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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change

The impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples and the knowledge we possess on the environment are important research issues for the 21st Century.

For Maori , the range of environments occupied, from urban to remote rural districts mean widespread risk exacerbated the vulnerability of ‘life-line’ services (roads, buildings, flood-plain protection, urban storm-water systems) and the fact —many Maori land blocks are on ‘marginal’ land – close to waterways, flood-plains, coastal areas. Also, given many of our communities have negligible or no insurance adds up to a growing problem as indicated by the increased weather extremes we're experiencing.

This video (link courtesy of Dr. William James Smith, Jr. Assistant Research Professor at the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies, UNLV) gives a nice overview of some initiatives in Nevada.

http://youtu.be/3BU4xaIHJE8



An important report is by King, D., Penny, G., & Severne, C. (2010). The climate change matrix facing Maori society. In R. Nottage, D. Wratt, J. Bornman & K. Jones (Eds.), Climate Change Adaption in New Zealand: Future scenarios and some sectoral perspectives (pp. 100-111). Wellington: New Zealand Climate Change Centre/NIWA.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Google erases First Nations

Thanks to fellow Indigenous geographers Zoltan Grossman and Renee Pualani Louis for bringing this to my attention. Seems Google - company motto 'Don't be evil' have erased labels to First Nations reservations in the US and Canada.

Noted in 2011 in this blog The Case of the Missing Indian Reservations by Steven Bridenstine, it seems Google has simply taken away the labels, leaving nameless tan spaces, in contrast to Bing maps where the boundaries and names remain.

As Renee says, "These are not alternatives to the political system that is supposed to recognize tribes sovereign right to name the features on their own federally recognized lands…actually I believe regardless if tribal lands are federally recognized or not they should start recording their own names based on their historical record (oral or written)."

Zoltan has contacted Google with this message:

"Where are the names of the Indian reservations? Tribes have a political status just below the federal government, above the states, and far above municipalities and villages that are shown on Google Maps. The rules and regulations are quite different within a reservation than outside, so someone is going to get in trouble not knowing what the tan area is. That's not counting the moral and ethical issues of erasing the existence of peoples and their historical presence on the landscape. This is going to be very, very bad P.R. for Google unless the names are restored. You need someone who is educated about political geography and cartography to be making decisions about place names that are this important."

Guess any corporate that claims the moral high ground can only go down...

Monday, March 25, 2013

'Maori Economy' news grab...

Haven't done this for while but here's Google's latest catch of 'Maori economy' news items...

Young Maori science leaders acknowledged
Radio New Zealand
The summer programme was aimed at growing young Maori leaders who will help support Maor ibusiness growth and New Zealand's economy.
Chilean Minister visiting NZ this week
Voxy
Chilean Economy, Development and Tourism Minister Pablo Longueira is visiting New Zealand this week to carry out discussions on education, Maori economic ...
Maori trio complete programme
Otago Daily Times
Interns had met a range of business and political leaders, and the young science leaders exemplified ''the type of leadership and talent the Maori economy ...
Opportunities for Indigenous Research Support
Scoop.co.nz
NPM is a Centre of Research Excellence (CORE) in the field of indigenous development, with three research priorities as follows: • Optimising Māori Economic ...

The Chilean connection is interesting, with Longueira expressing an interest in developing his country's indigenous tourism sector, his visit providing an opportunity to develop relations between Maori tourism and the indigenous Chilean Mapuche people.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Where do we draw the boundary around the Maori Economy?

I've always argued the so-called Maori economy is not just here in Aotearoa but wherever whanau seek to satisfy their needs and wants. Therefore the recent announcement that the Australian government will subsidise 170,000 new homes in Sydney can only further entice Maori offshore. This is no bad thing - lets face it, whoever goes will earn more and be able to do more with whatever discretionary paua they have left after rent, food, transport, hokey pokey icecream and a buzz bar.

After my Marae DIY experience up at Waimako, I can see more of our rangatahi departing our land for elsewhere.

Sigh.

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Earthquake research on Te Karere

Bit late on posting this but here's Melanie Shadbolt and Amanda Black talking about their personal experiences and our research on the impacts of the disaster on Maori.

Te Karere interview



Simon Lambert

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