Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2002. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 373-389). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Having reviewed an example of environmental degradation (the effect of gold mining related activities on the acquatic ecosystems in Te Tai Poutini) from varying Maori and Pakeha perspectives I have developed a framework to find combine these perspectives into a working analytical tool kit. The tool kit is intended to better define the problems to ensure that they take into account the widely differing views of Maori and Pakeha and is able to promote solutions that will be appropriate and safe for both Maori and Pakeha. I have sought to collect and present a comprehensive analysis of both perspectives. I have focussed more heavily however on the Maori paradigms as they are less well reported in the literature on environmental health and less influence on the way we seek to protect people from the negative effects of environmental degradation. This is despite the fact that as Maori are more likely to be exposed to environmental damage in that they are on average poorer and therefore have less choice about where they may live and are more likely to eat foods taken directly from the environment. I will also show that the damage to the Arahura is far more than physical and will show the concern of kaumatua and their psychological anguish they have felt over the damage to this most tapu river. For this reason I have chosen to present this thesis, in the form of a powhiri model. This model allows me to present different aspects of the problem from a Maori perspective including the views of kaumatua as well as recorded traditions. I have then followed these sections with a response from a Pakeha perspective. This includes reviewing the different underlying world, view as well as some attempt to review the damage in Pakeha terms by reviewing the literature and undertaking some tests to establish procedures for a more comprehensive testing of the enviroment that surrounds the Arahura. The thesis will conclude with a section summarising both strands of information and attempt to develop a framework for a health tool kit - he kete hauora. This kete will utilise Whare Tapa Wha as a way of placing the information in a context that can be presented in a reasonably coherent form. Finally I will make a number of recommendations that I called a place mat - he whariki. These recommendations are presented in a framework from Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This reflects the primacy of the Treaty when considering the ways in which Maori are to be protected by the Crown. These recommendations seek to respond to the principle barriers that are currently preventing local Maori from achieving a full sense of well being but, if implemented, these recommendations will ensure the protection of the health of all peoples of Te Tai Poutini.

Rakiura Maori continue a centuries old harvest of titi chicks (sooty shearwater, Puffinus griseus) which is governed primarily by Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). The sustainability of titi harvesting is of high cultural, social and ecological importance. Some commentators view contemporary use of TEK as insufficient to ensure sustainability because it is no longer intact, too passive, and/or potentially inadequate to meet new ecological and technical challenges. Such assertions have been made in the absence of detailed description of TEK and associated social mechanisms. This thesis describes Rakiura Maori TEK practices and management systems that are in place and asks whether such systems are effective today, and whether they will remain effective in future. Ecological, social and cultural factors are intertwined in cultural wildlife harvests so the methodology used was a combination of quantitative ecological methods and semi-directive interviews of 20 experienced harvesting elders. The research also used ecological science to evaluate potential harvest monitoring methods and to determine what sets the limits on harvest. These ecological studies focused on harvesting by four families on Putauhinu Island in 1997-1999. Harvest is divided into two parts. In the first period (�nanao�) chicks are extracted from breeding burrows during daytime. In the second period (�rama�) chicks are captured at night when they have emerged from burrows. Nanao harvest rates only increased slightly with increasing chick densities and birders� harvest rates varied in their sensitivities to changing chick density. Although harvest rates can only provide a general index of population change a monitoring panel, with careful selection of participants, may be the only feasible way to assess population trend and thereby harvest sustainability or the resource�s response to changed management. Rakiura Maori harvesting practice constitutes common property resource management based on birthright and a system of traditional rules. Protection of island habitat and adult birds, and temporal restricitions on harvest are considered most important. Legislation and a belief system of reciprocity and connection to ancestors and environment aid enforcement of the rules. Ecological knowledge is learnt through observation, hands-on experience and storytelling. Younger Rakiura Maori now spend less time harvesting which puts pressure on the transmission of knowledge. Paradoxically, use of modern technology for harvesting aids transfer of essential skills because it is easier and faster to learn, thereby contributing to the continuance of a culturally important harvest. Limits on harvest are passive, with the numbers of chicks taken determined by the time spent harvesting and processing. Processing is more limiting during the rama period. Future innovations that decrease the time to process each chick during rama could greatly increase the total number of chicks caught. Recently introduced motorised plucking machines decrease the time required to pluck each chick. However, on Putauhinu Island, use of plucking machines did not increase the number of chicks harvested, indicating social mechanisms were also limiting. Elders identified changing values between the generations, which may reduce the future strength of social limitations on harvest pressure. Global climate change may reduce the predicability of traditional knowledge. Rakiura Maori have identified this risk and sought to examine ecological science as a tool to complement traditional knowledge for monitoring harvest sustainability. Climate change, declining tītī numbers and potential changes in technology or markets all threaten the effectiveness of current social limits to harvest. Rakiura Maori have previously shown the ability to adapt and must look to add resilience to their institutions to ensure we keep the titi forever.

