Making our Place: Exploring land-use tensions in Aotearoa New Zealand
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Making our Place: Exploring land-use tensions in Aotearoa New Zealand
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781927322192 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Otago University Press |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 243 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
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Read an Excerpt
Making Our Place
Exploring Land-Use Tension in Aotearoa New Zealand
By Jacinta Ruru, Janet Stephenson
Otago University Press
Copyright © 2011 Jacinta Ruru, Janet Stephenson and Mick AbbottAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-927322-19-2
CHAPTER 1
Tension lines
Jacinta Ruru, Janet Stephenson, Mick Abbott
Aotearoa New Zealand is a land apart, a series of islands located in a remote corner of the Southern Pacific. Its economy has been built on both natural resources that support export-oriented agriculture and other primary industries, and spectacular lands that entice international tourists. But can land-use changes such as coastal development, energy infrastructure and dairy farming be reconciled with retention of highly valued landscapes? How should a balance be struck when beauty and industry are both vital to the country's economic wealth? Moreover, what happens when another dimension is at play – the claims of indigenous peoples for a share in governance over resources in a country that prides itself on being a world leader in race relations? And, just as contentious, how are we to grapple with twenty-first century realities of urban and coastal development and new technologies, such as large-scale wind farms, on arguably sacred or fragile landscapes?
Despite the apparent diversity, all of these issues have one thing in common – each altercation is played out in a specific place about which people feel passionate, albeit for diverse reasons. Our fascination with the interplay of people, place and contestation inspired us to bring together a group of New Zealanders from different backgrounds and disciplines to explore some of the stories and sites of conflict found along our coastlines and rivers, in our forests and tussock uplands, and amongst our sacred, historic, rural and urban landscapes. The nuances of the sites and conflict differ in each, but all engage with the underlying question of this book: are there better ways to reconcile the tensions inherent in our struggles with the land and with each other in making this land our home?
The stories in this book of conflict and change place issues fundamental to identity at centre stage: rights and restitution, development and conservation, claiming and naming. Our authors bring differing perspectives about the nature of spatial conflicts from a variety of disciplines, including architecture, ecology, design, history, planning, law, surveying, theology and tourism. Together, we seek to explore different ways of framing landscape tensions, to seek new understandings of why such passion, reverence and contest is generated, and to identify new approaches to resolving problems.
Tension and change
Political dimensions are implicit in any place, and particularly in the processes of place-making. Landscape theorist Kenneth Olwig suggests that society shapes its landscapes within a dynamic of disparate interests contesting the way a locale is understood and utilised.
Spatial conflicts are perhaps most commonly depicted as a clash between the property rights of a landowner and the rights or interests of the wider public or a particular group. In most cases, one side consists of those who do not hold 'ownership' rights, yet argue that the place has values that are of shared significance to non-owners. In this sense, altercations can be construed as existing within a field of legal argument, with its origins in the establishment of fee-simple titles over communally owned Maori land during the colonial era, as discussed by Mick Strack. Yet concepts of resource ownership are evolving, introducing new and different dynamics into how place is understood and contested. Take, for example, the debates over ownership and management of the foreshore and seabed, or the Waikato River. Here, the opportunities for new concepts of governance are being forged against the background of the Treaty of Waitangi and recognition of customary rights to resources. Jacinta Ruru, Linda Te Aho, and Robert Joseph each explore dimensions of this debate, and how it is shifting the ground on which understandings of place are contested. The greatest ecological change has been a shift from a forested country to a pastoral nation, a transformation explored by Bruce Clarkson.
For many years the rural lands of Aotearoa New Zealand were the food basket of Britain, and agricultural production continues to be a major component of the national economy. Tom Brooking examines this legacy, and Anna Thompson explores some of the tensions inherent in agricultural intensification.
Spatial conflicts are often dismissed as NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), where it is suggested that opposition arises merely from people's desire not to see change in their immediate locality. Yet is this really the case? Janet Stephenson and Seth Gorrie tease out the greater range of attachments people have to landscape, and Raewyn Peart identifies the wide range of interests in conflicts over coastal development in Northland.
Evolving ideas about landscape are found not only in the interactions between people and place, but also in the consequences of different peoples seeking to inscribe the landscape with their differing aspirations. Murray Rae tracks how the dominant landforms of Auckland have been inscribed over time with events and structures that represent the dominant interests of their eras. Lyn Carter explores how naming the landscape can not only bring places into being but also overwrite other associations and cause alternative understandings of place to be diluted. Mike Abbott looks at how we interact with our conservation lands, and what it means to belong.
All of our authors touch on how memories, stories and the heritage of a place create multiple senses of belonging and thus create landscapes that are ripe for contestation. Added to this are globally driven shifts in resource use, fluctuations in wealth and aspirations, and the shifting grounds of governance arising from recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi. It is hardly surprising that altercations emerge over both ownership and mandates for new voices to have a role in decision-making.
