title: Indigenous challenges to enhance freshwater governance and management in Aotearoa New Zealand - the Waikato river settlement

authors: Te Aho, Linda

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Co-management of environmental resources is an idea that has been developing for some time in Aotearoa New Zealand as a strategy that recognises Indigenous interests in the environment, and the different ways that people view the world. The contest for control of New Zealand's rivers has generally arisen from successive governments purporting to secure rights based upon English common law. Precepts of that law were completely foreign to the Indigenous Maori who had their own conceptions of rivers. Through the eyes of the Maori, rivers have their own life force, their own spiritual energy and their own powerful identities. Rivers are inextricably linked to tribal identities. Over time a raft of policies was employed and legislation passed by parliament in the name of development and the national interest which did not take into account Maori understandings of the river and its ecosystems, nor their rights, interests, or authority. Excluded from decision-making processes, Maori have long brought matters to the attention of courts by using any basis to assert our rights and interests, and to have our concerns about the deteriorating health and wellbeing of our rivers taken seriously. The search for redress has been relentless. The Resource Management Act 1991 formalised a range of legal rights, but such rights can be meaningless if presented as just one of many other considerations that decision-makers have to take into account. This article explores the notion of collaborative management and the development of co-management models as a background to the emergent Waikato River settlement ± a legal solution embedded in the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010 that generates a more robust opportunity to bring to an end a paradigm of exclusion and usher in a new era that promises enhanced governance and management of a significant waterway.

text: Indigenous challenges to enhance freshwater governance and management in Aotearoa New Zealand - the Waikato river settlement Co-management of environmental resources is an idea that has been developing for some time in Aotearoa New Zealand as a strategy that recognises Indigenous interests in the environment, and the different ways that people view the world. The contest for control of New Zealand's rivers has generally arisen from successive governments purporting to secure rights based upon English common law. Precepts of that law were completely foreign to the Indigenous Maori who had their own conceptions of rivers. Through the eyes of the Maori, rivers have their own life force, their own spiritual energy and their own powerful identities. Rivers are inextricably linked to tribal identities. Over time a raft of policies was employed and legislation passed by parliament in the name of development and the national interest which did not take into account Maori understandings of the river and its ecosystems, nor their rights, interests, or authority. Excluded from decision-making processes, Maori have long brought matters to the attention of courts by using any basis to assert our rights and interests, and to have our concerns about the deteriorating health and wellbeing of our rivers taken seriously. The search for redress has been relentless. The Resource Management Act 1991 formalised a range of legal rights, but such rights can be meaningless if presented as just one of many other considerations that decision-makers have to take into account. This article explores the notion of collaborative management and the development of co-management models as a background to the emergent Waikato River settlement ± a legal solution embedded in the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010 that generates a more robust opportunity to bring to an end a paradigm of exclusion and usher in a new era that promises enhanced governance and management of a significant waterway.

year: 2010

title: A population-based study of traumatic brain injury incidence and mechanisms in New Zealand: 2021–2022 compared with 2010–2011

authors: Jones, Kelly

subjects: Traumatic brain injury

abstract: Background: Monitoring traumatic brain injury (TBI) incidence and epidemiological patterns is important for evidence-based strategic planning, policy, prevention, and resource allocation. We revisited population-based estimates and examined patterns of TBI incidence (all ages, severities) in 2021–2022 compared with 2010–2011 in New Zealand (NZ). Methods: Examining an urban (Hamilton) and rural (Waikato District) region in NZ (May 2021–April 2022, unintentionally following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic), we calculated crude annual age-, sex-, ethnic-, urban/rural area- and mechanism-specific TBI incidence per 100,000 person-years with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Poisson regression was used to derive adjusted Risk Ratios (aRRs) to compare age-standardised rates between sex, ethnicity, and area groups. Direct standardisation was used to age-standardise rates to the world population. We calculated Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs) with 95% CI to compare 2021–2022 with 2010–2011 age-standardised rates. Findings: Total TBI incidence per 100,000 person-years was 852 cases (95% CI 816–890), including 791 cases (756–828) of mild TBI, and 61 cases (52–72) of moderate to severe TBI. TBI affected males more than females (IRR 1.31, 95% CI 1.29–1.33), and urban more than rural residents (IRR 1.57, 1.43–1.73). Most TBI (61%) occurred in people aged 15–64 years and were due to falls (48%). European and Asian peoples had lower risk of TBI than Māori (aRRs 0.68, 0.31 respectively). Compared to 2010–2011, total TBI incidence and rates among Māori were stable; TBI incidence was greater among females, urban residents, and adults aged ≥34 years; and TBI due to falls significantly increased (IRR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03–1.40). Interpretation: Noting increased risks for underestimation due to COVID-19, findings suggest overall TBI incidence rate in NZ was similar in 2021–2022 to 2010–2011, while highlighting changes in TBI distribution. Age-, sex-, area-, ethnic-, and mechanism-specific distributions should be considered when revisiting prevention strategies to reduce TBI incidence. Funding: Health Research Council of New Zealand of NZ.