This thesis describes a systemic approach to the study of shell remains, using material from the site of Shag Point (J43/11), in North Otago. This approach analyses the relationship between sampling, identification, quantification, and site formation processes. An historical and methodological framework is used to assess the analysis of shell-bearing deposits in New Zealand, and provide innovative solutions to bias. Historical research outlines the common research methods in New Zealand, which are relevant to Shag Point. Methodological research outlines the range of potential research methods used in the study of shell-bearing deposits. Reviewing the data from Shag Point, sampling, identification, quantification, and site formation processes are used to assess the quality of data from the site. Data from coastal sites are commonly used to generate regional level syntheses. These syntheses do not deal with all of the possible sources of bias in shell-bearing deposits. Cumulative sampling is used to assess representativeness. The data from Shag Point are indicative of a representative sample. The site is compared to three other coastal southern South Island assemblages: the nearby Shag River Mouth, Pleasant River, and Pounawea. The data from Shag River Mouth may be representative; the same cannot be said for the Pleasant River and Pounawea archaeological assemblages, thus hampering regional-level syntheses.

The vesting of pounamu back to Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu brings to the fore a whole new dimension of resource mangement to New Zealand�s wider resource management environment. As is highlighted in this study and noted by a number of academics, Maori people, like other indigenous communities, have their own planning systems values and appropriate processes for decision-making about the environment. But the relevance of such indigenous management systems has long been overlooked by the decision makers and authorities to the continued frustration and anxiety of indigenous peoples. This lack of recognition has been at the fore as a concept fundamental to many indigenous peoples grievances, both past and present. The subsequent vesting of pounamu has brought about the validation that Maori have to resource management rights. In identifying issues associated with the management of natural resources by indigenous peoples, this study provides an examination of number theoretical concepts and a practical dimension associated with the management of natural resources by indigenous peoples and has placed pounamu in context. The placement of pounamu in context has provided the basis from which a number of central issues were identified and discussed. A combination a literature study, analysis of an application traditional knowledge in a contemporary context and in-depth interviews and liaison with key stakeholders involved directly and indirectly in the management of pounmau were undertaken, has established that the management of natural resources by indigenous people is more about the management of number of associated processes rather than about the management of a single commodity, in this instance pounamu. Within these processes there exist a number of complex relationships that reflect the fundamental transaction of power and privilege associated with natural resource management. Further conclusions that this study has made, is the increasing need and importance of legislatures and planning professionals alike to further recognise the validity and become familiar with alternate methods of resource management and the application of indigenous systems and methods.

Achieving �justice� is the overriding aim of the Treaty settlement process. This process was established to resolve Maori historical grievances against the New Zealand Crown for alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. Because historical injustices involve the interactions of cultures over time, justice in the Treaty settlement process is shaped, and constrained, by two main factors: �culture� and �time�. The settlement of Ngai Tahu�s historical grievances, and in particular the return of pounamu as part of the settlement, achieved a large measure of this limited kind of justice. The Ngai Tahu settlement and the return of pounamu suggest that Treaty settlements are achieving, and may continue to achieve, a large measure of the justice available in the Treaty settlement process. Examination of the return of pounamu to Ngai Tahu reveals, however, that new injustices may have been created in the Ngai Tahu settlement. These new injustices are critically analysed, and recommendations for maximising justice in the Treaty settlement process are suggested. If Treaty settlements are to achieve the maximum justice available in the Treaty settlement process, the Treaty partners must heed the warning signs arising from the possible creation of new injustices in the Ngai Tahu settlement.

