Whakaminenga o Ngā Hapū o Nu Tireni, who were responsible for the country's first constitutional document, the 1835 He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni, or the declaration of hapū (grouping of extended families) sovereignty often referred to in English as the Declaration of Independence. Nuki was a key witness in the hearings of the Waitangi Tribunal on the mid-northern claims. The tribunal went on to issue in 2014 its [End Page 203] groundbreaking findings that Ngāpuhi did not cede sovereignty to the British when they signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. New Zealand's constitutional arrangements and parliamentary institutions have all been built on the...

Historical translocations by M\u0101ori may explain the distribution and genetic structure of a threatened surf clam in Aotearoa (New Zealand)

The population genetic structure of toheroa (Paphies ventricosa), an Aotearoa (New Zealand) endemic surf clam, was assessed to determine levels of inter-population connectivity and test hypotheses regarding life history, habitat distribution and connectivity in coastal vs. estuarine taxa. Ninety-eight toheroa from populations across the length of New Zealand were sequenced for the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene with analyses suggesting a population genetic structure unique among New Zealand marine invertebrates. Toheroa genetic diversity was high in Te Ika-a Māui (the North Island of New Zealand) but completely lacking in the south of Te Waipounamu (the South Island), an indication of recent isolation. Changes in habitat availability, long distance dispersal events or translocation of toheroa to southern New Zealand by Māori could explain the observed geographic distribution of toheroa and their genetic diversity. Given that early-Māori and their ancestors, were adept at food cultivation and relocation, the toheroa translocation hypothesis is plausible and may explain the disjointed modern distribution of this species. Translocation would also explain the limited success in restoring what may in some cases be ecologically isolated populations located outside their natural distributions and preferred niches.

Integrating agroecology and sustainable tourism: applying geodesign to farm management in Aotearoa New Zealand

In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori land is frequently owned by local communities and managed by trusts. For such arrangements on rural holdings, land managers often wish both to provide for their communities and implement agricultural management practices in a culturally responsive manner. Agroecology offers an alternative model of land management and provides opportunities for the development of visitor programmes to learn about and observe traditional practices. This paper reports on the integration of agroecology and tourism on a working farm in Te Wai Pounamu South Island, Aotearoa New Zealand. The programme successfully applied spatial analysis in a geographical information system (GIS) within an iterative geodesign framework to plan a route for visitor access across the farm, with suitable areas identified for information platforms located strategically along the way. These agritourism related features were visually communicated through maps generated by the GIS. Such visualisation makes the possible consequences of change more accessible and understandable to decision makers. As well as satisfying the need to verify the approach empirically, there are plans underway to apply GIS in this way to other similarly managed farms in Aotearoa New Zealand. Highlights: Iterative geodesign approach used to evolve sites for access paths and information platforms Approach is of public interest, hence the need for planning farm access facilities for tourists Agroecology-based plan for managing a traditionally run farm in Aotearoa New Zealand Local cultural values addressed by GIS for positive environmental and economic impact

Understanding Aotearoa’s past through the recovery and conservation of a 15th-century canoe and its fibrework from Papanui Inlet, Otago Peninsula

When Tasman and Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1642 and 1769 respectively they both sighted double-hulled canoes ('waka') on New Zealand's coast. However, over the next 100 or so years these canoes disappeared. Fortuitously the recent rescue and conservation of a waterlogged 'waka' and fibrework assemblage on the shores of Papanui Inlet has allowed rare insight into the lives of its inhabitants nearly 550 years ago, when New Zealand's seminal migrants established themselves in the remote south of New Zealand. These discoveries reinforce traditional stories around early Maori occupation of Te Waipounamu and offer additional clarification of 'iwi' 'tribal' activities in their local environment many generations ago. Conservation of these 'taoka' 'treasures' on Otakou Marae has provided easy, continuous access for descendants of the 'waka' to their 'taoka' throughout the process and aided the development of constructive relationships for 'iwi' and conservation and archaeological agencies. Here we discuss recent fieldwork with an emphasis on conservation, cross-cultural engagement and the assemblage recovered to date, followed by comparison of the waka reported here with another discovered within the Te Runanga o Otakou 'rohe' 'territory' over 120 years ago by Elsdon Best. Imminent investigations to excavate cultural material from Papanui Inlet's actively degrading coastline are scheduled for January 2018, and the resulting environmental and archaeological information from this research will be discussed fully elsewhere.

