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Troubled Waters. Maori Values and Ethics for Freshwater Management and
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Received: 16 December 2019 Revised: 18 May 2020 Accepted: 21 May 2020
DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1464

FOCUS ARTICLE

Troubled waters: Maori values and ethics for freshwater

management and New Zealand's fresh water crisis

Makere W. Stewart-Harawira

Education Policy Studies, University of

Alberta, Alberta, Canada
Abstract
The landmass of Aotearoa New Zealand totals some 268,000 km2, including
Correspondence
425,000 km of rivers, more than 4,000 lakes and approximately 200 aquifers.
Makere W. Stewart-Harawira, Education
Policy Studies, University of Alberta, For Aotearoa New Zealand's indigenous Maori, these freshwater bodies are
Alberta, Canada. part of a complex system of genealogical relationships from which derive the
Email: makere@ualberta.ca
traditional Maori knowledge, values and ethics which shape Maori customary
practices for freshwater monitoring and freshwater management. The rupture
of these relationships through a century and a half of colonization and indus-
trialization and the dispossession of Maori from their lands and waters also
dispossessed Maori of their rights and responsibilities to enact traditional cus-
tomary practices of kaitiakitanga, stewardship of the natural environment. In
2017 Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater systems were designated as among
the worst in the world. Today they are continuing to degrade. This article
focuses on Maori traditional knowledge, ethics and values for freshwater mon-
itoring and management. The article reviews the impact of colonization and
development on Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater systems, the extensive
struggle by Maori for recognition of Maori traditional knowledge, rights and
responsibilities regarding waterways, and the development of contemporary
Maori models for freshwater monitoring and management. Treaty settlements
and other legislative initiatives have also catalyzed changes in freshwater man-
agement. Faced with catastrophic climatic impacts on freshwater systems and
implications for the wellbeing of species and communities, questions of how to
ethically manage freshwater are critical. Maori freshwater ethics, values and
practices provide a model of renewal and possibility, although one that is not
without contest.

This article is categorized under:

Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented
Human Water > Water Governance
Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness

KEYWORDS
Aotearoa New Zealand freshwater, freshwater governance, Maori freshwater ethics and values,
Maori traditional knowledge

WIREs Water. 2020;7:e1464. wires.wiley.com/water © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 1 of 18

https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1464
2 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

1 | INTRODUCTION

Exacerbated by global climatic changes, issues regarding freshwater quality, availability and governance are increas-
ingly critical and conflictive. From a global risk perspective, water crises are fourth in the top 10 global risks in terms of
impact and ninth in terms of global risks to livelihoods (WEF, 2019). The 2019 UN Water Development Report reports
that water use has been increasing worldwide by about 1% per year since the 1980s and that global water demand is
expected to continue increasing at a similar rate until 2050, accounting for an increase of 20–30% above the current
level of water use (WAPP 2019). The 2019 UN Water Policy brief on Climate Change and Water notes that the global
climate change crisis is inextricably linked to water with climate change increasing variability in the water cycle, thus
inducing extreme weather events, reducing the predictability of water availability and decreasing water quality (UN
Water, 2019). Underpinning debates about the usage, distribution, and value-added commodification of freshwater in a
rapidly warming world lie critical questions about ethical frameworks and just distribution. As Schmidt (2010) suggests,
our responses to questions of water ethics have much to do with our conceptions of water itself. Unquestionably, the
modernist ideologies which for centuries have shaped human–nonhuman relationships, holding humankind as sepa-
rate from and dominant over nature, have brought us to the current crisis. By the 1990s, recognition of the rapidly
diminishing availability of freshwater globally coupled with the dominance of neoliberal ideologies saw freshwater posi-
tioned as an increasingly valuable and marketable commodity for which the competition for access and ownership has
become increasingly conflictive. Indigenous communities generally hold a widely different view. For Maori, Aotearoa
New Zealand's Indigenous people, water, like all aspects of the natural world, is viewed as existing within a complex
system of genealogical relationships of which human beings are one part.
This article has two key objectives; the first is to provide an overview of Maori values and ethics regarding freshwa-
ter and the second, to consider the implications of Maori freshwater ethics for freshwater governance. Yet these impli-
cations cannot be addressed in isolation from the impact of colonization and development on Maori relationships to
water. Prior to colonization, New Zealand's plentiful bodies of freshwater not only provided an essential means of suste-
nance and transport, they were and are still today, integral to Maori identities, interrelationships, and wellbeing. The
system of colonization initiated in the 19th century saw the relationship between Maori and the natural environment,
and their ability to access traditional food sources and maintain their relationship to their customary lands and waters,
violently disrupted. As the colonial state developed and urban and industrial development spread, rivers and lakes were
stocked with foreign species, waterways became open sewers and units of waste disposal and in many cases, rivers,
streams and wetlands were diverted and/or buried underground (Knight, 2016). Accruing from the rupture of the rela-
tionship between Maori and their traditional environment was a loss of language, culture, status and the ability to
engage in protection and restoration of waterways. The restoration of traditional knowledge, cultural traditions, values
and practices that for centuries shaped Maori relationships with other species has underpinned Maori endeavors to
regain customary rights, relationships and responsibilities towards freshwater. The article begins with a review of Maori
onto-epistemologies with specific reference to the core beliefs, principles and values that define Maori relationships
with water and the ethic of relationality that derives from and characterizes this relationship. The section that follows
contextualizes this within the framework of colonization and development, and the impacts on land and water use and
on Maori communities. Included is a focus on the impact of pastural agriculture as a primary industry and major export
economy in Aoteara New Zealand. The third section focuses on the role of maatauranga Maori, that is, Maori tradi-
tional knowledge, and the reclaiming of Maori customary rights to lands and waters as critical to the development of
policy goals aimed at the recovery of healthy freshwater systems. A primary focus in this section is the impact on envi-
ronmental legislation. The final section highlights culturally based freshwater assessment, monitoring and mitigation
practices developed by Maori communities and the impact of Maori ethics and values on freshwater management
models. The article points to the urgency of a radical reconceptualization of human—nonhuman relationships and in
particular, our relationship with freshwater.

2 | IN THE B EGINNING WAS WATER

For New Zealand Maori, conceptions, values and ethics regarding freshwater operate within a web of complex genea-
logical relationships that begin with the origin of the universe and connects all aspects of existence, delineating a pro-
found interconnectedness between the environment, the cosmos and all sentient beings seen and unseen (Durie, 2005;
Marsden, 2003; Roberts, 2013; Te Aho, 2010, 2012). While varying slightly from iwi to iwi or tribe to tribe, common to
STEWART-HARAWIRA 3 of 18

