Australian Indigenous community DRR

 Much online discussion about the Australian bushfires – outpouring of sympathy etc. – and within that a growing role for First Australian knowledges on, well, survival.

And lest we lose sight of the contributions from Australian academics, let me remind colleagues and peers of a prescient paper by Dr. Heidi Ellemor who in 2005 published a work arguing for Indigenous voices to be heard in the strategies and tactics of environmental management in their territories (Ellemor, 2005). Dr. Ellemor’s work builds on that of John Campbell (J Campbell, 2006; John Campbell, 2010) who flipped ascriptions of Pacific vulnerability (a colonial hangover) to one of resilience.

In the time of takeaways, I cut and paste this from the paper:

“The recognition and inclusion of indigenous peoples’ knowledge can help to destabilise the hegemonic status that certain understandings or preferred readings of a situation have gained.”

Page four for the pedantic.

I’m sure back in the early days of the 1992 Mabo Decision, Australians of all mobs could expect to see a more environmentally just and survivable landscape, and that even the most diehard Ozzie racist (and they can be a frightening beast) would accept a collaboration (alignment? acceptance? trust?!) in any knowledge that would help the very survival of what you claim and cherish is at mortal risk?

Dr. Ellemor articulated all this very well, a generation of Australians (and geography grads) ago.

I follow Aussie politics more than most not from the Lucky Country, and for two reasons: 1) the remarkable endurance of myriad Indigenous communities (see the Uluru policy change); and 2) if the metaphor of ‘frontline’ is to mean anything in this instance, then Aussies are in the trenches again.

Now to Kiwi’s, the imagery of brutal trench warfare is closely linked to our Aussie mates and neighbours; I’m sure the ‘ANZAC spirit’ has been invoked. And with the orange haze over Aotearoa, and people goggling PM25, we realize that if we’re not in the trenches just yet, we can smell the carnage from the assembly point in godszone…

Bibliography

Barnett, J. (2017). The dilemmas of normalising losses from climate change: Towards hope for Pacific atoll countries. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 58(1), 3-13. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/apv.12153. doi:10.1111/apv.12153

Barnett, J., Lambert, S., & Fry, I. (2008). The hazards of indicators: insights from the the Environmental Vulnerability Index. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98(1), 102-119.

Campbell, J. (2006). Traditional disaster reduction in Pacific Island Communities. Retrieved from Lower Hutt:

Campbell, J. (2010). An overview of natural hazard planning in the Pacific Island region. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 2010-1. Retrieved from http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/2010-1/campbell.htm.

Ellemor, H. (2005). Reconsidering emergency management and indigenous communities in Australia. Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards, 6(1), 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464286704000294. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hazards.2004.08.001

Lambert, S. (2014a). Indigenous Peoples and urban disaster: Māori responses to the 2010-12 Christchurch earthquakes. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 18(1), 39-48. Retrieved from http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/2014-1/AJDTS_18-1_Lambert.pdf. doi:http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/2014-1/AJDTS_18-1_Lambert.pdf

Lambert, S. (2014b). Maori and the Christchurch earthquakes: the interplay between Indigenous endurance and resilience through a natural disaster. MAI Journal, 3(2), 165-180. Retrieved from http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/sites/default/files/MAI_Jrnl_V3_iss2_Lambert.pdf.

Crossing Arizona: the perils of colonial forces on Indigenous land...

Re-posting this map of reported bodies crossing into Arizona from Mexico, 1999-2009. Total over this decade: 1,755. [sparked by recent blog posting on The Standard

Mike Wilson narrates a powerful film, 'Crossing Arizona', on the undermining of Tohono O'odham sovereignty and the destruction of water stations which he and others tried to maintain. Mike's beef was with the Tohono O'odham Nation who he argues were complicit in these murderous acts.

See also http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id61.html

Whakatipu Rawa Mā Ngā Uri Whakatipu

Short video on a research project headed by Dr. Shaun Awatere along with Craig Pauling and Maui Hudson ...

"The challenge for Māori carrying out development is to determine how to balance the drivers of a neo-liberal economic approach with the very ideals and principles that define us as Māori to ensure quality social and environmental outcomes for future generations. Through a previous NPM research project 'Whakatipu rawa mā ngā uri whakatipu' the team has developed a prototype decision-making framework for collective assets, which takes into account well-being indices, tikanga Māori and financial measures."