text: A population-based study of traumatic brain injury incidence and mechanisms in New Zealand: 2021–2022 compared with 2010–2011 Background: Monitoring traumatic brain injury (TBI) incidence and epidemiological patterns is important for evidence-based strategic planning, policy, prevention, and resource allocation. We revisited population-based estimates and examined patterns of TBI incidence (all ages, severities) in 2021–2022 compared with 2010–2011 in New Zealand (NZ). Methods: Examining an urban (Hamilton) and rural (Waikato District) region in NZ (May 2021–April 2022, unintentionally following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic), we calculated crude annual age-, sex-, ethnic-, urban/rural area- and mechanism-specific TBI incidence per 100,000 person-years with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Poisson regression was used to derive adjusted Risk Ratios (aRRs) to compare age-standardised rates between sex, ethnicity, and area groups. Direct standardisation was used to age-standardise rates to the world population. We calculated Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs) with 95% CI to compare 2021–2022 with 2010–2011 age-standardised rates. Findings: Total TBI incidence per 100,000 person-years was 852 cases (95% CI 816–890), including 791 cases (756–828) of mild TBI, and 61 cases (52–72) of moderate to severe TBI. TBI affected males more than females (IRR 1.31, 95% CI 1.29–1.33), and urban more than rural residents (IRR 1.57, 1.43–1.73). Most TBI (61%) occurred in people aged 15–64 years and were due to falls (48%). European and Asian peoples had lower risk of TBI than Māori (aRRs 0.68, 0.31 respectively). Compared to 2010–2011, total TBI incidence and rates among Māori were stable; TBI incidence was greater among females, urban residents, and adults aged ≥34 years; and TBI due to falls significantly increased (IRR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03–1.40). Interpretation: Noting increased risks for underestimation due to COVID-19, findings suggest overall TBI incidence rate in NZ was similar in 2021–2022 to 2010–2011, while highlighting changes in TBI distribution. Age-, sex-, area-, ethnic-, and mechanism-specific distributions should be considered when revisiting prevention strategies to reduce TBI incidence. Funding: Health Research Council of New Zealand of NZ.

year: 2026

title: Nature connection: An educational outcome for a sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: DePetris, Thea

