Problematising the Anthropocene: Geographic perspectives upon the riverscapes of Waimatā Catchment, Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Drawing on a Critical Physical Geography perspective, this paper problematises conceptualisations of the Anthropocene landscape of the Waimatā catchment on the East Cape, Gisborne district of Aotearoa New Zealand, through three lenses: forestry, restoration and indigeneity. Historical practices of arbitrary land division and resultant unsustainable forestry have caused multiple environmental, social and cultural problems within the catchment. Despite significant efforts of restoration groups and volunteers to remedy this, as yet programmes do not align with holistic Māori ideologies of seeing themselves as the land from which they trace their tribal identity. Fragmentation of the land has disrupted senses of identity and place. A kinship‐based worldview between humans, the universe and everything in it suggests a more holistic lens through which humans are conceived as inseparable from nature. Such a more‐than‐human lens exposes a critical flaw in interpretations of the Anthropocene. Even when only considering its lexical construction, the word ‘Anthropocene’ innately centres the human. Continued use of such framings extends inequitable and unjust practices that imprint colonial forcings on the landscape and its people in ways inconsistent with intertwined Māori views of people, land and ancestors. No matter the lens through which it is interpreted, the Anthropocene term has little practical value in Aotearoa New Zealand, especially when considered in relation to emerging socio‐natural river‐centric perspectives.