all Maori cosmologies are the two primordial parents from whom all Maori descend, Ranginui—or Sky Father, and
Papatuanuku—Earth Mother. From the forcible rupturing of the embrace between these two epochal ancestors to the
consequences that followed, the actions of their 71 offspring precipitated the coming into being of the entire ecosystem.
The spiritual beings who are the children of Ranginui and Papatuanuku are personified in the elements of nature and
are represented in mountains, rocks, rivers, specific land formations, and plants. These personifications encapsulate
specific bodies of knowledge and associated practices to do with a particular domain which form the basis of
matauranga Maori (Forster, 2019). Following their separation, the tears of Ranginui as he looked down upon Pap-
atuanuku joined with the mists that arose from her body, and became the wai-rua (two waters), or spirit, that animates
all life.1
The genealogical relationship between Maori and the natural world is demonstrated in te reo Maori, the Maori lan-
guage, manifesting in traditional sayings and proverbs such as, ko te ukaipo, te whenua; ko te whenua, te ukaipo, “my
breastmilk is the land; the land is my breastmilk,” and from the iwi or tribes along the Whanganui River, “ko au te
awa, ko te awa au. I am the river; the river is me”. As the carriers of birth waters, women have a particular relationship
to water (Ngata, 2018; Stewart-Harawira, 2007) as well as to land. When Maori ask, “ko wai koe?” “who are you”? the
question being asked is, “whose water are you from?” Maori understandings of the complexity of water are also demon-
strated in the unique identifiers of different aspects of water (Ngata, 2018; Ruru, 2012; Salmond, 2017). Freshwater bod-
ies not only provided an essential means of sustenance and transport, they were and are integral to Maori identities,
interrelationships, and wellbeing. Each key water body has its own treasured species as well as nonhuman guardians,
taniwha, that protect the mauri, or lifeforce, the wellbeing, of the waterway. Mauri is described as a binding life force
which is immanent in all things, binding and knitting them together while at the same time giving “uniqueness and
being to each individual object” (Marsden, 2003, pp. 47, 60; Tipu Ake ki te Ora 2011 cited Spiller, Pio, Erakovic, &
Henare, 2011, p. 225) and is oriented towards healing and sustaining life (Marsden, 2003). Aligned with this, mauri ora
translates as “conscious wellbeing” where “ora” denotes wellness, in health (Williams, cited Marsden 2003, 2002) and
applies to spiritual as well as physical wellbeing. For Maori, the wellbeing of awa,2 a word that refers to the entirety of
a water course from the mountain to the sea, including its banks, the river bed, and all that is in and around the water
course (Ngata, 2018; Salmond, 2014) is intrinsically connected to the physical and spiritual health and wellbeing of their
community. Water itself has the quality to imbue someone or something with mauri, a function which expresses the
essence of the sacredness or sanctity of water (Ngata, 2018; Salmond, 2017). The protection of mauri, or lifeforce, is at
the heart of Maori environmental ethics and values.

2.1 | Relationship and reciprocity

The genealogical layering expressed in Maori onto-epistemologies (Henare, 2001; Kawharu, 2000; Roberts, 2013), orders
all the elements of the universe in both linear (defined as descent-time) and lateral (kinship-space) layers and provides
the context and rationale for conceptualizing kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and related concepts and values as discussed
in this article. The loss of this traditional function has been one of the most disruptive impacts of colonization and the
driver of hard-fought struggles towards its recovery. Durie (1998, 2003) describes Maori values as interlocking parts of a
whole system of knowledge that is inseparable from life itself. The genealogical or whakapapa relationship that under-
pins this complex system of knowledge defines an ecological ethic of responsibility towards all aspects of the environ-
ment; to the land, the waters, and the beings that inhabit them within a framework of reciprocity and relationality in
which the natural order is equilibrium (Harmsworth & Awatere, 2013a; Harmsworth, Barclay Kerr, & Reedy, 2002).
With these interrelationships comes the specific responsibilities of kaitiakitanga. Kawharu (2000) notes that this word
derives from the word “tiaki”—which is defined as “to guard, or keep” and tikanga as “circumstance of watching or
guarding” (Williams, 1957, p. 414 cited Kawharu, 2000, p. 350). Central to this interpretation is “managing sets of rela-
tionships that transcend time and space” that include “gods, spiritual beings and ancestors on one hand and their living
guardians or kaitiaki on the other” (Kawharu, 2000, p. 352). Hence in its fullest sense, kaitiakitanga involves a body of
lore that is circumscribed by careful attention to sanctions and ceremonies, occupies specific spiritual domains, and
addresses not only environmental relations but also social relations.
Spiller et al. (2011) invoke core Maori wisdom values using the lens of kaitiakitanga which they define as steward-
ship. They include aroha—love, care, compassion; hau—promotion and maintenance of vitality; manaaki—respect or
care for; maatauranga—knowledge, understanding; tika—just and appropriate behavior; whakapapa—genealogy, hon-
oring of ancestors, recognition of the human connectedness to all of creation (p. 226). In this interpretation, all humans
4 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

are born into a relational world with the responsibility of being kaitiaki (stewards), endowed and empowered from birth
with the mandate and obligations of creating Mauri ora—conscious wellbeing—for humans and ecosystems (Spiller
et al., 2011, pp. 223–224). Harmsworth and Awatere (2013a) describe this as a reciprocal relationship of caring for the
land, or manaki whenua, and caring for the people, manaki tangata. The importance of this relationship and function
to Maori was vividly expressed by Chief Justice Joseph Williams of the Maori Land Courts. “Without the opportunity to
practice kaitiakitanga”, he is quoted as saying, “Maori are lost” (Timoti Kruger cited Kennedy Warren, 2018).

3 | DEV ELO PMEN T AN D DI S RUP T I ON : W H I T H E R FR E S H W A T E R ?

In pre-European times, Aotearoa New Zealand was covered in forest, wetlands and sand dunes (Joy, 2015a, 2015b;
Knight, 2016; Park, 1995). 70 million years of isolation from other land masses had preserved some of the world's oldest
and oddest life, plants and animals from the ancient tropics of the continent of Gondwana (Park, 1995, p. 13). Wild and
tumultuous rivers criss-crossed its vast wetlands (Knight, 2016). On the east coast of Te Waipounamu, commonly
known as the South Island, rare braided rivers such as the Waitaki supported unique flora and fauna as well as migra-
tory flocks. Within 100 years of the arrival of the early colonists, towering forests had given way to flat, treeless plains,
land rendered ideal for agriculture (Holm, 1992; Park, 1995). As Park states, “in no other kind of ecosystem has the
elimination of indigenous biodiversity been so comprehensive” (Park, 1995, cited Joy, 2015b). In the interim period, the
system of colonization initiated by Wakefield and advanced through the establishment of the New Zealand Company
in England3 sought to create a new model of English society in the southern hemisphere. Wakefield's model of “friendly
colonization” depended upon attracting capitalists who would have a ready supply of labour in the form of migrant
labourers who eventually buy land with their savings. The alienation of Maori from their lands, waters and customary
rights was critical to the acquisition of Maori land for agriculture and development (Belich, 1996; Orange, 2015;
Salmond, 1992).
In the last 150 years, over 90% of the original wetlands of Aotearoa New Zealand have been lost (Elston, Anderson-
Lederer, Death, & Joy, 2015; Gerbeaux, 2003), one of the highest rates of loss in the developed world (Mitsch &
Gosselink, 2000, cited in Elston et al., 2015). Today Aotearoa New Zealand is described as a sparsely populated country
in which the land use is split primarily between agriculture and forestry with 45.3% (12.1 million ha) farmed for agricul-
tural and horticultural use in 2016 (MfE & Stats, 2018). Approximately 3,400 km2 are comprised of freshwater systems
(Department of Conservation, 2000, cited Elston et al., 2015). This includes more than 4,000 lakes feeding into
425,000 km of rivers, as well as hundreds of streams and innumerable ponds all of which support a unique flora and
fauna (Weeks et al., 2016). The importance of these wetlands and the many unique forms of biodiversity found in
Aotearoa New Zealand4 has led to the identification of six Ramsar wetland sites to date (Joy & Death, 2013). New
Zealand's freshwater is regarded as the backbone of Aotearoa New Zealand's economy. Aotearoa New Zealand's fresh-
water ecosystems are vital not only to the wellbeing of native biodiversity as well as to indigenous Maori, but also to
recreational pursuits, tourism, hydro-power generation and to the cultural identity of New Zealanders as a whole. Yet
despite the relative sparseness of its population, Aotearoa New Zealand's environmental standards and the state of its
freshwater resources in particular, are recorded by the OECD (2017) as among the lowest in the OECD countries. In
the list of 50 highlighted environmental challenges facing the country, three in particular stand out:

• The largest share of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in the OECD.
• Rising freshwater pollution and scarcity in some regions.
• Local governments lacking national guidance in many environmental policy areas and struggling with insufficient
resources.

