title: Lavinia and Henry Dunbar Johnson

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Rawinia Manukau, of Ngati Tamatera, married Henry Dunbar Johnson in 1868, when aged 21. Johnson had been a storekeeper at Coromandel from 1863 onwards and after 1866 had the first store at the site of the future Paeroa. In both places, but particularly in the latter, there was always the fear of conflict with the local Maori population, despite his being protected by a rangatira. After spending time at the new Thames goldfield, from 1871 onwards he was a partner in another Paeroa store, being able to erect a house because a rangatira related to his wife wished her to settle there. Lavinia (as she was known to Pakeha) obtained interests in several blocks of land in Ohinemuri, and her husband also acquired some land for a farm. He prospected Karangahake mountain from 1866 onwards, despite Maori opposition, and in 1875 and the following year actively mined there, unprofitably; Lavinia was not involved with this field, but did acquire interests in two claims when the Te Aroha one opened.
A petty squabble with a Thames neighbour resulted in Lavinia telling the latter to go back to England – she was feisty in defending her heritage. Through his marriage and close contact with Maori, Johnson understood and admired the Maori language, leading to his being appointed a licensed interpreter in 1872. After being a leading pioneer of Paeroa, in 1879 he went to Wellington to work in the Native Office, leaving his wife and family behind for a while; after then she was employed by Pakeha as a nurse and midwife. 
In 1885 Johnson was appointed to oversee the development of Rotorua, where he attempted to have Maori children educated (as his own were) and had to cope with the aftermath of the 1886 Tarawera eruption. Retrenched in 1888, he farmed for a while on his wife’s land at Te Aroha West, becoming involved in local issues and local politics. During the 1890 he obtained more official positions, and from 1896 to 1906 was a land court judge.
The Johnson family was well integrated into the dominant culture, all his daughters marrying Pakeha apart from one who married a ‘half-caste’ who had been brought up as a Pakeha. Johnson was not a Pakeha Maori in the original sense, but was accepted by Maori when living in Paeroa and as a judge tried to be kind to poverty-stricken Maori, although in time he viewed Maori as becoming lazy compared with those he had lived amongst during his first two decades in New Zealand.

text: Lavinia and Henry Dunbar Johnson Rawinia Manukau, of Ngati Tamatera, married Henry Dunbar Johnson in 1868, when aged 21. Johnson had been a storekeeper at Coromandel from 1863 onwards and after 1866 had the first store at the site of the future Paeroa. In both places, but particularly in the latter, there was always the fear of conflict with the local Maori population, despite his being protected by a rangatira. After spending time at the new Thames goldfield, from 1871 onwards he was a partner in another Paeroa store, being able to erect a house because a rangatira related to his wife wished her to settle there. Lavinia (as she was known to Pakeha) obtained interests in several blocks of land in Ohinemuri, and her husband also acquired some land for a farm. He prospected Karangahake mountain from 1866 onwards, despite Maori opposition, and in 1875 and the following year actively mined there, unprofitably; Lavinia was not involved with this field, but did acquire interests in two claims when the Te Aroha one opened.
A petty squabble with a Thames neighbour resulted in Lavinia telling the latter to go back to England – she was feisty in defending her heritage. Through his marriage and close contact with Maori, Johnson understood and admired the Maori language, leading to his being appointed a licensed interpreter in 1872. After being a leading pioneer of Paeroa, in 1879 he went to Wellington to work in the Native Office, leaving his wife and family behind for a while; after then she was employed by Pakeha as a nurse and midwife. 
In 1885 Johnson was appointed to oversee the development of Rotorua, where he attempted to have Maori children educated (as his own were) and had to cope with the aftermath of the 1886 Tarawera eruption. Retrenched in 1888, he farmed for a while on his wife’s land at Te Aroha West, becoming involved in local issues and local politics. During the 1890 he obtained more official positions, and from 1896 to 1906 was a land court judge.
The Johnson family was well integrated into the dominant culture, all his daughters marrying Pakeha apart from one who married a ‘half-caste’ who had been brought up as a Pakeha. Johnson was not a Pakeha Maori in the original sense, but was accepted by Maori when living in Paeroa and as a judge tried to be kind to poverty-stricken Maori, although in time he viewed Maori as becoming lazy compared with those he had lived amongst during his first two decades in New Zealand.

