Tangata whenua

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Nations and the traditional owners and custodians of the lands and waters known as Australia, and Maori as Tangata Whenua in Aotearoa.

We honour and respect the Elders past and present who weave their wisdom into all realms of life.

Welcome to another Psych Matters podcast from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

And then there's this question of what is de-extinction and is this truly de-extinction or not? Then there's like data sovereignty questions and who benefits financially from what's learned from the Moa DNA.

And there are also questions around whether there was proper consultation with Mana Whenua.

So I highly recommend, I mean, this is just a taster, right? And I recommend that if people are interested, they go and listen to both full episodes.

But amidst all of these questions, Colossal Biosciences teamed up with the Naitahu Research Centre and Canterbury Museum to have gone and run with those initial first steps.

I asked Bill what he thought these carvings add to a journey.

I really feel, given the place of Māori is Tangata Whenua, when I'm driving down there and I see those two big pō on two sides of the road, I really feel like I'm entering someone's territory.

And it's as

you go through a sort of valley, isn't it? Yeah, it's like

And even if you're going through tough times, it's important that we are still feeling fairly resilient and good about things.

Do you think some of this is to do with their fatwa on all things Maori? Because the Waikato Expressway is 100% Maori, I would say.

I was going to make the point that I also think that on both New Zealand First and ACT's website, side and national gang along with them, that this is an anti-Māori gesture because a lot of the artworks, and fair enough too, on the side of roads are produced by tangata whenua of the area and relate to that as well.

But as you said before, what tourists are interested in from an aspect of visiting New Zealand is our unique cultural

Despite the strengthening of conditions, I'm reading from the record of decisions, the expert panel's record of decisions.

Despite the strengthening of conditions, the panel is cognizant of the view of Tangata Whenua that the project will still result in adverse cultural effects of concern.

The panel acknowledges that Tangata Whenua remain fundamentally opposed to the project.

What is your response to that?

Well, we've offered a comprehensive package of cultural environmental mitigation measures.

I mean, this is a fairly compellingly pro Port of Tauranga fast track approval.

But I want to come back to the panel's findings, and I think this is really material, and I want you to speak to this.

The panel is satisfied that the adverse effects attributable to the project are significant from the perspective of tangata whenua.

But it's just, it's a shame that indigenous knowledge has always been seen as the inferior when in fact it's not.

Yeah, that ties back a bit, I think, to my earlier question about how maybe Te Ao Māori or Mataranga Māori has evolved from the pre-European experience that Tangata Whenua had.

You may or may not know a US commentator called Nate Hagans.

He's a climate commentator that I'm a great fan of.

You know, I think when you look at some of the religious and cultural belief systems in and around this, you know, death is something... that we have been taught to be quite removed from.

I mean, if you look at the, you know, we're so lucky in New Zealand to have the opportunity to observe and be part of these rituals within tangata whenua because it makes, like death makes so much, sense within te ao Māori.

It's part of life and everyone is involved in the process and it's such a community ritual and there's such clear tikanga around the space because it is such an important part of life and how people are supported to grieve at that time is just so, so important versus other cultures where My first experience of death was making an appointment to book into a funeral home to go and see my granny who had been wheeled out from the fridge.

She was cold.

They're suggestions or they're one person's way of approaching this.

But there are many, many ways of approaching this.

what happens at end of life and I think you only have to look to Tangata Whenua to see how things can be so different.

And you've now brought up gowithgrace.nz, the website that you've created as a place of resource and around all of the choices that we can have around dying, end of life planning, after death care, the farewelling, the memorials.

I was joined by Gosha Haley, principal at Grimshaw, the firm behind the architecture and urban integration of the City Rail Link, or CRL.

Grimshaw designed three new stations on the network, and Gosha discussed the designs for the stations and also the role that Mana Whenua, the indigenous authority over the land, had on the project.

We were also joined by Ludo Campbell-Reed, city strategist and Auckland's first urban design champion, who joined us to discuss the change in attitude that the city is experiencing in this new age for Auckland.

And also by Giles Bendall, head of design at the Auckland Urban Development Office, who explained what this sort of a project unlocks for public space and the newly connected neighbourhoods.

And similarly with Auckland, in Italy, you can't convince what is – trying to do one thing or another, but at the moment you're becoming a lot more confident.

You know, it has that identity, it has that personality.

But I think the big part of it for me as well is the Mana Whenua influence and the Maori culture that is interwoven into everything.

So it's got that true, it embraces that cultural way of living and interweaves everywhere in so many surprising ways.

What about you, Sarah?

Well, I'm looking at it through the eyes of Tangata Whenua.

Like, where's their voice in here? Because this is their land, their water.

and the impact of mining, not, you know, underneath in terms of the seabed.

We are very approximate in around 80% of our policies with the Green Party.

But Tangata Tiriti parties have to come to the party with Tangata Whenua.

So that's the play out here.

So all we can control is our part of the ledger.

Philip Wilcox lectures on consultation with Māori communities and has surveyed diverse groups of Māori over 25 years.

He says Colossal Biosciences has done a poor job of consulting with tangata whenua.

I'm going to use a rather frank and somewhat crass term by saying it's yet another bullshit experience inflicted upon us by gene technologists.

And that's really sad because part of my career and part of the careers of a whole bunch of people, awesome Māori that I've worked with, have been about developing frameworks, tikanga-based frameworks, to make sure that gene technologies are not bullshit experience.

They will have to really think about which species we bring back, when, what we want to bring back, what maybe we don't want to bring back.

And how are we going to use this technology to build a better, more resilient planet?

And then there's the ethics of it, isn't there? You will have seen the reports from the critics, from the sceptics, but also Tangata Whenua in New Zealand, not all are in support of this.

How do you get around that? Is that important to you?