Decolonising Flooding and Risk Management: Indigenous Peoples, Settler Colonialism, and Memories of Environmental Injustices

Abstract

This paper examines the history of settler-colonialism and how settler-colonial-led policies and projects to remake the landscapes and waterscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand resulted in the production of Indigenous environmental injustices. Underpinned by theorising on ecological justice and decolonisation, we draw on archival sources and oral histories of Māori and Pākehā (European) individuals living in a single river catchment—the Waipā River—to trace how actions to remove native vegetation, drain wetlands, introduce exotic biota, and re-engineer waterways contributed to intensifying incidence of floods. While Pākehā settlers interpreted environmental transformation as inherently positive, Indigenous Māori perceived it as profoundly negative, a form of ecological dispossession. We demonstrate that while Pākehā narrated floods as disaster events, Māori viewed colonisation as the true disaster, with floods and fires merely products of settlers’ mistreatment of the environment. Moreover, the colonial government’s efforts to control floods resulted in Māori being further alienated from and losing access to their rohe (ancestral lands and waters) and witnessing the destruction of their taonga (treasures including forests, wetlands, and sacred sites). For Māori of the Waipā catchment, flood risk management regimes were far more destructive (socially, economically and spiritually) than flood events.

Abordagens De(s)coloniais Na Gestão E Nas Organizações

“…Esse tipo de gestão, alinhada a modos de organizar indígenas, parte de compreensão onto/epistemológica alternativa às ocidentais, uma vez que esta última enxerga a natureza como algo exterior ao ser humano e como selvagem ou indomada, ou seja, não colonizada (Parsons;Fisher, 2022;Jacobs et al, 2022). Essa compreensão alternativa coloca o respeito à terra, à água, aos animas e às plantas em primeiro plano (Gordon, 2022), os entendendo, muitas vezes, como parentes (Artelle et al, 2021), cuja relação precisa ser mantida em equilíbrio a partir de práticas recíprocas de cuidado (Parsons;Fisher, 2022). A compreensão exposta acima implica o Relacionamento entre todos os seres, que junto à Responsabilidade, à Recipocidade e à Redistribuição, forma os quatro "Rs" essenciais aos processos de de(s)colonização da gestão ambiental.…”

Managing ubiquitous ‘forever chemicals’: More‐than‐human possibilities for the problem of PFAS

“…Where decision-makers deem land (or water) as contaminated and unsafe (for people) but not a priority for remediation, a likely consequence is to prohibit use and occupation, in the name of (human) health. In addition to the environmental injustices that manifest with prohibitions (as distributive, procedural and recognition injustices) and remediation focused on humans rather than environmental pathways for PFAS bioaccumulation, the severing of physical connection neglects the metaphysical and ontological commitments and relationships that transcend the material (Parsons & Fisher, 2022).…”

Superheated storms: climate drivers, health effects and responses

“…These environmental transformations that have increased our susceptibility to flood events are a direct legacy of settler colonialism in Aotearoa. 10 The associated marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges and disruption of Māori relationships with the whenua has not only underpinned current risks, but further undermines our ability to prevent and manage worsening threats.…”

“…Centralising Māori conceptualisations can help us understand severe weather as dynamic parts of ecological cycles, with potential benefits for humans and the environment (e.g., improving the fertility of soils). 10 This emphasises the importance of Indigenous worldviews, value systems and knowledges in developing healthy responses to climate change. However, agencies must go further than simply recognising mātauranga Māori; they must uphold the right to self-determination for tangata whenua, so that relationships with whenua can be restored and responsibilities such as kaitiakitanga fulfilled.…”