year: 2016

title: Maori and psychology: Indigenous psychology in New Zealand

authors: Nikora, Linda Waimarie

subjects: Maori

abstract: Maori have their own approaches to health and well-being, which stem from a world view that values balance, continuity, unity and purpose. The world view is not typically thought of as 'psychology', yet it is a foundation for shared understandings and intelligible action among Maori. Maori behaviours, values, ways of doing things and understandings are often not visible nor valued. However, through these opening years of the twenty-first century, psychologists are slowly turning their attention to addressing this invisibility with the explicit agenda of building 'indigenous psychologies'

text: Maori and psychology: Indigenous psychology in New Zealand Maori have their own approaches to health and well-being, which stem from a world view that values balance, continuity, unity and purpose. The world view is not typically thought of as 'psychology', yet it is a foundation for shared understandings and intelligible action among Maori. Maori behaviours, values, ways of doing things and understandings are often not visible nor valued. However, through these opening years of the twenty-first century, psychologists are slowly turning their attention to addressing this invisibility with the explicit agenda of building 'indigenous psychologies'

year: 2007

title: Response and resilience of estuarine benthic ecosystems to anthropogenic pressures

authors: Drylie, Tarn Paige

subjects: ecosystem function

abstract: Human activities are altering coastal environments at local and global scales with largely unknown consequences. Catchment land-use changes increase the rates of delivery of fine sediments and nutrients to estuaries, resulting in increased suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) and eutrophication; this thesis investigates the response and resilience of soft-sediment intertidal ecosystems to these two anthropogenic stressors.

Increased SSC elevates water-column turbidity and reduces the light available for benthic primary producers that sustain estuarine food webs. In intertidal habitats, this turbidity stressor is removed during low tide as the water-column uncovers the seafloor. In other words, turbidity is a temporally displaced stressor in intertidal environments. Photosynthesis during low tide periods of emergence may therefore provide resilience against elevated turbidity during periods of submergence. However, the role of low tide primary production (PP) in estuarine benthic foodwebs has largely been overlooked. Emerged and submerged benthic PP was measured in adjacent seagrass and microphytobenthos-dominated (sandflat) soft-sediment habitats at three locations along a turbidity gradient. Benthic chambers were used to measure the flux of CO₂ across emerged sediments, and dissolved O₂ across submerged sediments to derive net (NPP) and gross (GPP) PP. Emerged NPP and GPP were higher (2–16 times) than submerged in all instances (p < 0.01), and when standardised by mean incident photosynthetically active radiation, the difference between emerged and submerged seagrass PP increased with site turbidity (from 2 to 26 times greater). Emerged PP may be crucial for providing resilience against benthic productivity losses in turbid environments.

Eutrophication results in the deposition of excess organic material to soft-sediments and stimulates microbial respiration; this consumes O₂, potentially leading to hypoxia, and releases CO₂, causing localised acidification. I enriched intertidal sediments with increasing quantities of organic matter to identify the effects of eutrophication-induced acidification on benthic structure and function, and assessed whether biogenic calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) would alter the response. Declines in macrofauna biodiversity (abundance and species richness), reduced benthic NPP and impaired nutrient cycling occurred along the eutrophication gradient. CaCO₃ did not alter the macrofaunal response, but significantly reduced negative effects on function (e.g. net autotrophy occurred at higher levels of organic enrichment in CaCO₃-treated plots than controls (1400 vs 950 g dw m-2)). This study represents a crucial step forward in understanding the ecological effects of coastal acidification and the role of biogenic CaCO₃ in moderating responses.