subjects: Education

abstract: Ecological degradation is threatening the life-giving capacity of Earth. This is an unsustainable, existential crisis that requires transformational change. Such a change requires a paradigm shift of the cultural belief and value systems which drive our interactions and relationships with the material world. The global spread of the dominant social paradigm through Westernisation has been driving the development of our social systems in ways that perpetuate human-nature disconnection (physical and psychological separation), leading to adversarial human-nature relations that allow for the ongoing exploitation and degradation of non-human nature. This disconnection is a root cause of our current sustainability crisis.
Increasing calls for interventions that restore nature connection, a construct pertaining to the human-nature relationship, as a mechanism of transformational change are supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. Although nature contact and learning about non-human nature are integral components of environmental education, there is limited research about context-specific meanings and praxis of nature connection as an educational outcome. Furthermore, with respect to the Aotearoa New Zealand context, the challenge of realising nature connection as an educational goal is two-fold. First, environmental education is a non-mandated discipline of the formal education sector and, consequently, viewed by the education community as a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than an educational priority. Second, when environmental education is implemented in schools, cognitive outcomes are often prioritised over affective outcomes. This has implications for the objective of fostering nature connection because an emotional bond with non-human nature requires nurturing students’ feelings and values for all forms of life.
Based on an explanatory sequential research design, the first stage of this study provided a systematic description of environmental education organisations, a network known to support schools across the country with environmental education. A ‘snapshot’ of features associated with the network’s organisational structures and education programmes characteristics was elicited from predominantly quantitative data collected via an online questionnaire. A key finding demonstrated the network’s prioritisation of nature connection as an educational outcome of their programmes. To further explore this finding, two additional qualitative stages of research (a questionnaire comprised of open-ended questions, and semi-structured interviews) were undertaken. Based on an interpretive methodology and utilising a grounded theory approach, stages two and three clarified the understandings participants have of nature connection as an educational outcome, their perspectives about its significance for English-medium schools, and how these views inform their praxis. 
The findings confirmed that environmental education organisations prioritise nature connection as an educational outcome for the purposes of resolving unsustainability. Participants identified three cultural aspects as root causes of disconnection. Anthropocentric beliefs and a predominant focus on a utilitarian value of non-human nature were associated with psychological separation, while some features of contemporary lifestyles were linked to humanity’s physical separation from non-human nature. Participants highlighted the perpetuation of disconnection through people losing a holistic knowing of non-human nature and a sense of belonging with all of life.
Participants’ conceptualisations of nature connection frame the phenomenon as interrelated experiences and outcomes that collectively empower a state of being, knowing and becoming in relationship with non-human nature. This conceptualisation laid the foundation from which to explore the benefits of nurturing the human-nature relationship as perceived by participants.
At the individual level, participants believed educating for nature connection empowers students to become capable and motivated agents of change toward more sustainable trajectories, through safeguarding health and wellness, developing a conceptual understanding of interconnectivity, and serving as a motivational impetus that enhances pro-environmental action and behaviour. Findings pointed to the development of these outcomes as vital for correcting the empirically demonstrated ‘teenage dip’—a progressive trend of disconnection that begins around the age of ten and culminates in adolescence. Nature connection was also recognised as a vital co-requisite to issues-based learning, such as climate change education, by helping to prevent the onset of cognitive dissonance and apathy as a response to the profound challenges posed by the Anthropocene.
The systemic impacts of nature connection, as identified by participants, related to shifting societal views, structures and practices that contribute to transformational change. Fostering nature connection through nature-based education was thought to provide students with opportunities to ‘see and be’ in the world differently. Nature connection as an educational outcome can illuminate indigenous ways of knowing and being, such as te ao Māori, which the participants felt were grounded in eco-centric beliefs and intrinsic values that foster respect for non-human nature and harmonious interactions with the Earth system as a whole. In this sense, the study casts light on nature connection as an act of indigenisation that has the potential to heal human-nature disconnection and contribute to resolving unsustainability.
Based on their lived-experiences of working in the formal education sector, the participants identified aspects of the school structure, curriculum and norms as significant contributors of disconnection. Findings also suggest that nature-based education at the present time, as framed by this study, is often not recognised or valued by educational communities, which include teachers, school administrators, students and parents. Underpinned by place-based, holistic and relational approaches, the findings offer five principles of nature-based education that help bridge the scholarly gap regarding effective praxis for fostering nature connection through education and provide a foundation for future research.
This research is significant as humanity grapples with an existential crisis arising from the entwined socio-ecological challenges of the Anthropocene. The findings suggest that policies promoting nature connection, particularly during childhood and adolescence, are vital for improving human-nature relations that lead to more sustainable futures. Continuing to uphold an education system that perpetuates the reproduction of unsustainable societal norms and paradigms is morally untenable. For life to endure, modern culture must embrace a new trajectory based on reciprocal relationships that unite the wellbeing of both human and non-human nature.

