In
Aotearoa/New Zealand Maori, the country’s indigenous inhabitants
(who call themselves the ‘people of the land’ the tangata
whenua), hold that their genealogy unites them with the land in an unbroken
line. Development may, they believe, destroy the health and spirit of
the place and cut links with their ancestor. Without a past they cannot
envisage a future. How can these values be accommodated with the dominant
post-colonial paradigm that sees land as a market-place commodity?
Time
and understanding encourages emotional links with the land, be they
felt by Maori, or by more recent dwellers, but it does not necessarily
lead to shared values. The histories that link European settlers (Pakeha)
with the land (and these seldom extend back more than five generations)
are inevitably distinct from those of Maori. They spring from a different
perspective and in comparison with Maori histories, which extend back
40 generations or more, are bound to be somewhat thinner in content
and meaning - however heartfelt. So how can such a dualism in the understandings
about what the land represents and means be accommodated in a physically
singular landscape?
Using
a range of examples from landscape planning and site design, this paper
explores these questions. It reviews some of the issues that arise where
cultural values and development aims conflict, and some of the issues
that arise where different cultural groups share a landscape that means
different things to them. The paper then goes on to discuss a series
of examples where Maori meaning has been accommodated within landscape
development, which demonstrates the potential for cross-cultural accommodation,
and illustrates the paper’s objective - which is to move from
conflict to accommodation and collaboration. The paper also aims to
show that design which responds to the spirit of place, its history
and processes, offers prospect for future resolution of conflicts over
place values.
Dr
Diane Menzies is an Environment Commissioner for the Environment Court
in New Zealand, Principal of Menzies Environmental Ltd. and Secretary
General of the International Federation of Landscape Architects.
Neil
Challenger is a lecturer in the Landscape Architecture Group at Lincoln
University in New Zealand. He has a particular interest in the landscape
design issues of culturally diverse and pluralistic societies.
Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed in this paper are the writers’ own and
should not be taken as the views of either the Environment Court or
Lincoln University.
Here is my rope
starting at my feet. I weave my own rope of descent and belonging from
the land. I collect kelp from the sea. I bind it with a river…
I weave in the living frond of a podocarp taken from the forest …
There is my rope. It is with this that I am tied to the land.’
Annette Lees (Pakeha New Zealander) 1,
2
Our
people have walked this land and fished these waters for hundreds of
years. What happens here touches us because of these peoples: the people
who have gone before. Cath Brown (Maori New Zealander).
3, 4