Kinship, Balance, and Reciprocity: Lessons from Māori Past, Present, and Futures

It’s a Wednesday in November and I’m in Wellington for ANZCA 2023, my final conference for this year, where I’ll also present a keynote tomorrow morning. We start today with the first of the conference keynotes, however, by Maria Bargh, who begins with the customary acknowledgments of the peoples, places, and more-than-human aspects of the lands upon which we meet – and this is also related to the theme of the conference, ka mua, ka muri, or ‘walking backwards into the future’. This refers to the way we are out of balance with each other and with the planet – in our use of resources, in our perspectives on history and politics. This is a difficult predicament that needs to be confronted – ideally through shared ownership and collaborative governance models.

Maria suggests that there are several examples that provide pointers to solutions for this. One draws on Whanaungatanga – kinships and relationships: one collective in the South Island of New Zealand have a 500-year plan for land, resources, and community, for instance, and this governs the sustainable operation of their enterprises; these provide for participating families and sustain traditional practices (in farming and other fields) as well as reconnecting people to each other and the land and forcing them to look to the future.

A second example are projects for bioremediation, addressing the industrial contamination of lands – but without removing the contaminated soil altogether and by instead using longer-term in situ remediation approaches that draw on a range of fungi and tree species that are especially efficient at removing toxins from the soil. This represents a more caring relationship with the land, combining Māori and Wwestern scientific approaches.

A third example is the newly introduced Matariki holiday, which celebrates the Māori winter new year when the Matariki constellation appears in the sky. This remembers those who have gone before, celebrates being with loved ones in the present, and looks forward towards the future. It complements Waitangi Day, which celebrates the treaty between Māori and European settlers; and while (predictably) conservative parties opposed it, it became a holiday in 2022 and is growing national recognition of Māori rituals and knowledges.

A second major concept is Utu: balance and reciprocity. This also relates to gifting – which acknowledges the reciprocal nature of relationships – as well as a balanced approach to addressing breaches of the law. When things are out of balance, even if many years have gone by, a need for rebalancing persists. This comes to the fore, for instance, when non-Māori institutions take over land of significance to Māori communities, against the communities’ will: such disrupted balance must and can be redressed.

Such examples of the Crown encroaching on Māori-held lands are all too common, and have at times be resisted by Māori groups by occupying their lands; they have been redressed to some extent as a result of hearings by the Waitangi tribunal, and this has helped to introduce more appropriate co-management or self-governance approaches that restore native environments and improve resilience to climate change, in addition to enhancing food supplies.

Part of such efforts is also about remembering those who have gone before, and this means a rebalancing from a focus on western history (going back to the Greek philosophers) towards a greater recognition of Māori leaders of the past. Communication and publishing is crucial to this, and there is already a long history of Māori-owned and operated printing presses (covering, for instance, the activities of Māori parliaments) – supported to some extent by Christian missionaries. This has also played a critical role in preserving and promoting use the Māori language, te reo Māori. But an imbalance in how much we know about the different threads of Māori and non- Māori history remains.

Indeed, the gifting of the proverb ka mua, ka muri to this conference also creates a reciprocal obligation, and participants at this conference are thereby encouraged to consider their actions and contributions – not least also to the rebalancing between colonist and Indigenous communities, and the work towards the next steps in creating a more harmonious and sustainable future.