Rangatiratanga ō te Wai

Listening to the voices of our harbours:

Kāwhia, Manukau and Whangārei

Funded by Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Grant
Marama Muru-Lanning, Keri Mills, Shane Solomon, Gerald Lanning and Professor Jim Igoe are collaborating with flaxroots Māori to investigate past and present kaitiakitanga over Aotearoa’s harbours. The project centres on Kāwhia, Manukau and Whangārei harbours as case sites and asks how kaitiaki understand harbours and how we best care for them.

The word ‘kaitiaki’ has entered our legislation and policy, but in practice it is often used as a convenient Māori shorthand for ‘stakeholder,’ without recognition that the term is profoundly embedded in the culture from which it comes. Kaitiakitanga has deep roots in Māori history, and the concept entered mainstream New Zealand politics as a result of Māori activism in the 1980s, particularly in the Manukau harbour claim led by Dame Nganeko Minhinnick. Our research reclaims the political nature of kaitiakitanga and the work of the women and men who have fought to protect the environment and to be recognised as kaitiaki. We explore how the codification of kaitiakitanga into law and policy has hindered or assisted Māori in their exercise of kaitiaki responsibilities. Ultimately we aim to show the complex and diverse nature of relationships that Māori have with the land-sea environment, and demonstrate the many ways that mātauranga Māori, and the kaitiaki who carry it, are instrumental in the past, present, and future wellbeing of our harbours.