Our place
This section briefly outlines aspects of New Zealand's history and legal framework to provide a background to the chapters that follow, particularly for international readers. The islands of Aotearoa New Zealand were first discovered and peopled by Maori (indigenous Polynesian peoples) some time around or after AD 800. Grouped into distinct peoples, the Maori tribes became, literally, the people of the land (tangata whenua), living upon Papatuanuku, the earth mother, below Ranginui, the sky father, and alongside ancestors (all descendants of Papa and Rangi) that stand as mountains, rivers, flora and fauna. Of the approximately forty distinct iwi (tribes) and hundreds of hapu that self-identify today, each derives their identity from specific mountains and waterways. The common language (with regional dialect differences) captures this interrelationship and personification of the landscape. For instance, hapu means 'sub-tribe' as well as 'to be pregnant', whanau means 'family' and 'to give birth', and whenua means 'land' and 'placenta'. Relationships with place are underscored by the importance of whakapapa (genealogy), whanaungatanga (family relationships), tapu (sacredness), rahui (prohibition or conservation), manaaki (hospitality), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), mana (authority), utu (balance) and tuku (transfer). These foundational concepts resulted in a legal system embedded in values, rather than rules, and conveyed in stories of creation, songs, dance and artwork rather than statute books. These values dictated how a community ought to interact with one another and with the surrounding environment. For some hundreds of years, the landscape knew no other way.
Following the British explorer Captain James Cook's circumnavigation of Aotearoa in 1779, European (consisting mostly of British and to a lesser extent, French) explorers, whalers and missionaries began arriving in these lands, bringing new and distinctly different worldviews, technologies, goods and animals. With the British keen to make Aotearoa their home, representatives of the British Crown proposed, in 1840, the signing of a bilingual treaty of cession, the Treaty of Waitangi. Two versions were signed and read slightly differently. In the Maori version, the Chiefs gave the Queen of England the right to govern and, in turn, she agreed to protect the Chiefs' 'unqualified exercise [tino rangatiratanga] of their chieftainship over their lands, villages and all their treasures [taonga]'. In the English version, the Chiefs ceded sovereignty to the Queen and, in turn, she agreed to protect the Chiefs' 'full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess'. Despite more than 500 chiefs from throughout the country signing predominantly the Maori version, the country has since been colonised according to the English version. Aotearoa New Zealand became a British colony.
Transfers of land initially took place through the Crown's sole right to purchase land from Maori. In the 1860s, war, land confiscations and the creation of the Native Land Court tasked with converting Maori customary land into a freehold title were used to 'free up' the lands for colonial settlement. By the 1930s, very little tribal land remained in Maori ownership (today it amounts to 6 per cent of Aotearoa New Zealand's total landmass). Of the scattered land that stayed in Maori ownership, few blocks were permanently inhabited because that which remained in Maori hands represented mostly remote and non-arable land.
On the colonisation front, the earliest incentives to come here were whaling and sealing, followed by a gold rush in the 1860s–70s, but most enduringly, farming. The colonial economy flourished, especially after the development of refrigeration for ships, which allowed frozen meat to be transported to Britain. It was not until 2010 that tourism took the top spot from the dairy industry as the economy's biggest export earner. Tourism, largely based on the pull of Aotearoa New Zealand's 'natural' landscapes, now generates an estimated NZ$6.3 billion in foreign exchange annually. The successful tourism message of '100% Pure New Zealand' (and its 2011 revamping to 'New Zealand 100% Pure You') flags the potential for tension arising between tourism and the primary industry, a theme that is discussed in several of the upcoming chapters.
The country's resident population now approaches 4.4 million. The dominant ethnic group is Pakeha (European of mainly British origin), with Maori constituting about 15 per cent of the population, Asian peoples about 10 per cent, and Pacific Island peoples about 7 per cent. The majority of the population lives in the North Island (and this was similarly true in the pre-European era), with almost one-third of the population living in the Auckland region.
Decision-making on the use and development of New Zealand's natural and physical resources is largely governed by the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). This establishes an all-encompassing regime for the sustainable management of land, air and water. Central government retains some responsibility to influence this regime, primarily through setting national environmental standards, national policy statements and a coastal policy statement. However, most decision-making is vested in regional councils and territorial local authorities (district and city councils). These bodies prepare plans that contain rules concerning the use of land, air and water where appropriate, and stipulate when and where proposed activities may require resource consents to permit the use. In formulating district and regional plan rules and issuing resource consents, the RMA requires consideration of specific principles and, in particular, the sustainable management of natural and physical resources. The Act defines sustainable management as:
managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being and for their health and safety while (a) sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations; and (b) safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems; and (c) avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment (section 5 RMA).
Further sections provide for matters of national importance and include directives to preserve natural character, outstanding natural features and landscapes, areas of significant indigenous vegetation and habitats for indigenous fauna, public access to lakes, rivers and sea, respect for Maori relationships with the environment, and the protection of both historic heritage and customary rights. It also demands that particular regard be paid to a range of specific dimensions, including principles of kaitiakitanga, stewardship, amenity values, energy efficiency, climate change and the benefits of renewable energy. Further, the RMA requires the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) be taken into account.
Many of the chapters in this book touch on the RMA because it provides the overriding framework within which many spatial conflicts and tensions are played out. Other laws, such as the Historic Places Act 1993 and the Wildlife Act 1953, are referred to by our authors in relation to specific situations.
