Plants of Place: Justice Through (Re)Planting Aotearoa New Zealand’s Urban Natural Heritage

Date
2023-05-31
Authors
Rodgers, M
Mercier, OR
Kiddle, R
Pedersen Zari, M
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UCL Press
Abstract

Climate change has led to urgent calls for environmental action and justice, which is likely to include increased urban vegetation. The benefits of this planting could go beyond ecological and climate benefits to contribute to decolonisation and environmental and spatial justice and build on the well-documented links between ecological and human wellbeing. In Aotearoa New Zealand, past and ongoing injustices resulting from colonisation have disconnected Māori (the Indigenous people) from their land. Māori see themselves reflected in the landscape and te taiao (the natural world). The process of colonisation has mostly erased natural heritage, intrinsic to Māori identity, from urban areas. Many plants in urban areas represent colonial identity rather than this natural heritage, and many of the native plants that have been planted originate from other parts of the country. Through reviewing the literature, this article argues for research that determines the benefits of urban planting design prioritising plants that naturally occurred in the past, termed here ‘plants of place’, in public places. In settler colonial countries, where it is an accepted practice to acknowledge built and predominantly colonial heritage, making pre-colonial natural heritage visible can have many co-benefits. It has the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, decolonisation efforts, spatial justice and environmental justice. Celebrating natural heritage and planting ‘plants of place’ can contribute in some part to righting past injustices and preparing for a changing future.

Description
Keywords
4101 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation , 33 Built Environment and Design , 41 Environmental Sciences , 44 Human Society , 3301 Architecture
Source
Architecture_MPS, ISSN: 2050-9006 (Print); 2050-9006 (Online), UCL Press, 25(1), 1-. doi: 10.14324/111.444.amps.2023v25i1.001
Rights statement
2023, Maria Rodgers, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Rebecca Kiddle and Maibritt Pedersen Zari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.