Tena koutou e nga kaipanui haere mai nei ki tenei kupu ki te whiriwhiri i maori matauranga ratou ko kauneke tawhiro.

Ko Alps toku maunga
Ko Fure toku awa
Ko Boeing whitu wha whitu toku waka!
No Dauphine no France oku tupuna
Ko Gaulois toku iwi
No Wanaka ahau
Ko Florence toku ingoa.

 Greetings to you, readers, welcome to this letter that discusses maori culture and sustainability.

The Alps are my mountains
The Fure is my river
I arrived in New Zealand in Boeing 747
My ancestors are from Dauphine in France
My tribe is the Gauls.
I live in Wanaka and my name is Florence.

I chose to live in New Zealand with my family for its pristine landscapes and the warmth and welcoming of its people, which we experienced when we visited in 1998-99. We felt it was possible here to live a grassroot connected life, unlike in crowded and nuclearised France.

I can’t love a country and not its people. Therefore interested in Maori people and culture, I was fascinated by the unique case in colonisation history of “equality” between natives and colons, as signed in 1848 in the Treaty of Waitangi. I read lots of books about maori myths and legends, maori lore, history and tahunga. I joined and enjoyed a waiata a ringaringa local group and recently passed a certificate in Te Ara Reo Maori level 2, at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, where our great Tutor taught us maori perspective, so intricated in the language. I came to understand that the assets I initially admired in this country were linked to the Maori presence.

We became New Zealander in 2008. Pakehas. Proud to be. Pakeha is the word Maori gave to the first “fair-skinned” visitors. Pakeha is a word gifted by the Maori to the people who came to live here. It is a recognition that we are part of this land too. That we belong.

Caring for the land

Belonging to the land is a central notion for many indigenous people. Whanaungatanga. People do not possess the land but belong to it. Fundamental difference. It feels good to belong. It means I need to respect and take care of the place. Not to use it, consume it, exploit it… It is linked to the protection and conservation of resources. Kaitiakitanga. Hence the vast protected landscapes and forests. Tane-Mahuta, the first son, guardian of the forests, is still very strong. We can learn a lot from the maori knowledge and perception of the environment.

Caring for the people

Hospitality and welcoming also derive from Maori culture and has warmly diffused the whole country. Manaakitanga was Maori Language week theme this year and is widely acknowledged by tourists of the Rugby World Cup.

Maori have coded social structures, which I was lucky to experience on a marae. Communication skills korero, shared decision making, connectedness and support, transmission of knowledge and values, cooperation and participation, sense of belonging -again, are all essential skills to build a sustainable society.

New Zealanders welcoming habits, community sense and cool-she’ll-be-allright-attitude has much to do with maori culture and has changed the anglo-saxon immigrant into a Pakeha, a blessed citizen of Aotearoa.

Holistic approach

Most importantly, Maori have an holistic approach as they “never separate the sea from the land and the land from the air.”
Interestingly, the sustainability pages of Landcare Research are bathed in Maori culture. Not only sustainability could not be achieved in New Zealand without a deep inclusiveness of all people of New Zealand. But also Maori people behold the sustainability principles deeply and therefore mātauranga Māori is naturally at the core of landcare research sustainability.

All over the world, indigenous people have a great connection with living systems, as poetically detailed in the famous -if not authentic- Chief Seattle Speech. While humans deconnect from nature to live the “modern life”, understanding and respect of natural cycles also decrease. It is urgent to reverse the decline of the state of the environment by reconnecting with the world thanks to indigenous values.

Titi story

While on the marae in Bluff, we were offered muttonbird stories (also some to eat, yum). I was amazed to hear that birds numbers actually increase when the island is well looked after, following knowledge transmitted from generations. Not only they know when and how many birds they can catch to get the best harvests over the years. But also, muttonbirders restore nests and look after the trees the birds need to take off. That is sustainable management of the land, guardianship.

To thank our hosts on the Marae, we created a song. Like the muttonbirds who take off to migrate towards unknown lands, we have to listen to our destiny, open our minds to change, open our wings to fly into the unknown, and all this is possible thanks to the great nurture provided by the marae.

“Maori principles can help us deepen our appreciation of the environment, sound social structures and a connective view of sustainability”, as summarised in the Maori Perspective leaflet published on the Outlookforsomeday Sustainability Film challenge for young people website.

Tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Florence

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Maori language resources

Learning a language is directly connected with learning a culture, because the way people express their ideas reflect their way of understanding the world. Knowing a culture is respecting and embracing it. Maori language is now widely taught in pre- and primary schools. There are 800 and a growing number of kohanga reo schools (maori language) and 3 maori tertiary education institutes. Give it a Go!

http://www.maorilanguage.net/
http://www.maorilanguage.info/
http://www.korero.maori.nz/
http://kupu.maori.nz/ One Maori word a day and much more
http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/ Maori Language commission

More Maori resources

Maori culture is becoming a strong and integrated part of New Zealand, thanks to great leaders (Apirana Ngata, Dame Whina Cooper), thanks to the Treaty of Waitangi, thanks to many Maori and Pakeha who know if they do not strenghten this culture, nobody will… And increasingly both Maori and Pakeha realise they enrich each other, and learn to live respectfully with each other … And all are proud of the Haka ;) New Zealand is one of the few countries worldwide who managed to maintain indigenous identity in a diverse society.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/maori Te Ara Encyclopedia of NZ about Maori history and culture
http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/ deals with maori claims.
http://www.maoritelevision.com/Default.aspx

I watched this youtube from TED conference by Simon Sinek: “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action”.
He explains that companies are successful at selling products when they advertise why they do them. People will buy a product because of why it is done. Decision making is done from the heart, from the belief. Companies who just say what they do, or how they do it do not get as much success.

Simon says… it is the same with ideas…
I thought I’d try to apply it to sustainability…

What?

So what is the problem? What is sustainability? A huge number of studies have gathered data measuring the ampleness of the issues, and created estimations and recommendations. They are essential for governments and international organisation to decide for actions.

Here are some excellent studies with compelling results. We cannot say that we do not know… But you need time to read!

– Living Beyond Our Means from the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment website is a summary of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessement, a 3000 pages document, created by 1360 experts from 95 countries, reviewed by more than 2500 experts from 185 countries. Check out the 107 slides
presentation http://www.maweb.org/documents/document.752.aspx.ppt or my summary of the summary here.

– The Stern Review – The Economics of Climate Change  calculates that climate change will reduce global per-capita consumption of around 20% over the next 2 centuries, in the current trends. However, mitigating the impacts of climate change would only cost around 1% of annual global GDP by 2050 for a weak stabilisation of 550ppm Co2e. Policies to reduce emissions include carbon pricing, technology policy and removal to behavioural change.

– Check out the comprehensive IPCC website. For example the Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation  or the latest assessment report summary (2007).

– For New Zealand, here is the “Climate Change Effects and Impacts Assessment: A Guidance Manual for Local Government in New Zealand“

These are all very interesting researches that all prompt for urgent collective action, while giving governments and decisions-makers clues on how to do it best. Whether they decide to go for it or not is so far political.

But for many people anyway, although striking and obvious, these graphs and facts are boring and not engaging. The required actions seem beyond their means, whereas they actually have the political choice in their voting card…

Some people even deny that there is a link between climate change and extreme weather, but that won’t last!

How?

How can we become more sustainable?

It is important to give information (ex: how-to-do a garden), and to show examples of successful sustainable actions. But there are so many sources of information and so many topics that I do not attempt a list here. Giving tips on how to cut energy bills or recycle does help, but people may be overwhelmed by the number of things to know and do. They may not see connexions between seemingly different subjects. They will do it, then forget it. They miss the big picture. They need to know why…

Why?

So why go sustainable?

Why do I study sustainability? Why do I choose to buy local or fair trade, to bike or walk when I can, to make my own hand-made organic flour bread, to use eco-bulbs, to plant trees, to bring my old clothes to the recycling centre where I get not-so-old ones, to grow a pesticide-free vege garden, to live with a 6 years-old mobile phone, and so on…
Because I believe I can help changing the world in doing my part. I am convinced we can manage to curb these horrific Green House Gas curves (and others)  that threaten to over-heat our planet, if we all do our bit. I believe one day, all humans will be aware and respect the cycles of the nature we are within.

I also believe that the climate change is actually an opportunity for our human specie to grasp our problems as a whole and solve them altogether, from poverty and disparity, to pollutions and ecosystems destructions. Idealist? Yes, I am, because I trust humans. Each human trusts himself, why couldn’t I trust each human?

Therefore I am working towards raising this awareness, as well as spreading the information on the many solutions that do exist.

I know people will not all embark on the sustainability track now. As for products, ideas have an “adoption cycle”. I am humbly an innovator, carving this path for 25 years, despite mockery and derision. I think we are in New Zealand in the early “Early Adopters” phase. I believe this is the decade when we can make a change, and I am not alone. I study sustainability because I want to do professionally what I have been practising at home for long. The more I study, the more I realise we can make it.

Now, one of the most compelling action-prompting Youtube I’ve seen is “The most terrifying video” or the global climate change matrix where Greg Craven brilliantly shows that choosing to take no action is choosing Death! Boy, that is a pretty convincing reason why to go sustainable!

I have a vision of a happy, healthy, sharing era in a sustainable world. I do believe that a majority of people will soon realise that we are better off cooperating with each other and learning to use our resources wisely. Now is a good time  to shift your mindset and adopt the sustainability “innovation”.

“I have a dream” we will get there!

Does this post inspire action?