{"id":53282,"date":"2022-09-16T16:15:22","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T04:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=53282"},"modified":"2025-07-28T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:05:10","slug":"a-pathway-to-te-ao-maori-and-kaitiakitanga-through-te-reo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/a-pathway-to-te-ao-maori-and-kaitiakitanga-through-te-reo\/","title":{"rendered":"A pathway to Te Ao M\u0101ori and Kaitiakitanga through Te Reo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ko t\u0113nei te wiki o te reo M\u0101ori. It\u2019s <\/em>M\u0101ori language week<\/em><\/a>, and in fact some of us are celebrating not just the week but #MahuruM\u0101ori. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Personally, I\u2019m challenging both myself and my colleagues by spending two hours each day at work speaking M\u0101ori only, for the entire month of Mahuru. I don\u2019t translate what I say, I just show a bit of patience. <\/p>\n\n

So far, my non-M\u0101ori or non-M\u0101ori speaking colleagues have leaned into the discomfort without any issues or reservations. <\/p>\n\n

They\u2019ve enjoyed experiencing something that native English speakers rarely have to, that non-English speakers very often have all over the world. Using a dictionary, context clues, body language and an open mind, we\u2019ve had hui and work-related conversations very successfully over the past week. They\u2019ve embraced a bilingual workplace and created a space to which I can bring my entire self, a safe place for me to push my reo journey a little further today than yesterday. <\/p>\n\n

As a wahine M\u0101ori still in my learning stages, I use reo sometimes, even if it\u2019s just simple kupu (words) or whakatauk\u012b (proverbs). Of course, that includes my work life and sometimes it\u2019s in these M\u0101ori values and concepts, whakatauk\u012b and indigenous ways of being that best describe where I sit with regard to our environment and Papat\u016b\u0101nuku. <\/p>\n\n

That includes specifically plastic pollution and where I believe the solutions are, as the Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa. <\/p>\n\n

Te reo M\u0101ori and the environment<\/h2>\n\n

Lots of people get in touch and I\u2019m asked often, \u201cwhat do M\u0101ori values have to do with plastic pollution? Why do we have to hear about Te Reo me ona Tikanga, or the Treaty? Why is matauranga M\u0101ori (indigenous knowledge) always talked about as the answer? We just care deeply about the environment, and race doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

These are great questions, and it\u2019s an important discussion for all of us. Constructive and provocative k\u014drero about the position of tangata whenua and what it means for the wellness of our country, our planet, and climate is one of my favourite things to participate in, because it gets to the heart of why I\u2019m an activist for Papat\u016b\u0101nuku.<\/p>\n\n

Our language, or reo, doesn\u2019t exist on its own. It\u2019s part of an ecosystem that includes wh\u0101nau, hap\u016b and iwi; tupuna, pakeke<\/a>, rangatahi and nohinohi<\/a>; tikanga, whanonga<\/a>; tika, pono, aroha. That ecosystem is what it is to be M\u0101ori – on one level te wiki o te reo M\u0101ori is about revitalisation of our language, and on another is part of a bigger movement to revitalise our identity and lift our people. It needs support and nurture so it may thrive once again.<\/p>\n\n

If you were to ask me what the solution is to care for Papat\u016b\u0101nuku and help safekeep the finite treasures she births; if someone told me they wanted to protect our moana but needed guidance \u2026 I\u2019d answer that it depends on those who\u2019ve been here exercising kaitiakitanga longer than anyone else, being able to give guidance. But for a very long time M\u0101ori have not been able to be wholly M\u0101ori, in all spaces, at all times, in all ways.<\/p>\n\n

In the rohe of Whanganui river, there\u2019s a famous whakatauk\u012b which ends: \u2018Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au.\u2019 It translates to, \u2018I am the river; the river is me.\u2019 This demonstrates how nature relates to our existence. <\/p>\n\n

You may already know that when M\u0101ori introduce themselves with a pepeha – a speech that grounds us to our ancestral lands – and rivers, beaches and mountains are the first markers of our identity. When the awa or river dries up, or is so polluted that it can no longer support life, what becomes of our identity then?<\/p>\n\n

Similarly, we have stories that speak to our history and creation marked by taonga species that are integral parts of our whakapapa. Birds, marine life, insects describe and determine who we are and how we live. <\/p>\n\n

Holding on to Taonga <\/h2>\n\n

Our campaign to ban the bottle talks about the terrible story of a toroa at Te Tairawhiti<\/a> that died from starvation after swallowing a water bottle whole. Our toroa are at great risk from plastic pollution and particularly for hap\u016b and iwi for whom toroa are revered taonga from stories about how they came to be, plastic pollution is also a risk to their people. <\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m profoundly concerned about what it all means when these precious parts of our whakapapa might cease to exist. I imagine we might also cease to exist, at least not as our tupuna existed and not as they intended for us to exist, either. <\/p>\n\n

Tangata whenua have inhabited this land for hundreds of years. M\u0101ori traversed the motu by foot, lived off the land and moana and had a reciprocal relationship with Papat\u016b\u0101nuku. In the M\u0101ori worldview, people aren\u2019t separate from the environment, we are part of it and wellness is interconnected, interdependent. <\/p>\n\n

Over these hundreds of years, M\u0101ori became experts of the whenua, the moana and all the life it held, exercising kaitiakitanga and care with foresight, preserving and future proofing. Creating customs and systems that sustain all life.<\/p>\n\n