Challenges, transformations and negotiations
Each of the next twelve chapters takes a different perspective on tensions between people and place, or between peoples in a place. Most authors situate their discussion in a particular location – Tutukaka coast, Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki, Whanganui, Taieri, Mackenzie Country, Central Otago. Others consider particular types of landscape, including farms, wahi tapu, and the 'salt-sand environment' of the foreshore and seabed. The chapters are clustered into three sections that represent dominant themes: Challenges, Transformations and Negotiations. However, this is not to say that the chapters confine themselves to these topics – in fact many of them explore all of these themes – so the divisions should be seen as wayfinders rather than separations.
Challenges
Landscape challenges take many forms, and we start with one of the most contentious contemporary issues in Aotearoa New Zealand: the foreshore and seabed debate. Jacinta Ruru lays out the legal background to the issue, and describes the various attempts at reconciling the challenge of conflicting interests in governance and use of the salt-sand landscape. Raewyn Peart takes us a step back from the sea, and explores the ongoing tensions between coastal development and landscape protection on the Tutukaka coast, an issue that is shared across most of our accessible coastlines. In the next chapter, Lyn Carter discusses the huge significance of place names in local and cultural identity, using the recent Wanganui/Whanganui conflict as an example of the challenge of realising our bicultural nationhood. Mick Abbott challenges the perception that the conservation estate should be a museum of biodiversity and a gallery of the picturesque, arguing for greater opportunities for people to interact with our most ecologically native places.
Transformations
The second group of chapters discusses some of the major landscape transformations that have occurred since European colonisation, and their legacies for our nation today. Tom Brooking touches on some of the tensions associated with present-day agricultural transitions, then looks back to the colonial era to trace the backgrounds of the English, Scottish and Irish farm immigrants and their influence on the physical and political landscape. Mick Strack also looks back, to reflect on the consequences of the first surveyed lines on land in Otago, and to contrast how these demarcations supported the agricultural development of the Taieri while remaining at odds with the values, needs and expectations of Maori customary relationships with land. Changing attitudes to native vegetation are explored by Bruce Clarkson, who traces the dramatic loss of biodiversity in the Taranaki region and the recent concerted efforts to re-establish a linked network of the area's diverse ecological heritage. Turning to the urban environment, Murray Rae discusses various key landmarks of Auckland city and how these built structures reflect changing conceptions of social and cultural identity.
Negotiations
The previous chapters illustrate how contentious change can be. Yet it does not have to be so, our authors suggest. Many of the previous chapters highlight the urgent need for more inclusive and creative solutions and they, together with the authors in this section, offer a broad range of approaches for achieving better resolutions in place-centred conflicts. Linda Te Aho describes how a world-first resolution has been negotiated between the Crown and Waikato River iwi for the co-management of the Waikato River, for the purpose of restoring and protecting the health and well-being of the river and its environs for future generations. Anna Thompson tracks the debate on the introduction of large-scale dairy farming into the Mackenzie Country, and its potential impact on other sectors, particularly tourism, and discusses various ways forward including a proposed Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust. Robert Joseph shows how the law has become increasingly protective of wahi tapu (Maori sacred sites), and suggests that we are starting to see the emergence of a hybrid legal system that recognises both the English legal tradition and some elements of tikanga (Maori values and principles). Janet Stephenson and Seth Gorrie explore peoples' resistance to wind-farm proposals, and suggest that a great deal more attention should be paid to identifying those landscape qualities that are of shared significance, and that this could reduce strife by informing community consultation, site selection, project design and RMA decision-making.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Making Our Place by Jacinta Ruru, Janet Stephenson. Copyright © 2011 Jacinta Ruru, Janet Stephenson and Mick Abbott. Excerpted by permission of Otago University Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Front Cover,Title Page,
Copyright,
Dedication,
Foreword Shonagh Kenderine,
introduction,
1. Tension lines Jacinta Ruru, Janet Stephenson and Mick Abbott,
challenges,
2. The Political and Juridical Battle in the Salt-sand Environment Jacinta Ruru,
3. Domesticating Rural Coastal Places: A case study of the Tutukaka coast Raewyn Peart,
4. The 'Big H': Naming and claiming landscapes Lyn Carter,
5. Being Landscape Mick Abbott,
transformations,
6. Beyond the Orderly Appearance of Productive Rural Land Tom Brooking,
7. Bounding the Land: Cadastral framework on the Taieri Mick Strack,
8. Ecological Heritage in the Taranaki Region Bruce Clarkson,
9. Auckland Landmarks: Architecture and the shaping of national identity Murray Rae,
negotiations,
10. Waikato: River of life Linda Te Aho,
11. Transforming Merino Country in the Mackenzie Anna Thompson,
12. Nga Pakanga mo Wahi Tapu: Battles over sacred places Robert Joseph,
13. 'Just part of who you are': The hidden significance of landscape in the wind-farm debate Janet Stephenson and Seth Gorrie,
conclusion,
14. Shifting positions Janet Stephenson, Mick Abbott and Jacinta Ruru,
Contributors,
Notes,
Index,
Back Cover,