This research is concerned with ethnic identity and focuses on the experiences of my tribe, the Ngai Tahu of the South Island of New Zealand, as a case study. Material drawn from interviews with eight Ngai Tahu respondents are used to illustrate the factors influencing Ngai Tahu identity, which include whakapapa, land, language, tikanga, mahinga kai, the Claim, our legal identity, and the perceptions of significant others. These factors are discussed within the context of the wider Maori identity and the New Zealand environment. The interviews also provide an insight into the personal nature of Ngai Tahu cultural identity and the experiences of the respondents in terms of inclusion and exclusion from the general Maori identity. A theoretical base on the issues of cultural identity development is gained from the literature and used as a framework for discussing Ngai Tahu identity development. This research investigates the development of pan-Maori identity and how it has manifested itself within New Zealand society. The cultural criteria used to measure and assess membership in the Maori ethnic collective are often inadequate and inappropriate for Ngai Tahu and within the Ngai Tahu context. This research illustrates how the environment and the choices it offers to people of Ngai Tahu identity both in the past and the present. I will argue that Ngai Tahu identity is largely a product of its circumstance. Although primordialist notions such as whakapapa are consistently present in that identity, the weight that they carry is largely determined by the political and cultural environment and context. The project concludes with an assessment of the level of appreciation given to differences that exist within different sections of Maoridom and the need to understand the validity and legitimacy of those differences if a positive sense of cultural identity is to be achieved.

Rights to possess and/or use the foreshore of New Zealand are not clear, and are even cloudier in relation to Maori freehold land that is on the coast. This thesis investigates the law pertaining to rights in the foreshore, and the facts pertaining specifically to the use of the Otakou Maori Reserve foreshore. In particular, the research question is this: what does aboriginal title mean in 1996 for Otago Maori? Examining the legal issues, searching individual titles and gathering oral history are the methods used to answer this question. First, the law. In New Zealand the Crown is prima facie the absolute owner of the foreshore. This can be displaced by proof to the contrary. The doctrine of aboriginal title recognises the legal continuity of tribal property rights upon the Crown�s acquisition of sovereignty over their territory. Aboriginal title can be divided into two categories - territorial and non-territorial. Territorial title represents a tribal claim to full ownership, and non-territorial title to rights that are less than absolute ownership, such as the right to cross land, to fish and to collect flora and fauna. It is this doctrine of aboriginal title as it relates to the foreshore that can displace the Crown�s absolute ownership of the foreshore. Second, the facts. 99% of the coastal land parcels of Otakou Maori Reserve are described in written documentation as to the line of mean high water. This 99% is made up 17% Maori freehold land, 49% general land and 33% vested in the Crown or the Dunedin City Council. The remaining 1% is Maori freehold land that does not have its boundary at mean high water, but has a fixed upland boundary. Oral history facts from the takatawhenua identify that the foreshore continues to be used for access, travel, and the collection of kai moana and sea resources. The findings reveal that Kai Tahu ki Otakou have never extinguised their territorial and non-territorial aboriginal title to the foreshore of Otakou Maori Reserve. Suggested areas for future research include an investigation of other Maori reserves in Otago, and examining the doctrine of aboriginal title as it relates to the beds of watercourses.

Assessing the timing of seasonal movements by the prehistoric peoples of Otago has long been a problem in the archaeology of this region. The oxygen isotope ratio (18 o/16o) of mollusc shell carbonate is temperature dependent. By sampling successive increments of shell growth, palaeotemperature curves can be constructed to provide �season of death� estimates for individual shells. In this work carbonate samples from the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) were used to estimate the seasonality of four prehistoric fishing sites. A total of 275 samples of shell material were analysed for carbon and oxygen isotope ratios at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt. Where fishing and shellfishing were important activities they were consistently associated with the winter season. A model of seasonal activity is presented for the Early part of the prehistoric period.

Summary: Although a good deal of information is available about the Maoris of New Zealand, concerning their origin, customs, and culture, yet statistical data regarding their actual numbers at any time before 1857 are comparatively rare. It is a fact that the Maori population in any given locality was a fluctuating one and that their distribution in general was very variable and this constitutes a formidable difficulty in making any estimate of their numbers before the first cenus. A second obstacle is the difficulty of travel which faced the early European explorers. For example, when Cook visited New Zealand, he made an estimate of the population but it was largely conjectural as Cook saw the natives at only those places he touched around the coast, and had in fact no means of estimating what proportion of the total population those communities formed. Actually the Maoris were not confined to the coastline, and therefore Cook�s estimate cannot be regarded as based on adequate data. An evaluation of his estimate will be made later--Chapter 1.