Retracing Ancestral Footsteps

In Aotearoa New Zealand, retracing the footsteps of famous Maori tipuna or ancestral trails is not a new phenomena, but the availability of social media has enabled this information more accessible, reaching a wider audience. Events span from retracing tribal battles, following ancestral mountain trails to the moana and beyond. One such voyage, involved a group of 50 students from Tauranga Moana, who retraced their ancestral connections of the Takitimu waka back to Rarotonga (Te Kanawa, 30 July 2016). The Commemoration of the Battle of Ruapekapeka also followed the footsteps of tipuna, the famous warrior chief Te Ruki Kawiti and his peoples, whose memories were honoured by a 400 strong haka party, dignitaries, politicians and hundreds of people, (Forbes, 2016). Following the journey of Tainui rangatira, was a pre-season bonding exercise that Waikato Chiefs rugby coach Dave Rennie identified as beneficial for his players to learn more about their surroundings ‘…an arduous two-day torture test which connected with the past, the land, the people and the sea they will represent this season’ (Napier, 2013). Over the last three decades, there has also been an increasing interest in the histories of Māori prophets throughout Aotearoa. The journey of children from Parihaka Pa was made into a documentary named Tatarakihi: The Children of Parihaka (2012), which followed the ancestral journey of their tipuna Te Whiti ō Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi (and their people), arrested in Parihaka Taranaki for ploughing their land and wrongfully imprisoned in Christchurch and Dunedin without trial (www.parihakafilm.com; https://www.nzonscreen.com). The Tamakaimoana people also undertook a pilgrimage in December 2013 to retrace the footsteps of their prophet Rua Kenana from Maungapōhatu (Te Karere, April 4 2016). Several Gisborne iwi recently retraced the route from Gisborne to the Rēkohu Chatham Islands following their prophet Te Kooti Arikirangi (Smith, 2016). Retracing the footsteps of ancestors is not only a physical undertaking, but for many, also an emotional, cultural and spiritual journey. The Waitaha People of Te Waipounamu South Island, retraced Te Maihāroa (? – 1885) and Te Heke (The Migration 1877-79) on a contemporary peace walk called Te Heke Omaramataka (2012). The experiences of these trekkers were captured by filmmaker Bronwyn Judge in a free to view documentary entitled ‘Te Heke 2012 Waitaki Mouth to Omarama’ (Judge, B, 2012, Youtube: Te Heke 2012 Waitaki Mouth to Omarama). This paper is based on the whanau journals recorded by participants as they trekked from the Waitaki river mouth to Omarama in December 2012.

Climate‐driven thresholds for chemical weathering in postglacial soils of New Zealand

AbstractChemical weathering in soils dissolves and alters minerals, mobilizes metals, liberates nutrients to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and may modulate Earth's climate over geologic time scales. Climate‐weathering relationships are often considered fundamental controls on the evolution of Earth's surface and biogeochemical cycles. However, surprisingly little consensus has emerged on if and how climate controls chemical weathering, and models and data from published literature often give contrasting correlations and predictions for how weathering rates and climate variables such as temperature or moisture are related. Here we combine insights gained from the different approaches, methods, and theory of the soil science, biogeochemistry, and geomorphology communities to tackle the fundamental question of how rainfall influences soil chemical properties. We explore climate‐driven variations in weathering and soil development in young, postglacial soils of New Zealand, measuring soil elemental geochemistry along a large precipitation gradient (400–4700 mm/yr) across the Waitaki basin on Te Waipounamu, the South Island. Our data show a strong climate imprint on chemical weathering in these young soils. This climate control is evidenced by rapid nonlinear changes along the gradient in total and exchangeable cations in soils and in the increased movement and redistribution of metals with rainfall. The nonlinear behavior provides insight into why climate‐weathering relationships may be elusive in some landscapes. These weathering thresholds also have significant implications for how climate may influence landscape evolution and the release of rock‐derived nutrients to ecosystems, as landscapes that transition to wetter climates across this threshold may weather and deplete rapidly.