Tikanga Māori must guide climate adaptation strategies for Aotearoa, new research project finds

Sunday, 21 November 2021

As the muttonbird harvest declines and the ocean encroaches on coastal urupā (burial grounds), South Island iwi are using ancestral narratives to guide their response to the impacts of climate change.

Deep South Challenge research by Sandy Morrison and Aimee Kaio, released on Monday as a Story Map, explores the climate challenges facing the South Island iwi of Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa, Ngāi Tahu whānau o Awarua and whānau o Wharekauri.

Te Tai Uka a Pia is the result, an innovative, interactive research project which brings to life iwi relationships with the Southern and Antarctic Oceans. Morrison and Kaio have captured the customary practices of different iwi across Te Waipounamu, using photographs, maps, video and mātauranga Māori to present scientific research in a new and compelling way.

One of the project's findings was that kōrero tuku iho – the ancestral narratives Māori once embraced for survival – and other tikanga Māori were crucial to understanding climatic changes within iwi and hapū rohe.

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Morrison (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa) and Kaio (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tahu, Te Arawa) went to their marae in Motueka and Bluff to showcase mātauranga Māori and demonstrate how this customary knowledge can improve the health of the environment and the people it supports.

Holding wānanga at sites that are important historically, culturally and spiritually was critical to igniting whānau understandings of climate change, they said.

At Te Āwhina Marae in Motueka, the ancestral narratives of Hui te Rangiora, a Polynesian navigator who travelled deep into the Southern Ocean before resting at Riuwaka, was in danger of being lost, Morrison said, but it gained new life as a tool for increasing awareness and understanding of climate change.

“For the first time, our whānau are telling our stories. We’re keeping these precious tāonga alive which hold knowledge of our wāhi tapu, our connection to place, and how to interact with it,” Morrison said.

Wānanga also helped local iwi and hapū to explore the impacts of climate change on low-lying urupā. At Motu Hui te Rangiora the sea is expected to rise by almost one metre by 2090, but it will only be 30 years before saltwater infiltrates the urupā. Now whānau are considering appropriate tikanga to respond to this.

Further south, Ngāi Tahu whānau o Awarua have been watching as the number of tītī, muttonbirds, continues to decline. The tītī harvest has been a customary food practice of Ngāi Tahu in Motupōhue (Bluff) for generations.

The muttonbird population is a key indicator of the sub-Antarctic region’s environment, but since 1960, Māori have documented the decline in their harvests on the Rakiura Tītī Islands.

“This time is precious for our mutton-birders each year,” Kaio said. “They know their islands so well, and the way they document change over time and understand exactly what they’re seeing with their manu is observational research at its best.”

Protecting the tītī harvest was a key climate adaptation priority for Ngāi Tahu whānau o Awarua, as the mahinga kai practice reaffirmed their ancestral links to the islands.

At Te Rau Aroha Marae in Bluff, whānau turn to the stories of early Polynesian navigator Tamarereti to understand how their ancestors might have responded to crisis, challenge or change, in order to move forward in uncertain times.

Across New Zealand there are many engaged in traditional food gathering, who, through that connection to the land, know the climate crisis is also a cultural crisis.

They needed to share their customary knowledge with others, Māori and Pākehā, to help them renew their relationships with their wāhi tapu, sacred places, and the land, the researchers said.

Morrison said using a holistic approach informed by tikanga and the stories gathered from marae of the changes in the environment will strengthen the climate change response.

This is how life is navigated to ensure there is balance, Morrison said.

“When I bring that to the present, it’s not only acknowledging we have a spiritual side and mauri [life force], but we have a relationship with each other.

“We are in a web of interconnectedness with each other, where an action impacts the next.

“Now, we are experiencing climate change. We need to find out where that degradation started and work on how we can stop that happening now.”

Using ancestral stories such as those of Hui te Rangiora and Tamarereti, Morrison hoped to inspire young people to learn about their environments and become the kaitiaki, guardians, of their wāhi tapu.

Hui te Rangiora and Tamarereti learned to move with their environment, not against it, which was how climate change needed to be approached, Morrison said.

“We’re at that critical part with climate change, where all of these changes need to be made now.

“It’s not about what knowledge system is better than the other, we wanted to put value on their own knowledge systems and show them what it could mean, and translate that into the practice of valuing and restoring your own wāhi tapu.”

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Morrison urged those who had become distant from their marae to reach out and reconnect with the land their ancestors walked on.

“This will help hapū and marae to know that they all have something to offer and through their knowledge, they will know they are valuable.”