3.1 | New Zealand pure

Providing essential ecosystems services necessary to human wellbeing, Aotearoa New Zealand's wetlands continue to
be important traditional food or resource gathering areas for Maori as well as being critical to the tourism industry and
water sports. In the latter contexts, the idea of nature as “wild” and “pure” evokes imagery that is used to great effect in
the promotion of New Zealand's dairy products around the world however the reality on the ground presents a different
picture. This section expands on some of the key issues raised in the 2017 OECD report to contextualize the critical
STEWART-HARAWIRA 5 of 18

nature of Maori struggles regarding access, rights and responsibilities for freshwater management. A focus here is the
link between economic and environmental policy—a point noted by the OECD. This section is followed by an overview
of Maori endeavors to achieve legal recognition of their rights and responsibilities to freshwater including equity of rep-
resentation in freshwater policy and decision-making, and the challenges and possibilities that accrue to Maori and to
the state of Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater.

3.2 | Dairy, dams and development

Two of the greatest contributors to freshwater degradation and diminishing ground water levels in the industrialized
world are energy development and agriculture. In the case of Aotearoa New Zealand, almost three-quarters of the coun-
try's export earnings are derived from its primary industries, comprising agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, forestry,
fishing and mining (Clarkson, Ausseil, & Gerbeaux, 2013; MPI, 2019). Previously best-known for its mutton and lamb
exports, today Aotearoa New Zealand is the world's eighth largest milk producer (DECANZ, 2019), ranking second in
dairy exports and first in the export of dairy products (NZ Foreign Affairs & Trade 2019). The shift from traditional pas-
toralism to pastoral farming accompanied by “semi-intensive or even intensive stocking on land developed by over-
sowing, cultivation and sowing, topdressing of fertilisers” began in the 1950s. By the 1970s the intensification of
agricultural practices in some parts of New Zealand had produced “higher stocking rates and yields, increased use of
fertiliser, pesticides, and food stocks, and moves to more intensive forms of agriculture, such as dairying” (Moller
et al., 2008). In 2007, the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) identified pasture agriculture as the predominant land
use in 43% of streams and river catchments and 40% of lake catchments (MfE, 2007) (Figure S1, Supporting
Information).
In the same year, of 153 lakes monitored for trophic status, ecological condition and cyanobacteria levels as part of
a program undertaken by 13 regional councils (out of a total number of 17 in the country), more than half were found
to be have excessive nutrient levels caused by algae blooms (Ministry for the Environment, 2008), resulting in these
waterbodies being either in a eutrophic state or worse (Henwood & Henwood, 2011; Joy, 2015a, 2015b). In 2010, it was
reported that “water quality has consistently declined in the 77 National Water Quality Monitoring Sites (NRWQN)
monitored since 1990”, indicating what the authors described as “alarming decline in the quality of freshwater for both
native biodiversity and human wellbeing” (Ballantine & Davies-Collie 2010, cited Elston et al., 2015, p. 6).
The New Zealand Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991, Aotearoa New Zealand's defining statute for natural
resource management (Ruru, 2010, 2018), defines wetlands as “permanently or intermittently wet areas, shallow water,
and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals adapted to wet conditions” (NZ Govt
RMA, 1991, s2.1). Despite the emphasis in the RMA of the national importance of protecting wetlands, the majority
have now been lost and the remainder continue to degrade. Between 1990 and 2012, in the province of Southland alone,
157 ha of wetlands were lost per year (Robertson et al. 2018, cited MfE & Stats, 2020). In 2011, the South Island was
reported as having only16% of its original wetland area remaining and in the more populated and intensively developed
North Island only 4.9% remained (Gerbeaux, 2003; Ausseill, 2011 cited Clarkson et al., 2013). Despite injections of
funding into wetlands restoration projects, a 2014 report detailed a loss of 90% of lowland wetland ecosystems over the
entire country, a loss rate among the highest in the world, with some areas losing as much as 98% (Clarkson et al., 2013).
The remaining wetlands are described as, “under pressure from drainage, nutrient enrichment, invasive plants and ani-
mals, and encroachment from urban and agricultural development” (Clarkson et al., 2013. p. 192).
In 2013 the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) reported that of the rivers monitored, 61% were deemed to be of
“poor” or “very poor” quality (MfE, 2013). Although 90% were deemed to be now stable, the results were unequivocal
in showing that heavy dairy farming regions fared the worst. Between 2002 and 2016, land used for dairying increased
42.4%, from 1.8 to 2.6 million ha (Environmental Indicators Report, MfE & Stats 2018a; MfE & Stats, 2020) and by
2017, accounted for 59% of irrigated agricultural land area (MfE & Stats, 2019). In the 15 years between 2002 and 2017,
irrigated land increased by 97% primarily for agriculture and primarily in the Canterbury region (MfE & Stats, 2019). In
2017, 75% of freshwater was used for irrigation, with some regions approaching water allocation limits while others had
already surpassed them (OECD, 2017, p. 12). Today the over allocation of usage primarily for agricultural purposes
remains a major contributor to the overall crisis of Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater (Memon & Weber, 2010; MfE &
Stats, 2020). Accompanying this increase in land use has been an ongoing intensification of stock numbers for dairying
(Ministry for the Environment & Stats NZ, 2018 with a 70% increase in the number of dairy cattle between 1994 and
2017 most pronounced in the South Island (MfE & Stats, 2020). This intensification has been paralleled by a drastic
6 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

