Ngā Ture o Te Tai Ao - New Laws for the Environment

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How can New Zealand’s state legal system recalibrate to challenge the Crown’s assumption of sovereignty over lands and waters treasured by Māori?

Drawing on the research findings of the other Te Tai Ao foundational projects, this project will lead to new laws, policies, plans and models for government and iwi/Māori communities, and will enable Māori to reassert traditional knowledge in governing land, water and resources to better enable flourishing Māori health, wellbeing and prosperity. 

Legal systems have the capacity to recalibrate and reflect the dreams and nations of the modern country. Indigenous law academics agree and argue that “different principles” are required “to judge Indigenous contributions because contemporary legal rules were developed within a cultural logic that erased prior Indigenous presence and ecological relationships”.

There are now contemporary examples of considerable legal imagination evident in Aotearoa New Zealand. However, new understandings and challenges are paramount around substantive issues such as whether water is common or private property; how should Māori communities tackle climate change, resource extraction, carbon credits and emission trading; and how can we address related issues such as increasing demands for economic and employment security?

This project accepts these challenges by specifically seeking to explore the transformation of existing law, policy, plans and governance models and working towards creative and innovative methods for enabling economic growth, fostering social and cultural wellbeing and vitality, and achieving environmental sustainability.

Objectives of the Research:

  1. Consider how Māori knowledge and laws can best be utilised to govern Māori owned land and resources, and how law, policy, plans and models can be reformed to embrace these opportunities.
  2. Understand how Māori knowledge guides Māori decision-making for balancing sustainable use of land and resources and how law can be reformed to embrace these opportunities.
  3. Explore how law, policy and plans ought to be recalibrated to support continuing Māori desires to own and/or govern currently assumed or asserted Crown or publicly owned lands and natural resources (e.g. lands within national parks, minerals and freshwater).
Te Tai Ao - Natural Environment
Environment
Project commenced:
Full project

Research Lead(s) and Team

Professor Jacinta Ruru FRSNZ

Raukawa Ngāti Ranginui Ngāti Maniapoto
Co-Director

Jacinta Ruru is a Professor of Law at the University of Otago. Her research has focused on exploring Indigenous peoples' legal rights to own, manage and govern land and water including national parks and minerals in Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, United States, Australia and the Scandinavia countries.

Dr Phil Lyver

Phil’s research has used ecological science and indigenous and local knowledge to interpret changes in demographic trends and abundance of wildlife populations (e.g. terrestrial and marine birds). The key focus of his research has been on climatic and anthropogenic (e.g. harvest) drivers of population change, and the development of models to forecast population trends. He has expertise in interpreting ecosystem structure and function within scientific and indigenous worldviews, in particular the ways that different cultures ‘sense’ the environment.

Dr Kepa Morgan

Ngāti Pikiao of Te Arawa

Dr Kepa Morgan's (BE, MBA, PhD, CPEng, FIPENZ ) bi-cultural background is rooted in his cultural identity as Ngāti Pikiao of Te Arawa. During his engineering career Kepa has strengthened his understanding of Pikiaoanga while also striving for excellence both professionally and academically. As an indirect result of this combination of identity, interests and expertise, Kepa has found himself at the juncture between Māori aspirations and the engineering profession on many occasions.