Belonging to the Land: Indigenous Māori Narratives of Home and Place
Date
Authors
Lindsay-Latimer, Cinnamon
Allport, Tanya
Potaka-Osborne, Mel
Wilson, Denise
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Beewolf Press Limited
Abstract
Land is a place that Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand, are connected to ancestrally, spiritually, physically, and geographically. This relationship is emblematic in our native language, where 'whenua' means both land and placenta, symbolising both as our sites of our origin and sustenance. For Māori, the land is a place that establishes our identity as iwi (tribal nations), hapū (sub-tribe) and whānau (constellations of extended family networks and friends). The imposition of land ownership has alienated Māori from our whenua, making us minorities in our previous home-spaces. Although colonially forced ideologies of land ownership complicate our relationship to place, for many Māori, land is a place of belonging and home. Drawing on research from a project on Māori conceptions of home and wellbeing, this article explores Indigenous experiences of home and place, which highlights Māori resistance to colonising narratives that associate place and home with economic wealth and power. Instead, ideas of identity, belonging, relationality, and self-determination are explored as lived realities of resistance. This article profiles Māori experiences across a range of urban and rural contexts that negotiate the tensions of colonisation, foster strong cultural identities, and cultivate meaningful enactments of home in diverse environments within Aotearoa New Zealand.Description
Keywords
4406 Human Geography, 47 Language, Communication and Culture, 44 Human Society, Māori, land, self-determination, Indigenous, place, Home
Source
Folk, Knowledge, Place, ISSN: 3007-8849 (Print); 3007-8849 (Online), Beewolf Press Limited, 1(2). doi: 10.24043/001c.125729
Rights statement
Folk, Knowledge, Place is a peer-reviewed, non-fee charging, open access journal that creates openings for (re)framing, (re)imagining, and (re)connecting with field methodologies of people, place, and knowing; disrupting the epistemic sites of hierarchized power and knowledge relations; and mapping the multiple ways in which place is conceived, embodied, lived, and practiced. Copyright on manuscripts is held by the authors, and articles are published under the CC BY-ND 4.0 license.