A pathway forward<\/h2>\n\n

If we want justice for our environment, our biodiversity, our planet and climate, we must change the systems and power structures that have been in place for the past 200 years, enabling and encouraging this destruction. Shortsighted colonial worldviews have prioritised quick profits for some over the collective wellbeing of all, including nature. These changes will be new and feel very foreign to many of us, but we can expect something beautiful to happen if we are open to being guided by kaitiakitanga and matauranga tuku iho – traditional, expert knowledge.<\/p>\n\n

Today, while we still hold that knowledge and expertise and those instincts lay deep within us, events since the arrival of Europeans have limited and continue to limit rangatiratanga for M\u0101ori. Our ability to live wholly and access that \u2018ecosystem\u2019 of language, wh\u0101nau, hap\u016b, iwi, tikanga, values, te Ao M\u0101ori, has been systematically restricted with colonial policy and is fraught with trauma that has been felt through generations. <\/p>\n\n

We know a healthy ecosystem needs all its parts. To access these inherent instincts and knowledge systems, to practice our customary ways to protect and sustain, we need our whole selves.<\/p>\n\n

\"My
My son Mckenzie with an award he got for his part in our protest to save the Canal Road trees

\u00a9 Juressa Lee<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

About two years ago, my p\u014dtiki<\/a> climbed a p\u016briri tree with my hoamahi Zane<\/a> and said, \u201cI think trees should be the rulers of the world because they\u2019re here before we\u2019re born and still here when we go.\u201d I asked him to keep talking to me when his feet were on the ground, eager to soak up his wisdom. I was so shocked by this beautiful and innocent insight, from a student on a M\u0101ori-medium education pathway who learns immersed in the M\u0101ori worldview. A worldview I\u2019d been deprived of, but here was another push forward to acquire te reo me ona tikanga.<\/p>\n\n

I heard the other day an expression that te reo M\u0101ori was the pathway to Te Ao M\u0101ori (the M\u0101ori world).  This sums it up for me. Te Wiki o te Reo M\u0101ori is about creating space to reclaim and revitalise our language. Language revitalisation is a correction of colonial harm and validation of our position as tangata whenua. As we move through this pathway that te reo me ona tikanga provides, our tangata whenua status is legitimised and we move closer towards achieving tino rangatiratanga.<\/p>\n

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I heard the other day an expression that te reo M\u0101ori was the pathway to Te Ao M\u0101ori (the M\u0101ori world).\u00a0 This sums it up for me. 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The whakapapa of my wh\u0101nau is a journey through Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. From the Whangape Harbour to Rawhiti via Ngawha, down to Tauranga Moana, over to Tupapa and Ngatangiia in Rarotonga, and north again to Tahiti. My tamariki, through their p\u0101p\u0101, also whakapapa to Toi village in Niue. I was raised by a frugal mother who was always mindful of her impact on the planet, and navigated it accordingly. My dad has always enjoyed nature and instilled in us that there were responsibilities we had to be able to keep enjoying it. This was my very first influence. When I became an adult and then a mother myself, decolonising my life became a priority to raise my tamariki with an unapologetic, Indigenous worldview. Along the way and without realising, my whakaaro around kaitiakitanga began to shift, or rather, return. I felt more responsible, but also more empowered. I connect the dots between 160+ years of colonisation, extractivism, social and environmental harms and injustices and a worldview that sees the environment as separate to people. That people are somehow entitled to take, own, throw away, destroy and degrade. We are witnessing the impacts from living in a system rooted in colonialism and racism and extractive industries are devastating the planet and furthering the climate crisis. Now, wannabe miners are eyeing up the seabed in the South Taranaki Bight, and also seeking to plunder the deep seas. This problem is colossal, but so is our fight to protect te taiao. There are solutions to these issues. 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Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/294cdee467eed7a8d88f1c8edc1435e36aba63dc27597743729d4b320fe53023?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/294cdee467eed7a8d88f1c8edc1435e36aba63dc27597743729d4b320fe53023?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Juressa Lee"},"description":"Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ng\u0101puhi, Rarotonga) is the seabed mining campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, working to stop seabed mining in Aotearoa, protecting marine wildlife and the delicate ecosystems of the deep sea, move NZ away from destructive extractivism and towards a circular economy. The whakapapa of my wh\u0101nau is a journey through Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. From the Whangape Harbour to Rawhiti via Ngawha, down to Tauranga Moana, over to Tupapa and Ngatangiia in Rarotonga, and north again to Tahiti. My tamariki, through their p\u0101p\u0101, also whakapapa to Toi village in Niue. I was raised by a frugal mother who was always mindful of her impact on the planet, and navigated it accordingly. My dad has always enjoyed nature and instilled in us that there were responsibilities we had to be able to keep enjoying it. This was my very first influence. When I became an adult and then a mother myself, decolonising my life became a priority to raise my tamariki with an unapologetic, Indigenous worldview. Along the way and without realising, my whakaaro around kaitiakitanga began to shift, or rather, return. I felt more responsible, but also more empowered. I connect the dots between 160+ years of colonisation, extractivism, social and environmental harms and injustices and a worldview that sees the environment as separate to people. That people are somehow entitled to take, own, throw away, destroy and degrade. We are witnessing the impacts from living in a system rooted in colonialism and racism and extractive industries are devastating the planet and furthering the climate crisis. Now, wannabe miners are eyeing up the seabed in the South Taranaki Bight, and also seeking to plunder the deep seas. This problem is colossal, but so is our fight to protect te taiao. There are solutions to these issues. We must stop seabed mining before it starts.","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/juressa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53282"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72460,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53282\/revisions\/72460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53282"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=53282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}