Grant Hawke: The holistic approach
Grant Hawke, Chairman of the Ngāti Whatua o Orakei Māori Trust Board
One of the key understandings about the way Māori look at resource issues and sustainability is that we see it quite naturally in a holistic way. We never separate the sea from the land and the land from the air.
This means when we come to the table to deal with issues of environment or land we are usually confronted with an assumption that the only way to consider things is in quite separate little boxes, whether it is a native tree or a native bird or one volume of water but not others. However, Māori will always struggle with this concept as we see all things as being connected.
So when we are invited to participate in meetings or to put in submissions we are expected to operate in a context that makes perfect sense to non–Māori but less sense to us – to talk about this box or that box. It is also important to understand that our view is so much wider because, in addition to everything else, we consider spiritual aspects of our world. To assess an environment without reference to wairua is nonsense in a Māori context.
Māori views have often been ridiculed or maligned when we add a spiritual consideration to environmental and resource issues. But in the field of medicine for example, after ignoring the spirit for so long, medical professionals are now coming to understand that while we can throw all kinds of drugs at an unwell person they are unlikely to heal if their spirit is low or damaged. Maybe then it could be possible that those involved in environmental protection will one day consider the wairua of the land in their decision making.
A dilemma I see is we have so much energy going into developing a plethora of international conventions that are signed in some distant place. They are well intended, but to create space for greater understanding about what we have here, we need more dialogue within communities, here where we live and breathe.
Locally we have to understand more about ourselves. Taha Māori has riches for the community to mine, but few delve in beyond satisfying a specific requirement.
My view is we need to be looking at sustainability at a more fundamental level –at basic building blocks:
- The sustainability of communities is dependent on the strength of families.
- The sustainability of land is dependent on soil and water and air.
- The sustainability of people is dependent on relationships, aroha and wairua.
As Māori we are always behind the eight ball because we don’t have the resources to participate fully and to ‘promote’ or teach our understandings. We don’t have the forums to express a taha Māori point of view where people are listening and trying to really understand rather than ticking the box that says they have consulted with Māori. But I am always optimistic change is just around the corner.