decline in the quality of Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater and in particular, river systems, streams and lakes at lower
levels, to the point of being among the worst in the world (Joy, 2015a; Julian, de Beurs, Owsley, Savies-Colle, &
Aussell, 2017; OECD, 2017).
The link between increased concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, and Escherichia coli as well as sediment in
waterways and an increasing proportion of agricultural land in upstream catchments has been well established (cf. Lar-
ned, 2018 in MfE & Stats, 2019, 2020). Half of Aotearoa New Zealand's river length is in catchments which are classified
as pastoral land-cover. This includes exotic grassland which includes pasture for all dairy, beef, sheep and other live-
stock, as well as horticulture, arable cropping. Between 1990 and 2015, the annual amount of nitrogen applied to pas-
tures via fertilizer increased 627% (NZ Stats, 2019), a figure that by 2018 had increased to 772% (NZ Cabinet Paper,
2020). River reaches in the pastoral land cover class showed medians of the modeled nitrate-nitrogen and E. coli levels
were 11 and 18 times higher respectively than river reaches in the native land-cover class. Medians for modeled dis-
solved reactive phosphorus and turbidity levels were respectively three and two times higher than river reaches in
native-cover class catchments (MfE & Stats, 2020, p. 33). Data modeling reported in April 2020 showed that 70% of all
of New Zealand's river length exceeded the national guidelines (NZ Stats, 2020) (Figure S2; Box 1).
Accompanying the development of the agricultural economy has been a demand for hydroelectric dams, the earliest
of which were built in the 1880s (Knight, 2016). As Knight points out, the voluminous fast-flowing nature of Aotearoa
New Zealand's rivers renders them ideal for hydropower generation, thus the 1903 Water Power Act which aimed at
capitalizing on these qualities, designated the Crown with the “sole and unfettered right to use water in streams, lakes
and rivers for the purpose of generating electricity” (Kos, 2013, cited Knight, 2016, p. 125). The damming of ancestral
rivers such as the Waitaki in the South Island and the Waikato in the North Island for the purposes of hydro-
development was undertaken without consultation with the Maori communities for whom these rivers represented liv-
ing ancestors and to which they had long held customary rights (Te Aho, 2010).

BOX 1 ANCESTRAL RIVER AMONG THE MOST POLLUTED IN THE WORLD

In 2004, it was reported that 96% of the sites in 300 lowland pastoral catchments and all of the sites in urban
catchments, monitored by local government, failed the pathogen standard for safe standard for safe swimming,
with more than 80% of the sites exceeding nutrient guideline levels (Larned, Scarsbrook, Snelder, Norton, &
Biggs, 2004 cited Elston et al., 2015). One river in particular, has been a major focal point. The Manawatu River
is a major river of the lower North Island. As with many of Aotearoa New Zealand's rivers, a number of tribes
are linked to it genealogically. Four claim mana whenua or historical customary rights to various sections of
the river15 and a further two rely on the river mouth for an important source of seafood.26
In 2010, research under a system measuring oxygen changes in water located the Manawatu River, a major
river of the lower North Island, at the top of a list of the 300 worst rivers across North America, Europe, Austra-
lia and New Zealand, with almost twice as much as the next worst (Clapcott & Young, 2009). In tracing the his-
tory of legislative and governmental failures to protect the river, Muholland (2010) noted that records of
pollution of the Manawatu River date back to 1890 when untreated sewage was discharged into the river by res-
idents, yet it took the threat of bubonic plague for the local government body to finally act in 1905. Nonetheless
examples of poor sewage management continued up until 2007. From 1999 until 2007, continuing landfill
leachates added their noxious mix to the river. In 2006, New Zealand's major dairy company was granted local
approval to discharge effluent from machinery washing into the river for 6 months a year for a period of
15 years. In 2010 it was reported that the Manawatu regularly ranked at the bottom of national water quality
tables for nitrate, phosphate, turbidity, E. coli, and Macro-Invertebrate Community Index (MfE 2010, cited Van
Belt et al. 2013, p. 670). Nutrient land runoff from dairy farms was found to be a major contributor along with
industrial waste and treated sewage. Fonterra, a large dairy co-operative that was granted resource consent to
discharge 6000cum of wastewater daily, was identified as the primary culprit. Other major culprits were the
four local body governing councils which have granted resource consents to discharge treated sewage and
wastewater into the Manawatu River to a combined total of 81,570 cum daily. A 2009 report by the New
Zealand Ministry for the Environment found four other rivers to be in even worse condition that the Manawatu
(MfE, 2009).37
STEWART-HARAWIRA 7 of 18

The 20th century practice of “pushing rivers around' through infrastructure-intensive development” (Conca, 2006,
cited Schmidt & Peppard, 2014) has not abated. While the highest demand for hydropower continues to be driven by
agriculture, the high scale development of Crown-owned conservation lands, privatization of hydropower companies
and an acceleration in the extraction and bottling of freshwater has seen the intensification of freshwater pollution and
struggles over ownership, access and control. Notably, Maori have fared poorly in these struggles. As discussed by
Strang (2014), faced with the privatization of hydropower developments on key rivers, a challenge by Maori to the gov-
ernment's claim that “no one owns the water” and that “The rights and interests of Maori in New Zealand's freshwater
resources remain undefined and unresolved” (NZ Cabinet, 2009, para 18b) failed to advance Maori legal rights to fresh-
water despite the Waitangi Tribunal's (2012) finding that Maori have property rights in freshwater.8 However as
Ruru (2012) and others have argued, Maori claims to freshwater go beyond property rights. Intrinsic to such claims is
the inextricable link between the health and wellbeing of water and the health and wellbeing of Maori communities.

4 | RECLAIMI N G MAOR I FRES HW A T E R E T HI C S A ND V A L UE S

Today Maori make up approximately 16% of the population of Aotearoa New Zealand, a figure that obscures the extent
of the decimation that occurred with colonization. This includes loss of access to and degradation and commodification
of sacred, life-giving freshwater bodies and the species that inhabit them, and the loss of the identities and cultural
practices associated with sustaining and managing traditional customary freshwater resources (Robb, Harmsworth, &
Awatere, 2015). For over 100 years, Maori have sought through political and legal avenues to retain their role and
responsibilities as kaitiaki, or guardians of water (Ruru, 2011, 2015; Tipa, 2010). Since its establishment by the New
Zealand Government in 1975 for the purpose of hearing claims by Maori iwi (tribes) and hapu (sub-tribes) against
Crown for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Waitangi Tribunal (Box 2) has investigated multiple complaints by
Maori groups regarding the degradation and loss of their traditional waterways. Inherent in the claims process is the re-
telling of genealogies, histories, traditional knowledge, values and ethics that historically governed the relationship
between Maori communities and their environment. These submissions comprise an important part of a body of Maori
environmental knowledge that has been generated over several decades. In the process, the layering of genealogies
through jurisprudence provides an invaluable repository of tribal knowledge, philosophies, and practices that plays an
important role in contemporary endeavors to define, articulate and give effect to Maori environmental ethics and in
particular, the system of ethics in relation to freshwater.

BOX 2 TREATY OF WAITANGI

Signed between tribal chiefs and representatives of the British Crown, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of
Waitangi), is a contested document with differing interpretations between the version written in te reo Maori
and the English version. Whereas the te reo Maori version includes a promise by Queen Victoria to uphold “the
full chieftainship of the rangatira, the tribes, and all the people of New Zealand over their lands, their dwell-
ing-places and all of their prized possessions,” the English version refers to “the full, exclusive, undisturbed pos-
session of their Lands and Estates Forests, Fisheries and other properties … so long as it is their wish and desire
to retain the same in their possession.” Responding to major protest by Maori protest against the ongoing
appropriation of Maori customary lands and water, the Waitangi Tribunal was established in 1975 by the New
Zealand Government and charged with hearing grievances by Maori resulting from breaches of the Treaty of
Waitangi. The Tribunal's role is to provide reports and make (nonbinding) recommendations to the New
Zealand Government, many of which have resulted in settlements by the Crown. Notably, freshwater was the
subject of the first claim to be adjudicated by the Waitangi Tribunal (WAI 8, 1985). The hearing process is fre-
quently marked by lengthy periods of negotiation. This was the case in the 2012 claim over freshwater by the
New Zealand Maori Council. Overlapping the Tribunal hearing regarding Maori interests in freshwater were
nationwide consultations regarding proposed revisions to the New Zealand Government's National Policy State-
ment for Freshwater Management (2014, revised 2017).
8 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

