Ocean privatising-collectivising relationalities in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand: a pioneering methodological exploration

Abstract International alarm at the deteriorating conditions of the planet’s ocean has grown over recent decades amid hesitation of many countries to develop responses. Aotearoa New Zealand’s experience is a unique window for probing the challenges of directing coastal and place-based responses towards managing ocean outcomes and futures. When European colonists reached Aotearoa’s shores, they met an archipelago geography of diverse ecologies and dispersed coastal occupancy by the indigenous peoples, collectively referred to as Māori (meaning ‘normal’). Living by customs and practices Māori attended to the mauri (life force), including the environmental health of water for immediate livelihood and future generations. The colonist’s individualised property-centred worldview meant they saw natural resources as open access, which led to ocean and land resources being used to produce for profit. This mindset clashed with the established Māori worldview that prioritised a way of thinking, interacting, and behaving with the environment and kin, to achieve spiritual and physical well-being. Conceptualising broad phases of privatisation and resulting destruction of the Māori way of life gives insight into the pre-conditions of contemporary natural resource use contestation. Two institutional innovations, the Treaty of Waitangi Commission (1972-) and then the Treaty Settlement process (1992-), reset the mix of actors and terms of engagement in Aotearoa’s Ocean. The paper’s methodology addresses the historical conjuncture between dominant privatising influences causing ocean harm from economic activities and a reassertion by Māori of community and collective initiatives seeking restorative outcomes. By framing a relationality of privatising-collectivising processes and examining enactive agency the competing worldviews of colonists and Māori, and motivations and contested investment decisions of different interests, are highlighted. The methodology probes participatory processes which emerged as evidence-gatherers and knowledge-generating tools making visible grounded actor-centred politics and power moves by investors over their choices and directions. Three Aotearoa Ocean settings, the Kaipara Harbour, Hauraki Gulf and coastal Kaikoura, are examined. Two primary findings emerge. First, ocean water has gradually become ‘the’ object of localised interests and action in each study context. Second, evidence indicates steady reprioritising of environment over economy at many levels. Both developments continue to meet opposition from primarily private interests who are reluctant to recognise, accept, or ameliorate the externalities for the ocean of their natural resource uses and behaviours.