Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

"Māori... are... involved in attempts to provide appropriate cultural responses to environmental issues. These include efforts to translate and incorporate isolated parts of the their language and traditional practises into the prevailing culture.... the real meaning of a custom and word is frequently debased and divorced from its traditional cultural setting, so that its proper functioning is impaired." Some people also ..."assume that their environmental ethics and those of indigenous peoples are motivated by similar philosophies and share similar aims." This "may also contribute to the inability of the western conservation movement to properly serve the needs of, and to fully empower, indigenous conservation aspirations as guaranteed to Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi. This paper addresses some of these issues by providing Māori perspectives on an increasingly important environmental concept: that of kaitiaki and kaitiakitanga" (from authors" abstract)