Although, as Hayward and Wheen (2015) emphasize, opinions differ about who benefits from the treaty claim pro-
cess, the Waitangi Tribunal has regularly affirmed Maori customary rights to specific freshwater bodies that are identifi-
ably connected through genealogy and customary use. Regarding the designation of rivers and their mauri, lifeforce, as
taonga, treasures (and thus to be protected by the Crown according to the Treaty of Waitangi), in 1985 the Tribunal rec-
ognized that, “A river may be a taonga as a valuable resource. Its ‘mauri’ or life-force is another taonga” (Waitangi
Tribunal, 1985, WAI 8 at 116). Maori use and ownership of water has traditionally been defined by custom, or tikanga.
According to Maori custom, while water has many properties and characteristics, in itself water is whole and indivisible
as Wiremu McAcAuley affirmed in Te Ika Whenua Rivers Claim,

The water from the puna wai [water of the spring] of a whanau is considered a taonga to that whanau as it
carries the Mauri [life force] of that particular whanau. Of course all the waters of the puna wai find their
way into the river and thereby join with the Mauri of the river. In essence then the very spiritual being of
every whanau is part of the river … In this sense the river is more than a taonga; it is the people themselves
(Waitangi Tribunal 1998 WAI 212 at 2.4).

4.1 | Legislating Maori values, ethics and world views for environmental management

The concept of kaitiakitanga and the imperative to recognize Maori as a partner in national efforts to improve legisla-
tion regarding freshwater use and give effect to the recognition of Maori rights, values and practices has been increas-
ingly reflected in key environmental legislation. The NZ Resource Management Act (1991) directs local body
governments to “recognise and provide for the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ances-
tral lands, water, sites, waahi tapu and other taonga” and “to have particular regard to kaitiakitanga, the ethic of stew-
ardship, and the efficient use and development of natural and physical resources.” Initiatives aimed at giving effect to
Maori cultural values in environmental governance have included a series of policy briefs developed by the Crown
agency Landcare Research NZ in collaboration with Maori communities. These seek to leverage Maori values and asso-
ciated principles and initiatives, embedding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi including reciprocity in partner-
ship, shared decision-making, Maori rights to self-determination, and reconnecting and rebuilding relationships
between local Maori communities and local government (Harmsworth & Awatere, 2013a, 2013b; Hayward &
Wheen, 2015). Efforts to incorporate Maori values into wide-ranging freshwater reforms saw the importance of the
Treaty of Waitangi and Te Mana o Te Wai 9 included in the Preamble to the 2014 National Policy Statement on Fresh-
water Management. However as with other environmental legislation, recognition of Maori relationships and values is
only one of a range of matters to be attended in freshwater governance by local bodies (Ruru, 2010). While these rights
and cultural mores are increasingly given expression in resource management legislation and policy, the manner of
interpretation varies across local bodies. Collaborative management frameworks for freshwater management are also
important initiatives that increasingly seek to give effect to Maori traditional knowledge, values and ethics, often in an
environment of competing goals between stakeholders. Inevitably there is a measure of compromise demanded
between Maori aspirations and values and those of other stakeholders, particularly when industry is involved (Sinner &
Harmsworth, 2015). As Sinner and Berkett (2014) note, given the power imbalance in such negotiations, it is inevitably
Maori values and aspirations that are compromised.

4.2 | From principle to practice: Maori models of freshwater management

Recent years have seen a significant increase in tribal and sub-tribally developed frameworks, assessment tools and
methods (cf. Awatere & Harmsworth, 2014; Rainforth & Harmsworth, 2019) that have further catalyzed advances in
collaborative decision-making regarding freshwater monitoring and management. Responding to the increasing recog-
nition of Maori cultural beliefs, values, practices (Tipa, 2010) and rights (Ruru, 2009, 2010, 2012), the development of
these tools, frameworks and methods is critical to Maori community engagement in protection, monitoring and where
possible, remediation of degraded ancestral water bodies (Hikuroa, Slade, & Gravley, 2011; Morgan, 2006). The resul-
tant frameworks explicitly engage Maori traditional values and cultural knowledge often in conjunction with Western
scientific knowledge. Some have been developed for local community use while others, such as the Cultural Health
Index have been developed for nationwide application for use by Maori communities as well as government. Two
STEWART-HARAWIRA 9 of 18

examples of local culturally developed assessment and management regimes are described below, followed by examples
of co-management models effected through treaty negotiations and settlements.

4.2.1 | The cultural health index

One of the earliest culturally based tools, the Cultural Health Index (CHI) was developed through a 15-year collabora-
tion between tribal members of Ngai Tahu (in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand) and scientists from Otago
University and tested by a number of iwi, or tribes, in various parts of the country. The tool aims to provide for effective
participation of Maori in resource management decisions by measuring factors of cultural importance to Maori in the
freshwater environment (MfE, 2019; Tipa & Teirney, 2006a, 2006b; Townsend, Tipa, Teirney, & Niyogi, 2004). The
objective is to enable water managers to incorporate Maori values and perspectives in freshwater health into freshwater
management decisions (MfE, 2019). To achieve this, the CHI uses factors of cultural importance to Maori based on local
tribal knowledge to assess the health of freshwater ecosystems and uses three components to assess the overall CHI
score: importance of the site to Maori, mahinga kai (customary food gathering area) status, and the cultural stream
health (MfE, 2019; Tipa & Teirney, 2006a, 2006b). As a national tool, it enables the monitoring over time of changes to
the health and mauri (life force) of a waterway. A case study conducted by the Ministry for the Environment found that
of 41 sites assessed between 2005 and 2016, 11 sites had good or very good CHI ratings, 21 had moderate scores, and 9
had poor or very poor ratings. The assessment of data quality mapped over 42 publicly mapped sites found that based on
matauranga Maori or traditional Maori knowledge, tikanga Maori or Maori traditional customs, and kaitiakitanga, the
model has direct relevance and medium accuracy (MfE, 2019). Adaptations of this model include cultural flow preference
studies (Tipa & Nelson, 2012) which document iwi values for and use of a water body and provide a statistical analysis.

4.2.2 | The Mauri Model

The Mauri Model is a culturally based decision-making framework and template that explicitly engages Indigenous
values and cultural knowledge alongside scientific data to assess impacts on the mauri or life force of ecosystems, com-
munities, culture and the economy (Faaui, 2018; Faaui & Hikuroa, 2017; Morgan, 2004, 2006, 2007). Centered on the
calculation of mauri as an indicator or measurement for assessing environmental damage and recovery, the model
relies on specifically relevant indicators determined by the local community and each of which is assigned a numeric
value that shows the negative or positive impact of an event (Morgan, 2006). The Mauri Model is of particular relevance
in cases where Maori communities are seeking to effect restoration of contaminated ecosystems (Hikuroa et al., 2011;
Morgan, 2006). The importance of mauri was explicitly recognized in the case of the New Zealand's worst environmen-
tal maritime disaster (cf. Schiel et al., 2016 cited Faaui & Hikuroa, 2017). The Rena Long Term Environmental Recovery
Plan approved by the included in its goals to “restore of the mauri of the affected environment to its pre-Rena state”
(Ministry for the Environment, 2012, cited Morgan and Fa'aui 2017). The effectiveness of this model has been success-
fully demonstrated and adapted in a range of locales, including lengthy efforts towards the restoration of Lake Omapere
in the Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand, a site of great traditional importance to local Maori communities for mah-
inga kai (food gathering) and other traditional practices (cf. Henwood & Henwood, 2011). A variant on this is the Mauri
Compass model developed as a tool to assess the current state of the mauri of any freshwater body and a framework for
restoration (Ruru & Wilson, 2014 in Robb et al., 2015).

