Image: Erana Walker with Te Pūnaha Matatini Co-Director Cilla Wehi.
2 December 2024
Kua takahia kua tākina e Erana Walker te ara ki te whakarauora taiao ki te tāonenui. Ki tōna wā kāinga ake, ki roto o tōna whānau ake, he āhua māmā te whai o te kaitiakitanga ki reira. Ēngari mō roto o iwi kē, ki wāhi kē, he mana whenua anō o reira hei aha koa te tini o ngā mata-ā-waka, ngā tūākiri, ngā whakapapa kē atu.
Nō tāna āta tirotiro i te whīwhiwhi o ngā hononga o waenga o ngā tāngata whenua, o ngā mata-ā-waka, me te taiao tāna tuhinga mō te kaitiakitanga ki ngā takiwā tāonenui. Kua whakamihatia e te New Zealand Ecological Society, kua whakawhiwhia a Erana ki tā rātou tohu ‘Oustanding Publication on New Zealand Ecology.’
He whakahirahira ki te ao Māori ki te 80 paihēneti o ngā iwi/Māori kei ngā taonenui e noho ana. I ētehi wā he uaua kē te hono a te tangata ki a Papatūānuku ki te takiwā o ngā taonenui. He hirahira anō taua uaua ki te kore te tangata e whai whakapapa ki taua takiwā. He aukatinga nō te tauwehenga mai i te ūkaipō, me te kore mārama ki aua takiwā tauhou.
Heoi anō he kaha kē ake te whai a ngā iwi/Māori mē he whakapānga ki ngā mātauranga iwi taketake. Kei aua māramatanga mai he tiaki i te whakarauora o te taiao me te haere ngātahi o te akiaki i ngā tikanga a te manawhenua, he whaiora mō te taiao, mō te tangata.
Ko Erana tētehi pia o Te Tira Maurikura o Te Pūnaha Matatini. Ko ana kaiāwhina ki tēnei rangahau ko Tim Jowett o Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou rātou, ko Cilla Wehi ko Hēmi Whaanga tētehi o ngā pou rangahau o Te Pūnaha Matatini ko Cilla Wehi tētehi o ngā tumuaki o Te Pūnaha Matatini. He mahi ngātahi tēnei pepa, he whai whakaaro ki te whīwhiwhi o te kaitiakitanga ki te takiwā o ngā taonenui, ko tā ngā pou rangahau he tūhura i taua whīwhiwhi, he whai kaha hoki ki te manaaki i a Erana hei pia o te rangahau.
Ko tā rātou otirā tā Erana, he akiaki i ngā kairangahau, kai mahi, kai whakamahere, kai whakatika kaupapa here, taea noatia ngā rōpū whakahaere ki te mahi ngātahi me ngā mana whenua o ngā rohe e tirohia ana kia whai wāhi mai ai ngā tukanga ā-iwi taketake ki roto o ngā mahinga a te hapori ā-taone huri noa.
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The Waitaua Stream flows past Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rawhitiroa in Tikipunga on its way to the Whangārei Harbour. It was here that Erana Walker (Te Parawhau, Ngāti Rua Mahue, Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Te Rangi) got her first taste of environmental restoration.
The Waitaua Stream is culturally important to the hapu of Whangārei, and Erana worked alongside the local council, other schools and other community groups to restore the stream, and grow the consciousness in her whānau, hapu and wider school community about the stream.
Erana says that this was her springboard into environmentalism, although she doesn’t like to use this term, because it’s really the realm of kaitiakitanga – looking after te taiao the natural world. Being involved in a restoration project was comfortable in Whangārei, where Erana had the backing of her community to do so, but restoration work became more challenging after she moved to Hamilton – within someone else’s tribal boundaries.
This got Erana thinking deeply about the complex interrelationships between tangata whenua who have whakapapa connections to urban spaces, mātāwaka who have settled in these spaces from other tribal lands, and nature. This is reflected in the recent paper that she led on cultural stewardship in urban spaces, which has just been awarded the Outstanding Publication on New Zealand Ecology award from the New Zealand Ecological Society.
80% of Māori in Aotearoa live in urban areas. This affects their connections to place, culture, identity, language and knowledge. Erana’s paper explores the results of a survey of 214 urban Māori, who shared their perceptions of kaitiakitanga, cultural practices and restoration activities.
Image: 80% of Māori in Aotearoa live in urban areas.
By analysing the survey results through the lens of mātauranga Māori, and layering qualitative and quantitative approaches from social science, ecology and statistics, Erana and the team were able to generate rich data that provides actionable insight for improving ecological restoration in urban areas.
It is important for people to connect to nature, but in urban areas, this can be harder to do. “Urban spaces are hard places to exist for a lot of people,” explains Erana. “Whether you’re young or old, whether you’re a migrant person, whether you’re from another area or hapu or from the local communities, there’s so many layers happening in urban spaces.”
People want to connect to nature in urban spaces, but what does that mean if they don’t have a whakapapa connection to a place? Erana’s research found that disconnection from tribal areas and limited knowledge in urban areas were barriers to these practices for urban Māori.
“The most pressing challenge is the difference in knowledge between age groups,” explains Erana. “Our survey data showed that older participants are really knowledgeable about kaitiakitanga, and they have experience that is really beneficial to share – but our younger people don’t. For me, that’s a really big challenge, but also a great opportunity – if we can bring these age groups together in some form of restoration project, our older people can share the kōrero tuku iho of the area, and our younger people can utilise that to create their own form of ecological restoration in urban spaces.”
Image: Kaumatua are knowledgeable about kaitiakitanga and have experience that is beneficial to share. Tom Roa and Te Waiarani Harawira at Waikirikiri Marae in April 2024.
The survey showed that Māori were more drawn to restoration that was culturally framed, making them likely to participate in ecological restoration organised by marae or iwi communities than by local councils or government. This insight provides a clear opportunity to guide targeted approaches to restoration activities, an approach that requires complex systems thinking.
Understanding the challenges for Indigenous peoples to express stewardship in urban spaces may benefit restoration efforts and encourage Indigenous populations to have better connection and care of nature in cities.
“There is a clear opportunity to transform urban spaces through Indigenous concepts and knowledge,” Erana writes. This cultural knowledge can help to enhance ecological restoration spaces, while also supporting opportunities to express cultural practice – increasing the wellbeing of both nature and people.
Erana is part of Te Tira Maurikura, a community for Te Pūnaha Matatini’s emerging investigators. The team that supported her in this research included University of Otago statistician Tim Jowett, and Te Pūnaha Matatini Principal Investigators Hēmi Whaanga and Cilla Wehi. The paper was a team effort, in which each author brought their expertise and perspective to explore the complexity of kaitiakitanga in urban spaces and to support Erana to grow as a researcher.
Erana encourages restoration practitioners, planners, policy makers and governance organisations to engage directly with their Indigenous communities, and move beyond aesthetic representations to integrate Indigenous knowledge, value systems and practices into the fabric and function of urban areas. For policy makers and city planners, this means moving beyond linear frameworks for intervention planning, and embracing complexity.
“Urban spaces are people’s homes, and they have rich histories and rich cultural practices,” says Erana. “We should be providing spaces for people to share this knowledge and these important practices with the wider urban community.”
Cultural stewardship in urban spaces: Reviving Indigenous knowledge for the restoration of nature – People and Nature