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He Minenga Whakatü Hua o Te Ao
Conference (Hui) Proceedings
Murihiku Marae 25th – 27th August 2000
Welcome - Mihi
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E ngä rau rangatira mä o i a iwi, o i a iwi, |
Respected people of all tribes and races, |
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Tënä koutou, tënä koutou, tënä koutou katoa. |
Greetings, greetings, greetings to you all. |
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Naumai, haere mai ki |
Welcome, come along to |
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“He Minenga Whakatü Hua o te Ao”. |
a conference promoting sustainable management of the
fruits of the world. |
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Na te mauri i karanga |
It is the life force of the agenda that calls us |
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Tuia tuia tuituia. |
And sews it together, out of which will come answers. |
Welcome to this website which records
the discussions of a hui (conference) called He Minenga Whakatü Hua o Te Ao which was held at Murihiku Marae on August 25th - 27th
2000. The hui’s name means an intense
discussion of ways of caring for the environment so that it can sustain the
fruits of the world. This website offers
a ‘Proceedings’ for the conference by
presenting a record of 21 talks, 23 posters, 9 workshops and the farewells by
kaitiaki (Mäori environmental guardians) and Päkehä environmentalists. Researchers, managers, policy makers,
Non-governmental Organisations and concerned members of the public all
contributed. Most of the case studies
presented are from Aotearoa (New Zealand), but one presenter was Kaylynn
TwoTrees (Iyeska) from Flagstaff, USA, who is
Founding Director of Earthtime, center for Seven Directions, a relational
practice based on indigenous knowledge that utilizes the tension of difference
as a resource for creative living.
The kaupapa (agenda) of
the hui
The kaitiakitanga (environmental
management) of tïtï and other customary use of wildlife and plants were
featured but the aim was to discuss a broad range of issues of environmental
management. The interplay between
kaitiakitanga and conservation, science and mätauranga (the Traditional Environmental
Knowledge of Mäori) were important themes.
Co-management of conservation and natural resource management was
another. Discussions identified the
areas of common ground and divergence in conservation philosophy and management
styles of Mäori and non-Mäori, and the benefits and difficulties involved in
establishing strong co-management.
Everyone was welcomed to the hui, no
matter what their views or their role in environmental management. The kaitiaki urged an honest discussion
about our differences, shared concerns and ways to work together. In the tradition of the marae (traditional
Mäori meeting places), there was ample opportunity for everyone to have a say –
the keynote case studies featured in formal presentations just gave starters
for the discussions afterwards. This
website records those discussions as accurately as we have been able to capture
them from video and audio-tape recordings of the hui.
Although there was not time to invite
formal presentations from all those we would want to hear from, additional
testimony from others was brought into the proceedings by having them display a
poster at the hui itself. This
proceedings records abstracts (and occasionally full text) where these were
supplied by the poster authors.
Workshops
We also sought involvement and opinions
of more people by running workshops with 10 - 20 participants on the first day
of the hui. This website records the
‘report backs’ of those workshop teams.
We requested that participants focused on actions and recommendations
needed to move us more rapidly forward towards our shared vision of
kaitiakitanga and conservation in Aotearoa.
Preparation
of the website
In some instances the presenters sent us
formal manuscripts of their körero (speech). Others provided and extended
summary, or copies of overhead transparencies or slides used in their
presentations. If the presenter offered
nothing, we made a transcript of the talk and sent it to the presenter for
editing. We also sent copies of the
transcripts of the discussion following each talk to the presenter for them to
check the sense of the discussion. In all
cases we took care to not censor or alter the intensity of the exchanges (even
where this was sometimes urged by the presenters who may have been criticised
in the exchange!). On two occasions
(identified in the Proceedings) we shifted the discussion to sit in the
relevant place (it seemed important to record the ideas expressed but the
comments had been offered in the discussion to a talk on something completely
different). At the speakers’ request,
two presentations given at the hui are not provided in this website. In the
first of these presentations, there was no discussion following the speaker’s
presentation. The other presentation
and subsequent discussion was not taped at the speakers’ request. However, they
provided a very relevant manuscript. Tape recording of the last section of the
Körero whakamutanga o te hui (farewells) failed so the proceedings are slightly
incomplete at the very end. Otherwise
all presentations and discussions at the hui are captured here.
We have made
no attempt to translate Mäori körero to English because it seemed that the
speakers themselves chose Reo (the Mäori Language) for their own reasons and
some would prefer not to be translated.
But we have provided a brief Glossary
of the most important Mäori words to help readers of the website, many of whom
will be from overseas, to understand some key concepts. We enlisted the help of
Hannah Swale, a fluent Mäori speaker and student to listen to the tapes and
transcribe the Mäori words for us. The Kai Tahu dialect from southern Te Wai
Pounamu substitutes 'k' for 'nga'. We
have endeavoured to record the dialect in the way spoken by each individual
speaker rather than standardising on one or the other. At this stage, we have
decided to use a non-Mäori font with umlauts in place of Mäori macrons
throughout this website so that browsers which do not have Mäori fonts can
still read the text. We have also rejected the alternative method of inserting
Unicode macrons as we found that some browsers may have difficulty reading
them. We are very aware that the use of umlauts is far from ideal and, when we
are satisfied that browsers will be able to read them, we will replace the
umlauts with Mäori macrons.
The primary
organisation, collation and editing of material for this proceedings has been
by Maureen Howard.
Editing was also carried out by Henrik
Moller.
Transcripts of tapes were prepared by Julia Stroud.
Feedback
please!
The kaitiaki for the Tïtï and the Kia
Mau te Tïtï Mo Ake Tönu Atu research team would very much like your feedback to
the hui proceedings and suggestions of the way we might improve it. Discussion of the points raised would also
assist our ongoing quest for improved co-management and understanding between
cultures for better environmental management.
Your comments would not be circulated or published without your
permission. Please Email your reactions
to the Rakiura Tïtï Islands committee, P.O. Box 743 Invercargill, New Zealand
OR to the Tïtï Research Team, Zoology Department, University of Otago, P.O. Box
56, Dunedin, New Zealand. In addition, we have set up an online Forum section
for public exchanges of views. Click here
for Forum. We hope that this forum will be an opportunity for you to record
your opinions about the issues raised by the hui wänanga, about the website itself
or current affairs that relate to the website.
Rakiura
Tïtï Islands Committee
Henrik
Moller, Te Tari o Whakäro Kararehe, Te Whare Wänanga O Otägo
Last revised 5/02/02