4.2.3 | Treaty settlements, co-governance and personhood rights

A number of Settlement Acts between Maori tribes and the Crown respond directly to Maori challenges regarding
access to and governance and management of freshwater bodies. Many involve collaborative management shared
between local iwi and local body governance. Such Settlement Acts are primarily aimed affording full Crown recogni-
tion to the status of the land and water as a taonga, a treasure, as promised in the Tiriti o Waitangi 1840, and related
customary rights of Maori, while also giving recognition to other stakeholders. A critical goal is to establish effective co-
management approaches to protecting and/or restoring the wellbeing of freshwater bodies, and enframing of these
goals and aspirations within Maori knowledge, values and tikanga or customs. These Acts have played a critical role in
10 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

the embedding of Maori knowledge, principles and values for freshwater management values within freshwater policy
(Te Aho, 2019).
The longest river in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Waikato River was the first to be recognized as a living ancestor
with its own lifeforce (Waikato-Tainui Raupatu (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010, s1, 1.1). The Preamble to the Act
delineates the relationship of Waikato-Tainui with the Waikato River in two important principles; Te Mana o Te Awa
recognizes the Waikato River as a tupuna, an ancestor, which has mana (prestige) and in turn represents the mana and
mauri (life force) of the tribe, and Te Mana Whakahaere: the authority that Waikato-Tainui and other River tribes have
established in respect of the Waikato River over many generations, to exercise control, access to and management of
the Waikato River and its resources in accordance with tikanga—values, ethics and norms of conduct. The Waikato
River Settlement Act also affirmed the relationship between the mana or prestige of the river and the mauri or lifeforce
of the associated Waikato tribes (Schedule 1, 1.2). Schedule 3(1) of the Act describes the “overarching purpose of the
settlement; to restore and protect the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River”.10 Under the Act, a Waikato River
Authority which equally represents the Waikato tribes and the Waikato Regional Council, is charged with developing
recommendations for improving the health of the river in accordance with the agreed vision and strategy outlined in
the Integrated River Management Plan (Schedule 7).11 At the heart of the strategy is the authority of the tribes to “exer-
cise control, access to and management of the Waikato River and its resources in accordance with tribal values, ethics
and norms of conduct” (Te Aho, 2010, p. 290).
Four years later, the Te Urewera Settlement Act 2014 between the Crown and the Tuhoe iwi recognized Te Urewera,
a mountainous region and the traditional lands of the Tuhoe iwi, as having legal personhood rights. While this Act and
the co-governance model that it implemented are not concerned with freshwater per se, the Te Urewera Act is relevant
to this discussion. Section Three of the Act affirms Te Urewera as “a place of spiritual value, with its own mana and
mauri.” Under the Act, Te Urewera ceased to be a National Park (s12) as previously and is “vested in itself as its own
legal entity” with all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person (s11). Te Urewera Board exercises the
rights, powers and duties of Te Urewera and is charged with the responsibility “to act on behalf of, and in the name of,
Te Urewera” (s 17(a). In this, it is explicitly directed to reflect customary values and law (Ruru, 2014). The Act makes it
clear that the Board “must consider and provide appropriately for the relationship of iwi and hap u and their culture
and traditions with Te Urewera when making decisions” (s20) and that the purpose of this is to “recognise and reflect”
Tuhoetanga and the Crown's responsibility under the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) (s20).

4.2.4 | From the mountains to the sea, Te Awa Tupua

The Te Awa Tupua Act (2017) which cemented the decision to grant personhood rights to the Whanganui River was
also ground-breaking. The background context was the ongoing struggle over the ownership of water (Salmond, 2017;
Strang, 2014). The culmination of 100 years of struggle involving litigation and disputes between the iwi of the
Whanganui Maori and the Crown, the Whanganui River Agreement between the Crown and the Whanganui iwi
attracted global interest not the least because for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand, a “whole of river” approach
was specifically delineated within the legislation. Section 12 of the Te Awa Tupua Act acknowledges the Whanganui
River as a living being, an ancestor, “an indivisible and living whole, comprising the Whanganui River from the moun-
tains to the sea, incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements”. The Act thus ascribes legal personhood, with
recognized rights and values of its own, to the entirety of the Whanganui River. Under the Act, the parties—
Whanganui Iwi and the Crown—agreed to appoint two guardians (Te Pou Tupua), one by the Crown and the other by
the River iwi, who will “act on behalf of the river and protect its status and health”. The Deed of Settlement signed in
2014 includes:

Development of a set of Te Awa Tupua values, recognising the intrinsic characteristics of the river and pro-
viding guidance to decision-makers; and Development of a Whole of River Strategy by collaboration
between iwi, central and local government, commercial and recreational users and other community
groups. The goal of the strategy will be to ensure the long-term environmental, social, cultural and eco-
nomic health and wellbeing of the river (Finlayson, 2014)

There are however important caveats in the Act. The Act leans on ancient Roman common law regarding the com-
mons to protect property rights from interference by Te Pou Tupua, including the right to consent to water usage from
STEWART-HARAWIRA 11 of 18

the river or its tributaries (Salmond, 2017, p. 295). The effect of this is to place a clear limitation on the role in the man-
agement of the river that is ascribed to Te Pou Tupua, the guardian of the river (O'Bryan, 2017) and the ability of
Whanganui iwi to be fully effective in responding to pollution of river waters and aquatic life.
Section 46 of the Act explicitly excludes the creation or transfer of proprietary rights in the River water, or its wild-
life, fish, aquatic life, seaweed or plants as well as fishing rights and private property rights (Dennis-McCarthy, 2019,
note 51) and excludes any part of the bed held either under the Public Works Act or located in marine and coastal areas
(Dennis-McCarthy, 2019, note 47). Thus, the claim that Te Awa Tupua refers to the whole of the Whanganui River is
underpinned by a tension between the conceptualization of the whole of the river as a living being with rights of its
own, and property rights which include the rights to use water. These limitations notwithstanding, the acknowledge-
ment of deep spiritual and ontological relationships and values in the Te Awa Tupua Act and the vesting of personhood
rights in the Whanganui River can be said to represent a critical shift in understanding of the deep relationality
between humans and freshwater ecosystems. It also highlights the difficulty of reconciling a politico-economic system
based on the primacy of capital and property rights and with the understanding of water as a living being with its own
intrinsic right to health and vitality, and on which our own health and vitality is dependent. Nonetheless, this recogni-
tion by the Crown was at least in part the catalyst for an important freshwater restoration initiative.