Ecological theory states that the resilience of ecosystem functions to environmental disturbance depends on the biodiversity that underpins them, but field validations of this are lacking. I explored the shifts in sandflat macrofaunal community composition following organic matter enrichment, and the consequences for the representation and composition of functional groups (FG). Taxa-specific sensitivities to enrichment resulted in significant response diversity which provided resilience to FG, but substantial declines in the abundance of dominant taxa meant they became functionally extinct nevertheless. Density compensation occurred in one FG, but overall community abundance decreased by 80 % between low and high levels of enrichment. Evidence of density-dependent relationships between ecosystem function and biodiversity were discovered, highlighting the need to conserve macrofaunal biodiversity to preserve function despite the existence of stabilising mechanisms.

This thesis demonstrates the existence of mechanisms that provide resilience against increased SSC and eutrophication in benthic ecosystems, but highlights that the structure and function of these systems remain sensitive nevertheless.

text: Response and resilience of estuarine benthic ecosystems to anthropogenic pressures Human activities are altering coastal environments at local and global scales with largely unknown consequences. Catchment land-use changes increase the rates of delivery of fine sediments and nutrients to estuaries, resulting in increased suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) and eutrophication; this thesis investigates the response and resilience of soft-sediment intertidal ecosystems to these two anthropogenic stressors.

Increased SSC elevates water-column turbidity and reduces the light available for benthic primary producers that sustain estuarine food webs. In intertidal habitats, this turbidity stressor is removed during low tide as the water-column uncovers the seafloor. In other words, turbidity is a temporally displaced stressor in intertidal environments. Photosynthesis during low tide periods of emergence may therefore provide resilience against elevated turbidity during periods of submergence. However, the role of low tide primary production (PP) in estuarine benthic foodwebs has largely been overlooked. Emerged and submerged benthic PP was measured in adjacent seagrass and microphytobenthos-dominated (sandflat) soft-sediment habitats at three locations along a turbidity gradient. Benthic chambers were used to measure the flux of CO₂ across emerged sediments, and dissolved O₂ across submerged sediments to derive net (NPP) and gross (GPP) PP. Emerged NPP and GPP were higher (2–16 times) than submerged in all instances (p < 0.01), and when standardised by mean incident photosynthetically active radiation, the difference between emerged and submerged seagrass PP increased with site turbidity (from 2 to 26 times greater). Emerged PP may be crucial for providing resilience against benthic productivity losses in turbid environments.

Eutrophication results in the deposition of excess organic material to soft-sediments and stimulates microbial respiration; this consumes O₂, potentially leading to hypoxia, and releases CO₂, causing localised acidification. I enriched intertidal sediments with increasing quantities of organic matter to identify the effects of eutrophication-induced acidification on benthic structure and function, and assessed whether biogenic calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) would alter the response. Declines in macrofauna biodiversity (abundance and species richness), reduced benthic NPP and impaired nutrient cycling occurred along the eutrophication gradient. CaCO₃ did not alter the macrofaunal response, but significantly reduced negative effects on function (e.g. net autotrophy occurred at higher levels of organic enrichment in CaCO₃-treated plots than controls (1400 vs 950 g dw m-2)). This study represents a crucial step forward in understanding the ecological effects of coastal acidification and the role of biogenic CaCO₃ in moderating responses.

Ecological theory states that the resilience of ecosystem functions to environmental disturbance depends on the biodiversity that underpins them, but field validations of this are lacking. I explored the shifts in sandflat macrofaunal community composition following organic matter enrichment, and the consequences for the representation and composition of functional groups (FG). Taxa-specific sensitivities to enrichment resulted in significant response diversity which provided resilience to FG, but substantial declines in the abundance of dominant taxa meant they became functionally extinct nevertheless. Density compensation occurred in one FG, but overall community abundance decreased by 80 % between low and high levels of enrichment. Evidence of density-dependent relationships between ecosystem function and biodiversity were discovered, highlighting the need to conserve macrofaunal biodiversity to preserve function despite the existence of stabilising mechanisms.

This thesis demonstrates the existence of mechanisms that provide resilience against increased SSC and eutrophication in benthic ecosystems, but highlights that the structure and function of these systems remain sensitive nevertheless.

year: 2020