Whakatipu Rawa Mā Ngā Uri Whakatipu | Media Centre

A real joy working with these rangatira on research vital to the interests of Maori but also wider Aotearoa New Zealand.

Apache land still being taken...

This from the ether but grounded in land, soil, sacredness and neoliberal theft...

Iwi Development As-It-Is: the Maori economy, capitalism, and democracy

Increasing chatter from the 2011 BERL report which cemented the 30-sumpin' billions we are worth ;)  Innovation (and science) drive a lot of this re-positioning of the so-called Maori economy. (My thoughts on this are out there). I think we need to get our facts right too...I was at an international conference where a Maori researcher argued the Maori economy was now 25% of the NZ economy.

'No,' says I, 'surely it's just 5-6%?'

'No,' sez she, 'it's $36 billion...'

'Yes,' sez I, 'from the 2011 Nana report...' which usefully provides a piechart showing Maori contributing 5-6%, which includes self-employed Maori ($5.4 billion) and Maori employers ($20.8b) taken from Stats NZ data. The guts of the 'Maoriness' of this economy is that encompassed by Maori trusts et cetera: $10.6 billion.

Heoi ano. Of course economic activities can - and I would argue, should - be interpreted as all-encompassing, a subset of our mythical and environmental parameters. (Don't panic, Judeo-Christians have thought this way through generations of capitalists...). The back story is that mainstream NZers have been on a nice little earner here in Aotearoa.

Circumstances have changed.

The capitalist mode of production still rests on the fact that the material conditions of production are in the hands of non-workers in the form of property - capital and land - while the masses are only owners of the personal condition of production, their labor power.

Further, the peculiar evolution that is neoliberalism now appears in all its stunted glory. Aotearoa/NZ's strategy seems to be a state of 'not-being': not being Spain, not being Ireland, not being Greece.

But as we stumble into a post-settlement era, Maori have a unique position: increasing numbers of us are capital owners (land and assets), albeit as often (very) small-shareholders, while remaining reliant on selling what labour power we possess to survive.

Awhile ago, after the NZ government had replaced the democratically-elected (regional) Environment Canterbury councillors. Local iwi authority, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, support this usurpation. And why wouldn't they? The previous arrangement hardly worked in their favour and now that the government is hell-bent on opening up water for dairying, TRoNT are well-positioned to milk this for all its worth through Ngai Tahu Farms.

Our economy is sexy at the moment, not least as the global capitalist system has squeezed all the low hanging fruit and is looking to drill down - pun intended -and move into the peripheries, literally and philosophically, with Indigenous land and resources now being revisited for ongoing commodification and capitalist economic growth.

Hard rain's gonna fall...

Ecuadorian issues

I rarely post or reblog more than a few of all the requests and protests I receive. This has just come through via the IPSG (Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers).

Brief synposis: 

• The Ecuadorian government has recently detained several environmental leaders, and is threating more with the same charges of terrorism.  
• They shut down one very well-respected environmental organization earlier this year (Pachamama Foundation) and others know their existence is in danger.  
• The lack of transparency, accountability and fair play in the process that is currently happening to (in)validate the 700,000+ signatures collected asking for a general referendum so the Ecuadorian citizens can vote on whether or not to drill for oil in Yasuni is astounding.  I have a lot of friends involved in that effort and they have witnessed first-hand how government officials have "disappeared" certain documents which will invalidate thousands of signatures, making the Consulta a no-go, when the legal process to convoke a Consulta has been followed.
• Drilling for oil in Yasuni is an issue of environmental and human rights concern as it is not only one of the most biodiverse places in the world, but there are 2 indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation there - it is their territory.  
• Many of my friends have received threatening phone calls from government or military sources. 
• Heres is up to the minute info on what´s happening around the Yasuni issue here:  https://www.facebook.com/YASunidos?ref=br_tf.  

Petition:https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Save_Yasuni_the_Last_Wonder_of_the_Amazon

Whakairo te whenua, whakairo te tangata

So much of our identity, our economy, our lives is tied to the land - hell we've made a proverbially industry out of it...

Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua

David Montgomery in the New Internationalist argues we're running it all down:

We have, in effect, been ‘mining’ soil for much of human history. Indeed, the decline in fertility and loss of agricultural lands through wind and water erosion is a problem as old as agriculture itself. Civilizations from Babylon to Easter Island have proven only as durable as the fertility of their land. (See more here).