5 | R E STOR IN G R EL A T I ON AL I T Y

The Te Awaroa freshwater restoration project was impelled by both the declining state of Aotearoa New Zealand's
freshwater systems and the failure of the government's freshwater reforms to adequately address these. For Maori scien-
tist Daniel Hikuroa, it was also inspired by the bestowing of the right of legal personhood on the Whanganui River. Led
by Hikuroa, the project uses a Maori relational ontology to reframe the critical state of the water in the Whanganui
River from the perspective of the river itself. This includes its geology, its geomorphology, and the health of all the spe-
cies that are associated with the awa. The goal of the project is to see 1,000 of Aotearoa New Zealand's riverways
restored to wellbeing by 2050. The aim is to catalyze a national movement for the restoration and protection of water-
ways by transforming people's relationships with rivers, founded upon a kinship relationship to the environment, by
exploring genealogical relationships, traveling the rivers, sharing river narratives, articulating the voices of the fish, the
algae, the eels, macroinvertebrates, the behaviors of the river, drawing from all available knowledge (Hikuroa, 2017a).
Through the process of reconnecting communities and individuals to their river systems, the project aims to articulate,
then empower, the voice of the River, that is to say, the voices of the beings of the river, in order to understand the river
and to restore the health, the mauri, life force, of all nonhuman and more-than-human species belonging to the river.
In undertaking this project from within a Maori onto-epistemological framework, Hikuroa calls the community to “lis-
ten to the voice of the river” and asks, “what would happen if we listened to the voices of the river? What would the
river say?” In so asking, the project seeks to understand the health of the river (nutrients, pathogens, waste), the behav-
ior of the river (the underlying geology, fluvial geomorphology, flooding), and the stories of the river (the multiple per-
spectives by which we know the river; Hikuroa, 2017b; Brierley et al., 2018).
Maori ethics and values for freshwater governance demonstrate a framework for ethical freshwater governance that
unequivocally prioritizes sustainable vitality, or life force, as the measure of wellbeing. However ethical frameworks are
of limited effectiveness in the absence of either a strong regulatory framework or wide social and political consensus. In
Aotearoa New Zealand the pervasive influence of 25 years of neoliberal politico-economics continues to mitigate
against such a degree of cross-community consensus. In this respect, the Te Awa Tupua Act models the tensions and
contradictions that inhibit meaningful progress on a national scale. Despite the “whole of the river” language in the
Act, water is not treated as an intrinsic aspect of the river but is excluded to protect property rights. As Salmond (2017)
notes, given the presence of other stakeholders, the potential for ensuring the “long-term environmental, social, cul-
tural and economic health and wellbeing of the river” (Finlayson, 2014, note 4) is likely to be very limited. These limita-
tions notwithstanding, among the most significant achievements of this and similar Acts has been the recognition of
the whole of the waterway and all its tributaries and beings seen and unseen as living beings with their own rights and
responsibilities, the endorsement of matauranga Maori and tikanga Maori—Maori knowledge and customs—as essen-
tial to the restoration and care of Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater bodies and a shift towards a new paradigm for
freshwater governance, one that invokes a plurality of understandings and forms of knowledge.
By 2017, changes to the national policy for freshwater (NPS-FM) gave prominence to the two key concepts, Te Mana
o Te Wai12 and Ki Uta ki Tai,13 emphasizing the connection between fresh water and the broader environment and
12 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

embedding the wellbeing of freshwater ecosystems and communities in legislation (MfE, 2017). The following year, the
government released a 5-year plan for the restoration of the country's waterways. The new draft NPS-FM sought to
strengthen the requirement to reflect Te Mana o Te Wai within a hierarchy of obligations; “to protect the health and
mauri of the water,” “to provide for essential human needs such as drinking water,” and “to enable other consumptive
use provided that it does not adversely impact the mauri of freshwater” (MfE & MPI, 2018). The establishment of Te
Kahui Maori, a Maori Freshwater Forum, sought to enable “collaborative development and analysis of freshwater pol-
icy options for issues of particular relevance to Maori” (Kahui Wai Maori, 2019).
Based on these recent indicators, the enactment of Maori freshwater ethics and values in local monitoring and resto-
ration initiatives is unequivocally having a transformative effect on the monitoring and treatment of freshwater systems
across multiple sites and locales in Aotearoa New Zealand. The restoration of the relationship between individuals,
communities and freshwater bodies lies at the centre of this endeavor. Predicated on water as a living being that is in
relationship to all other lifeform and underpinned by an onto-epistemology that recognizes deep relationality as the
fundamental enframing of all lifeforms, seen and unseen, Maori freshwater ethics epitomize this relationship. The rec-
ognition of rivers as living beings with the rights of legal personhood is undoubtedly a “transformative landmark” for
Aotearoa New Zealand (Ruru, 2018) and a critical step towards “learning to live with” rather than simply “manage”
freshwater bodies (Brierley et.al 2019). As increasing numbers of local government bodies and communities engage in
restorative measures which embed Maori local knowledge and values alongside western science in policy and prac-
tice,14 in many respects the future for Aotearoa New Zealand waterways looks more positive. Yet despite these suc-
cesses, the prognosis for freshwater quality nation-wide remains a source of grave concern.

6 | OUTCOMES AND IMPLICATIONS

In 2018 a technical report undertaken for the Waikato Regional Council regarding trends in the river water quality in
the Waikato River between 1993 and 2017 analyzed records for 114 sites. They included 15 measures of water quality at
ten Waikato River sites. Of 10 water quality variables regarded as being key measures of the river's water quality, impor-
tant deteriorations occurred in records of total nitrogen at nine of the 10 sites (Vant, 2018). The Waikato River region is
one of the main catchments where intensification of intensification of pastoral farming has occurred. Canterbury and
Southland regions rank even higher in the intensification of dairy farming. In the same year, independent testing
commissioned by New Zealand Fish and Game undertaken in three Canterbury rivers popular with swimmers, found
such alarmingly high levels of E. coli present that the testing was repeated (NZ Fish and Game, 2018). Environment
Aotearoa 2019 details the increasing deterioration of freshwater quality with nitrogen levels worsening at more than
half the measured sites with particular decline in pastoral areas (MfE & Stats, 2019). Our Freshwater 2020 is equally
unequivocal in its reporting. Between 95% and 99% of rivers in urban, pastoral, and nonnative forest areas are heavily
polluted and 90% of precious wetlands have been drained and destroyed. The remainder are small pockets that are sur-
rounded by development. Directly linked to the degradation of freshwater, much of which is now irreversible (MfE &
Stats, 2020), is the loss of species of native freshwater birds and fish, with 76% of native fish at serious risk of extinction.
Submissions to the proposed regarding the 2018 freshwater management plan reflect the tensions that beset issues
of freshwaters and their management in Aotearoa New Zealand. While Te Kahui Maori highlighted failings in national
and local water quality policies and standards set at the national level as well as regional catchment level and the
unwillingness or inability of local governments to monitor compliance and take appropriate action, the farming sector
and dairy industry sought the minimizing of standards and delays in implementation. The Te Kahui Maori report called
for urgent structural and systemic reform “that is values-based and upholds the integrated values of water from the
mountains to the sea”, for the implementation of a national science strategy that “extends beyond biophysical factors
and includes Maori measures of health,” and a “compulsory Maori value… to provide for Maori measures of freshwater
system health” (MfE, 2019). The relationship between the health of freshwater and the health of communities was
prominent also in the recommendations of the independent technical advisory panel as well as the submission of the
New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine (New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine 2019, MfE 2020c). In
both reports, recommended limits on dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus for rivers were tagged directly to the health of
freshwater species as well as the health of communities.
As this article was going to press, the New Zealand Government released its decisions on the new National Policy
Statement for Freshwater Management to be passed into legislation later this year (MfE, 2020a). Important features are
strengthening and clarifying Te Mana o Te Wai as an overarching framework for freshwater management, and
STEWART-HARAWIRA 13 of 18