text: Nature connection: An educational outcome for a sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand Ecological degradation is threatening the life-giving capacity of Earth. This is an unsustainable, existential crisis that requires transformational change. Such a change requires a paradigm shift of the cultural belief and value systems which drive our interactions and relationships with the material world. The global spread of the dominant social paradigm through Westernisation has been driving the development of our social systems in ways that perpetuate human-nature disconnection (physical and psychological separation), leading to adversarial human-nature relations that allow for the ongoing exploitation and degradation of non-human nature. This disconnection is a root cause of our current sustainability crisis.
Increasing calls for interventions that restore nature connection, a construct pertaining to the human-nature relationship, as a mechanism of transformational change are supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. Although nature contact and learning about non-human nature are integral components of environmental education, there is limited research about context-specific meanings and praxis of nature connection as an educational outcome. Furthermore, with respect to the Aotearoa New Zealand context, the challenge of realising nature connection as an educational goal is two-fold. First, environmental education is a non-mandated discipline of the formal education sector and, consequently, viewed by the education community as a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than an educational priority. Second, when environmental education is implemented in schools, cognitive outcomes are often prioritised over affective outcomes. This has implications for the objective of fostering nature connection because an emotional bond with non-human nature requires nurturing students’ feelings and values for all forms of life.
Based on an explanatory sequential research design, the first stage of this study provided a systematic description of environmental education organisations, a network known to support schools across the country with environmental education. A ‘snapshot’ of features associated with the network’s organisational structures and education programmes characteristics was elicited from predominantly quantitative data collected via an online questionnaire. A key finding demonstrated the network’s prioritisation of nature connection as an educational outcome of their programmes. To further explore this finding, two additional qualitative stages of research (a questionnaire comprised of open-ended questions, and semi-structured interviews) were undertaken. Based on an interpretive methodology and utilising a grounded theory approach, stages two and three clarified the understandings participants have of nature connection as an educational outcome, their perspectives about its significance for English-medium schools, and how these views inform their praxis. 
The findings confirmed that environmental education organisations prioritise nature connection as an educational outcome for the purposes of resolving unsustainability. Participants identified three cultural aspects as root causes of disconnection. Anthropocentric beliefs and a predominant focus on a utilitarian value of non-human nature were associated with psychological separation, while some features of contemporary lifestyles were linked to humanity’s physical separation from non-human nature. Participants highlighted the perpetuation of disconnection through people losing a holistic knowing of non-human nature and a sense of belonging with all of life.
Participants’ conceptualisations of nature connection frame the phenomenon as interrelated experiences and outcomes that collectively empower a state of being, knowing and becoming in relationship with non-human nature. This conceptualisation laid the foundation from which to explore the benefits of nurturing the human-nature relationship as perceived by participants.
At the individual level, participants believed educating for nature connection empowers students to become capable and motivated agents of change toward more sustainable trajectories, through safeguarding health and wellness, developing a conceptual understanding of interconnectivity, and serving as a motivational impetus that enhances pro-environmental action and behaviour. Findings pointed to the development of these outcomes as vital for correcting the empirically demonstrated ‘teenage dip’—a progressive trend of disconnection that begins around the age of ten and culminates in adolescence. Nature connection was also recognised as a vital co-requisite to issues-based learning, such as climate change education, by helping to prevent the onset of cognitive dissonance and apathy as a response to the profound challenges posed by the Anthropocene.
The systemic impacts of nature connection, as identified by participants, related to shifting societal views, structures and practices that contribute to transformational change. Fostering nature connection through nature-based education was thought to provide students with opportunities to ‘see and be’ in the world differently. Nature connection as an educational outcome can illuminate indigenous ways of knowing and being, such as te ao Māori, which the participants felt were grounded in eco-centric beliefs and intrinsic values that foster respect for non-human nature and harmonious interactions with the Earth system as a whole. In this sense, the study casts light on nature connection as an act of indigenisation that has the potential to heal human-nature disconnection and contribute to resolving unsustainability.
Based on their lived-experiences of working in the formal education sector, the participants identified aspects of the school structure, curriculum and norms as significant contributors of disconnection. Findings also suggest that nature-based education at the present time, as framed by this study, is often not recognised or valued by educational communities, which include teachers, school administrators, students and parents. Underpinned by place-based, holistic and relational approaches, the findings offer five principles of nature-based education that help bridge the scholarly gap regarding effective praxis for fostering nature connection through education and provide a foundation for future research.
This research is significant as humanity grapples with an existential crisis arising from the entwined socio-ecological challenges of the Anthropocene. The findings suggest that policies promoting nature connection, particularly during childhood and adolescence, are vital for improving human-nature relations that lead to more sustainable futures. Continuing to uphold an education system that perpetuates the reproduction of unsustainable societal norms and paradigms is morally untenable. For life to endure, modern culture must embrace a new trajectory based on reciprocal relationships that unite the wellbeing of both human and non-human nature.

year: 2025