Also it seems our soil is losing its nutrients and this leads to less nutritious crops. Jo Robinson of The New York Times writes:

Studies published within the past 15 years show that much of our produce is relatively low in phytonutrients, which are the compounds with the potential to reduce the risk of four of our modern scourges: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia.

Scary, huh...

but kinda obvious if you have integrate all things but lets not point the finger.

What does this mean for kaitiakitanga? Do we have to go back to basics? Grow our own veges? (Trust me, it ain't easy getting the necessary daily calories for five mouths using 60 square metres of good soil and six bantams).

Do we buy organic? (paying the premium that the organic sector tells potential suppliers it can charge...)

Do we need more dustbowls?! (Prodding our leadership into action, like we've done with the GFC...)

As I've mentioned,we're restructuring at Lincoln 'varsity and I want to develop this theme of how we carve the land is how we carve the people. It crosses across all faculties, pulls in supportive Pakeha, focuses supportive Maori and their communities and starts the korero and the mahi we need to feed ourselves and feed the world, protect the future and live well.

Google erases First Nations reserves 2

Seems Google is aware of the issue of rez names in North America...this response from Mano Marks, Maps Developer Advocate

"I've run this past some folks internally who were surprised to hear that we had ever surfaced reservation names. As far as we can tell, we haven't. Turns out it is a known issue and we're working on it, hopefully will be fixed soon. You may know that last year we started sourcing our own data for the United States, we previously had relied on providers like NavTeq and Teleatlas. Now that we're getting better data, we should be able to turn these labels on.

BTW, you and anyone else can contribute to making sure that we have good data by using Google Map Maker: http://www.google.com/mapmaker "

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.

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...

IGU in Kyoto: Indigenous disaster session

I've put an abstract in for next years IGU conference in Kyoto...

Indigenous responses to hazards and disaster: risk, recovery, and resilience

"Recent disasters around the Pacific’s ‘Ring of Fire’ have emphasised the risks all inhabitants face from ever-present natural hazards and their recurring disasters. Several events stand out for the scale of destruction and the severity of disruption to affected communities: tsunamis in Japan (2011) and Samoa (2009), and a series of earthquakes in Christchurch (2010-11). Climate change is expected to exacerbate flooding and bushfire hazards in Australia and sea-level rise is a daunting challenge for the Pacific Islands.

Indigenous communities often find themselves more at risk to such hazards through histories of marginalisation, discrimination and poverty despite these communities possessing extensive knowledge of local hazards and maintaining collective memories of past disasters. This session aims to bring together aspects of Indigenous knowledge relevant to reducing exposure and surviving disasters. Contemporary experiences will also be examined for response and recovery approaches. In particular attention will be drawn to the increasing urbanisation of Indigenous communities which exposes them to new and emerging risks."


The conference theme is leveraged off an old Japanese whakatauki - on-ko chi-shin - evidently taken from a Chinese one (wengu zhixin) that says only by exploring the old can we understand the new. Understanding how traditional ideas, linked to interaction between society/culture and the environment, were formed in different countries and regions will be fundamental to future development. This works well with our earthquake research and I'm really excited to have the opportunity to take this offshore.

A panui will be coming out from organiser Brad Coombes. We have an optional hikoi of Ainu ventures which I hope to go on but time and budget are always tight. Anyone interested in being involved, please get in touch.

State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012

Latest report on 'State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012' released. 



"One of the overriding threats facing minorities and indigenous peoples in every region of the world is the risk of being driven from their land and natural resources, which are vital for their livelihoods, their culture and often their identity as a people. Many communities have been closely tied to their territory for centuries. Yet once their land is targeted for development – mining, oil and gas, dams, agribusiness, tourism or conservation – they are deftly and often violently evicted with little or no compensation."


Maori lead the Indigenous world in many respects but I increasingly sense we've plateaued...

Maori economy: insights from the just past Nga Pae conference

So much going on but a potted review offered anyway of last weeks International Indigenous Development Research conference, held at Auckland University.


I was lucky to be in a great session, well chaired by Te Tuhi Robust, that started with an update on Te Awanuiarangi's Te Tupunga Māori - Te Pae Tawhiti, Māori Economic Development Project, a Nga Pae-funded project. 