elevating mahinga kai and mauri as additional compulsory values which, along with ecosystem health and human
health, must be achieved and maintained in water bodies. In this respect, the Government's decisions signal the prioriti-
zation of Te Mana o Te Wai, the health and wellbeing of freshwaters. Items such stock exclusion from waterways, limits
on intensification and on wetland and river/stream loss signal important progress in some areas. Yet major concerns
have been raised (MfE, 2020b). They include a national cap on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer set at an alarmingly high
level considered toxic to human health and to the survival of some fish species15 as well as critical absences such as sus-
tainable flows for rivers and lakes, more sustainable water allocation, a national bottom-line for dissolved nitrogen and
phosphorus thresholds, and reliance on nonstatutory action plans for some standards which leave freshwater at risk of
further deterioration (Science Media Centre May 28, 2020; Joy, M.K. 2020; New Zealand College of Public Health Medi-
cine, 2020; New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers, June 2020; Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society, June
2020). Thus tensions between the priorities of freshwater and ecosystem health and the economies of industry actors
continue to muddy the waters. As evidenced in recent reports, a combination of unequal power relations and pressures
from industry and lobby groups whose utilitarian approaches to freshwater bodies measure wellbeing by balance-sheets
continues to outrank urgent calls for freshwater restoration.16 With the delay of essential bottom lines until 2024 and
beyond, the extent to which the government of Aotearoa New Zealand will give real effect to Te Mana o Te Wai, or put
differently, the deep relationality between freshwater health and the health of communities and species, remains ques-
tionable. For now, the degradation of Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwaters continues, albeit at a slower pace.
Of course this is not just Aotearoa New Zealand's freshwater crisis, it is a crisis of global proportions from which no
country or community is exempt. The accelerating crises of freshwater, climatic change, and the mass extinction of spe-
cies point to the imperative for transforming the ways in which freshwater is understood and engaged with at a plane-
tary as well as local level. Hence a major challenge for policy makers, governments and communities is to
reconceptualize the nature of this most essential element of life. The recognition of water as a living being with its own
right to thrive together with the ontological principles of interconnectedness, reverence and reciprocity that shape
Maori freshwater ethics and values is surely essential to the protection and management of freshwater everywhere. The
strength of our collective will to prioritize these principles will determine the recovery, protection and vitality of our
freshwaters now and into the future. The survival of species depends upon it.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article.

ORCID
Makere W. Stewart-Harawira https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7375-2305

E N D N O T ES
1
In some accounts, the presence of water predates that event, having emerged while Ranginui and Papatuanuku were
still joined in their embrace (Te Rangikaheke trans. Curnow cited Salmond, 2017, p. 299). Other accounts evidence the
presence of marine water at the very beginning of creation. In some versions, a second wife of Rangi-nui was Wainui-
atea (vast water expanse) from whose descendants came Moana-nui, the Great Ocean, and other major water bodies
(Best, 1977 [1924]; Tregear, 1898, pp. 111–113).
2
Throughout the article, I have applied the Maori and English translations of key terms such as “river” interchangeably.
3
The New Zealand Company was founded for two objects: the one was to put in practice certain views with regard to
colonization, the other was to make money” (Sir W. Molesworth, speech on New Zealand Bill, 1852), in W.L Rees & L.
Rees (1892). The Life and Times of Sir George Grey, KCB. H. Brett. downloaded from http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/
scholarly/tei-ReeLife-t1-g1-t3-body-d3.html
4
Joy and Death (2013) report that this includes 31 species of freshwater fish found nowhere else, at least 638 species of
invertebrates, 38 endemic species of water plants and approximately 34 species of water birds.
5
Mulholland (2010) lists these as Rangitane, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Kauwhata and Maupoko.
6
Maupoko; Ngati Raukawa.
7
These were the Waitara, Whanganui, Waipa and Rangitikei rivers. “Recreational river water quality league table: water
clarity and Escherichia colibacteria levels” (Ministry for the Environment, 2009).
8
For comprehensive discussion of Maori legal rights to freshwater, see Ruru, J. 2011, 2010.
9
See note 13.
14 of 18 STEWART-HARAWIRA

10
An independent multidisciplinary scoping study tasked with integrating mataauranga Maori and Western science to
provide a foundation for the co-management of the river between the Crown and associated river iwi or tribes, to
“restore and protect the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for future generations” (NIWA, 2010, p. 2) found
“extensive evidence of the degraded health and wellbeing of the river”. In providing a series of clear recommendations
for achieving the desired state of the Waikato River and tributaries, the report also drew on extensive consultation.
11
See NIWA 2010, Appendix 3, Te Ture Whaimana—the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River.
12
The 2017 amendments require local Councils to “consider and recognize” Te Mana o Te Wai in decision and policy
making and note that it recognizes the connection between water and the broader environment—the health of the envi-
ronment, the health of the waterbody, and the health of the people.
13
Ki uta ki tai is described as a traditional concept representing kaitiakitanga (guardianship) from the mountains and
great inland lakes, down the rivers to hapua/lagoons, wahap u/estuaries and to the sea. It encapsulates the need to rec-
ognize and manage the interconnectedness of the whole environment.
14
A recent example is Auckland City Council's 2019 adoption of “Te Aranga Maori Design Principles,” a set of “out-
come-based principles founded on intrinsic Maori cultural values and designed to provide practical guidance for
enhancing outcomes for the design environment.” See http://www.aucklanddesignmanual.co.nz/designsubjects/maori-
design/te_aranga_principles
15
According to the summary document, a cap of 190 kg/N/ha/year will apply to all pastoral sectors with dairy farmers
being required to report annually to councils the weight of nitrogen applied per hectare. This has been heavily critiqued
on the basis of impacts on human health and species health. For instance, the submission of the New Zealand College
of Public Health notes, “the association of nitrates with colorectal cancer is of major concern, given that this cancer is
the second most common cause of cancer deaths in New Zealand”.
16
In March 2020, the outbreak of the coronavirus became a lobbying tool for the agricultural sector who called for
delays to the passage of key sections of the new freshwater reforms legislation and the minimalizing of others. This was
supported by the Minister for Economic Development. (Thomas Coughlan, Mar 22, 2020, Stuff New Zealand) at https://
www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120481673/coronavirus-shane-jones-says-now-is-not-the-time-to-regulate-
freshwater).

R EL ATE D WIR Es AR TI CL ES
The Taniwha and the Crown: defending water rights in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Water and Indigenous rights: Mechanisms and pathways of recognition, representation, and redistribution
Valuing fresh waters
Understanding rivers and their social relations: A critical step to advance environmental water management

FURTHER READING
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How to cite this article: Stewart-Harawira MW. Troubled waters: Maori values and ethics for freshwater
management and New Zealand's fresh water crisis. WIREs Water. 2020;7:e1464. https://doi.org/10.1002/
wat2.1464

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