Decolonising Blue Spaces in the Anthropocene Freshwater management in Aotearoa New Zealand

• Main Author: Parsons, Meg (auth)
• Other Authors: Fisher, Karen (auth), Crease, Roa Petra (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2021
• Series: Palgrave Studies in Natural Resource Management
• Subjects: Central government policies; Sociology; Physical geography & topography; Environmental management; Geography; The environment; Environmental Policy; Sociology, general; Environmental Geography; Environmental Management; Geography, general; Environment, general; Environmental Social Sciences; Environmental Studies; Integrated Geography; Environmental Sciences; Applied Ecology; freshwater policies; freshwater systems; nature/culture; indigenous land management; Aotearoa; land rights; social memories; river governance; Decolonisation; environmental justice; Waipā River; degraded freshwater systems; environmental guardianship; Indigenous environmental justice; open access; Central / national / federal government policies; Development & environmental geography; Environmental management,
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

This open access book crosses disciplinary boundaries to connect theories of environmental justice with Indigenous people's experiences of freshwater management and governance. It traces the history of one freshwater crisis - the degradation of Aotearoa New Zealand's Waipā River- to the settler-colonial acts of ecological dispossession resulting in intergenerational injustices for Indigenous Māori iwi (tribes). The authors draw on a rich empirical base to document the negative consequences of imposing Western knowledge, worldviews, laws, governance and management approaches onto Māori and their ancestral landscapes and waterscapes. Importantly, this book demonstrates how degraded freshwater systems can and are being addressed by Māori seeking to reassert their knowledge, authority, and practices of kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship). Co-governance and co-management agreements between iwi and the New Zealand Government, over the Waipā River, highlight how Māori are envisioning and enacting more sustainable freshwater management and governance, thus seeking to achieve Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ). The book provides an accessible way for readers coming from a diversity of different backgrounds, be they academics, students, practitioners or decision-makers, to develop an understanding of IEJ and its applicability to freshwater management and governance in the context of changing socio-economic, political, and environmental conditions that characterise the Anthropocene.