Titled 'Creating clarity in the clouds of definitions of and for Māori Economic Development', Rawinia Kamau and Richard Jefferies defined and framed their approach, drawing out distinctions between Western and Indigenous approaches. Richard offered interesting insight from his board meetings with Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd. and kiwifruit operations. Like any other corporations, these are always pleased to announce their profits, achieved as much by screwing down labour as expansion and investment. 


As Richard pointed out, Of course, tribal shareholders have whanau subject to that screwing down...


Richard recalled his time at Matsui, and the insights he had on Japanese thinking that promotes Japan ahead of anywhere and anyone else.


I then threw out a quick presentation on Maori and innovation, critiquing the Flat world approach that assumes, among other things, that geography and culture don't matter.


Then came a fascinating presentation by Dr. Sean Kerins from the Centre  for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. Called 'Building for the bottom-up: Indigenous development initiatives in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.' Working with Waanyi and Garawa peoples, Sean outlined how they had achieved better biodiversity and successful fire management through traditional approaches to country.  

NAISA 2012

Just arranging tickets to this years Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) conference in Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut, for June 3-6. The host institutions are University of Massachusetts Boston; Dartmouth College; Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP); University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Yale.

Looking forward to catching up with old friends. I'm presenting on the Wednesday, 'Indigenous Resilience to urban disaster: Maori and the 2010/11 Christchurch earthquakes', data coming out of our Lincoln projects on how Maori have been affected by the ongoing quakes (big aftershock of 5.49 yesterday).

Essentially, "The response and recovery of Māori to the massive dislocation of the earthquakes in Ōtautahi displays the strength and resilience of Māori cultural values and skills as well as the distressing effects of ongoing Māori economic vulnerability. The institutions of whānau, marae and iwi provided immediate and much needed help to more than just ‘their own’, and the values of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga were manifested in the actions of countless individuals and groups. 

However, any framing of Māori resilience as benefiting from generations of poverty – a callous on our collective lives – risks reifying the status quo of economic vulnerability, diluting our attention from a key component of resilience to hazards and disasters, namely asset wealth. Understanding Māori resilience as nuanced, place-based and culturally ‘attuned’ opens up possibilities for better disaster preparation and improved post-disaster recoveries than simply judging Māori response(s) and recovery(ies) according to assumptions of population stability or resistance to change. But understanding and manipulating the macro-economic context remains fundamental to improving the resilience of marginalised communities such as Māori and poses a continuing challenge to our efforts to reduce our collective vulnerability to what will be recurring events."

I update our earthquake research on a Lincoln webpage, 'Maori Resilience.'

'Country, Native title, and Ecology': new book on Aboriginal land and its ecology.

Turned up in my inbox a couple of weeks ago - the marvels of modern information exchange. Edited by Jessica Weir...

Available for free download here...

Indigenous Anarchism

Wondering what to post on this, the  last day of a bad year for too many people in Otautahi, I'm drawn to fleshing out the links between Indigenous political strategies and anarchism. The majority of my (positive) experiences of being Maori echo the anarcho-syndicalist tactics. I'm particularly drawn to the concept that political parties are not only unnecessary for social change but actually hold it back. What can we hope from the Maori Party, or Mana? More Maori in the decision-making process?  What will a reformed Labour Party offer? A bigger slice of the (still shrinking) pie! Indeed the common tenor of complaints and protest seem to be exactly what anarchists are calling for: 'the abolition of economic monopolies and of all political and social coercive institutions.'



Source: http://anarchismtoday.org/coppermine/displayimage/album=3/pos=1.html

Some basic gleanings...

1. Everything is alive.
2. Nothing is an object.
3. Memory is ascendant.
4. An indigenous anarchism is an anarchism of place.
5. You are an irremovable part of an extended family.

I'm further drawn to the eradication of borders, not least because of my insight from a trip to Arizona two years ago. Being an island dwelling people, Polynesians have a different history but remain committed to respectful visitation and proud hosting. Essentially capital is not just free to move but compelled to be mobile. The movement of people, however, is constrained, controlled, and coerced (as labour). Land - the other component in the capitalist triptych - is likewise co-opted into the production of profit. We seem no better off for our willingness to engage in the equation...

Once more Maori enter the New Year with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

                                                                 Kia pai to Tau Hou!
                                                                          Arohanui
 
 Readings
Anarcho-syndicalism in the 20th Century by Vadim Damier
Anarcho-Syndicalism by Rudolf Rocker


Source: http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/7822