Lived Experiences at the Intersection of Sediment(ation) Pollution, Gender, Ethnicity and Ecosystem Restoration from the Kaipara Moana, Aotearoa New Zealand

Broadening environmental governance ontologies to enhance ecosystem-based management in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…While there has been attention given to improving the operationalisation of EBM including creating governance arrangements to support EBM (Alexander and Haward 2019;Leslie et al 2015;Stephenson et al 2019), there has been less attention given to how governance approaches are conceptualised, constituted, and enacted -the ontological dimensions of governance -and how this shapes power relations and dynamics among different (human and non-human) actors (DePuy et al 2021;Foggin et al 2021;Makey 2021;Makey et al 2021;Ntona and Schröder 2020). Researchers such as DePuy et al (2021), Ntona and Schröder (2020), Makey (2021), and Brennan (2022) show how much of the research focused on environmental governance, including for EBM, conceptualises 'governance' within a western, 'modernist' ontology that actively shapes the world in particular ways (DePuy et al 2021;Foggin et al 2021).…”

“…A modernist ontology is informed by enlightenment thinking and characterised by a separation of nature from culture, a hierarchical conceptualisation of cultural difference, and a linear (teleological) understanding of time (Blaser 2009(Blaser , 2014Chandler and Reid 2018). Modernist governance arrangements, therefore, tend to simplify the natural world and the myriad socionatural relationships that exist in relation to places, to conceive of participation, rights, and property in constrained terms and rely on prescriptive or technocractic solutions to address environmental problems (DePuy et al 2021;Makey et al 2021). Increasingly, researchers challenge the ontological and epistemological assumptions underpinning modernist governance theories, models, and practice, particularly in the context of colonisation and the ongoing deleterious effects on Indigenous peoples (Chandler and Reid 2018;Howitt and Suchet-Pearson 2006;Makey 2021;Muller et al 2019;Ntona and Schröder 2020;Tiakiwai et al 2017).…”

“…In this paper, we draw on this emerging research to identify conditions to enable and enhance governance for EBM that can accommodate both Indigenous and non-Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, practices, and aspirations (Makey 2021;Makey et al 2021;Reid and Rout 2020;Tiakiwai et al 2017). Our research is grounded in governance innovations occurring in Aotearoa NZ that have been at least partly shaped by the political resurgence among Māori, and the growing influence of Te Ao Māori (Māori ontology) and mātauranga in shaping governance and institutional arrangements (Harmsworth et al 2016;Makey and Awatere 2018;Parsons et al 2021a).…”

‘Thinking with Kaipara’: A decolonising methodological strategy to illuminate social heterogenous nature–culture relations in place

“…But if nonhuman things such as nature and sediment(ation) pollution have agency, with their own self-organising (self-determining) system and cosmos, the production of knowledge could become an ethical, relational, fully respectful and just pursuit. Outcomes of the PhD included decolonising collaborative narrative methodology (this paper), the privileging of geo-creative (re)presentations and empirical evidence (see Makey, 2020; Makey et al., 2021). The development of the ‘Thinking with Kaipara’ strategy enabled other thesis chapters, particularly the empirical chapters, to exist.…”

“…However, four wahine Māori did chose to co-write/co-author with the lead researcher/PhD student (Leane) and two wahine Māori early-to-mid career researchers at the University of Auckland. Their work has been published in GeoHumanities (Makey et al., 2021). There have been some academic publications that include nonhuman nature as co-authors (e.g., Bawaka Country et al., 2015).…”