Wai Aotearoa Seminar Series
A six part seminar series held April to May 2023, examining the state of water in New Zealand—management, governance, and reform.
Wai Aotearoa: What’s the news about our water?
The state of water, especially freshwater, in Aotearoa New Zealand has been a matter of public concern since the 1990s. There have been a number of initiatives involving governments, iwi and multiple stakeholders to improve the way we manage water, and therefore, land, in both town and country. But controversy continues, most recently around wastewater, stormwater, and drinking water infrastructure, which makes it timely to reflect again on the big picture.
Where are we now and what lies ahead of us?
Have we created a consensus for reform over the past two decades? or do we risk falling back again into a clamour of angry voices? Have we found valuable new models and ways to proceed? Have we got better at linking the various levels and strands of water management and governance in this country? Responded to Māori rights and interests? How do we understand our risks and look to manage them? What tools does science provide for assessing the state of our waters and helping us to manage them better? The Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies aims to address these questions in its annual seminar series. The seminars will discuss not just our freshwater – rivers and streams, lakes and groundwater – but also touch on estuaries and the sea into which our rivers flow.
Seminars
Seminar One—26 April 2023
Water reform—an evolving consensus?
Speakers: Alastair Bisley, Chair of The Land and Water Forum (2009-2015) – John Penno, Chair of the 2019 Freshwater Leaders Group.
The Land and Water Forum’s first report was completed in 2010, and its last in 2018. The current government handed the baton to the Freshwater Leaders Group and sought simultaneous advice from Kahui Wai Māori. In this session, Alastair and John will aim to answer the following questions: is there is an evolving consensus round water? What are its practical effects?
Alastair Bisley worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1967 to 1998, where he became Deputy Secretary for Trade Policy. He was Chief Executive of the Ministry of Transport from 1998 to 2004. Alastair chaired the Land and Water Forum from December 2008 until July 2016, while it produced 4 reports to the government on how to manage New Zealand’s fresh water better. He was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 2017.
John Penno is Co-Founder of Leaft Foods, a startup working to develop Rubisco Protein Concentrate from the leaves of commonly grown forage crops. Over recent years John has served the Ministers of the Environment and Primary Industries by chairing the Fresh Water Leaders Group. He has received multiple awards including an emerging leader’s award from the Sir Peter Blake Trust and has an Honorary Doctorate from Lincoln University.
Chair: Brigitte Bonisch-Brednich
View a recording of the seminar.
Seminar Two—3 May 2023
Te Awa Tupua—ko te Awa te tuatahi, ko te Awa te tuarua
Speaker: Nancy Tuaine, Chief Executive Officer of Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui.
In 2017 for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand a river was granted legal recognition. This recognition included a set of values, Tupua Te Kawa which now guide the way in which decisions are made across the Whanganui River catchment. For this reason, Te Awa Tupua (the Whanganui River Claim Settlement) provides one of the most striking departures in water governance this century in recent history. In this seminar, Nancy will talk about Te Awa Tupua and what we can learn from its approach.
Nancy Tuaine is the Kaihautū, CEO of Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui, the Whanganui Iwi entity responsible for upholding Te Awa Tupua the Whanganui River Settlement. Nancy has spent most of her career working for her Iwi, and in particular working for the river, with the exception of a couple of stints working in Government Departments.
Chair: Carwyn Jones
View a recording of the seminar
Seminar Three—10 May 2023
Policy and implementation
Speaker: James Palmer, Chief Executive of the Ministry of the Environment.
Water policy must reflect national values and aspirations, but it is implemented regionally across the country, to an important extent by landowners. James, who until March, was Chief Executive of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, will discuss how the implementation conundrum looks to someone returning to central government after a spell in an important agricultural region – one recently devastated by floods.
James Palmer was born and raised in Hawke’s Bay and developed an interest in the environment at a relatively young age. Since 1 March 2023 he has been the Secretary for the Ministry of the Environment. Previously he worked as the CEO of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and deputy secretary for sector strategy for the Ministry for the Environment.
Chair: Jonathan Boston
View a recording of the seminar
To listen to the Podcast:
Seminar Four—17 May 2023
Promoting change
Speakers: Andrew Schollum, Co-designer of Safe Swim – Aidan Bichan, farmer and the winner of Balance Farm Environment Award.
The Safeswim programme has changed the experience of swimming at beaches from the Bombay Hills to Cape Reinga. Experimentation with artificial wetlands has opened new approaches for dairy farmers in managing their run-off. In this session, Andrew and Aidan will talk about working to promote change and the tools that can help.
Aidan Bichan lives in rural Carterton Wairarapa and farm in South Wairarapa. He is a Registered Farm Management Consultant and have developed extensive networks throughout the Primary Sector, Government (both Politicians and Ministries), NGO's, Universities, Regional and Local Bodies, service industry and grass roots farmers. He is passionate about getting the best outcomes for people and the environment.
Andrew Schollum began his career importing organic foods and natural medicines before retraining in environmental studies and industrial ecology. Since 2004, Andrew has held senior policy roles in regional and central government, managed a consenting team for a state-owned enterprise, worked as an advisor to the Chair of the Land and Water Forum, and established a ‘Natural Resources’ service line at Martin Jenkins and Associates. In 2017 Andrew co-founded the consultancy Puhoi Stour, which provides strategic science advice to clients across public, private, and NGO sectors.
Chair: Jonathan Boston
View a recording of the seminar
Seminar Five—24 May 2023
What can science deliver?
Speakers: Ken Taylor, previous Director of Our Land, Our Water –Mahina-a-rangi Baker, Te Wānanga o Raukawa – Mike Joy, Ecologist, Senior Research Fellow, School of Government, VUWǀTHW.
In this seminar, Ken, Mahina-a-rangi and Mike will discuss how we understand the state of our water and what we need from to know to manage it properly. Are our science and knowledge systems are fit for purpose?
Mike Joy is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University. He researches ecological modelling, bioassessment, environmental science, environmental policy, and energy futures and has published many papers in scientific journals as well as newspapers and magazines. He has authored many reports for Regional Councils and Ministry for the Environment and has developed several bioassessment tools and associated software. Mike is an outspoken advocate for environmental protection in New Zealand and has received multiple awards including an Ecology in Action award from the NZ ecological Society.
Ken Taylor has worked in water resource management for most of his career. He has held several positions including, most recently, Director of the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge. Prior to that he was Director of Science at Environment Canterbury. He has also had multiple responsibilities relevant to national environmental policy development and in recent years, has chaired a number of government-appointed expert advisory groups including the Science and Technical Advisory Group.
Dr Mahina-a-rangi Baker (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Raukawa ki te tonga, Ngāti Toarangatira) is a member of the Kahui Wai Māori, a forum that provides independent advice to the government on freshwater policy. She has a PhD in Resource and Environmental Planning. Her thesis was on mātauranga Māori quantitative modelling of freshwater catchments.
Chair: Rebecca Priestly
View a recording of the seminar
Seminar Six—31 May 2023
Part One—The Moana and settler colonialism—Rethinking saltwater environments
Speakers: Fiona McCormack, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Waikato – Jacinta Forde, Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology, School of Social and Cultural Studies, VUWǀTHW.
In this seminar, Fiona and Jacs explore the relationship between environmental decline, social inequality and the longue durée of imperialist ideologies in contemporary marine governance in Aotearoa. These linkages will be traced through two case studies: the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011, and the increasing national regulation of toheroa, a keystone Māori species. They aim to answer how ‘the West’, property, capital and finance, alongside Eurocentric kinship and interpretations of nature as external antecedents to society, impedes the development of knowledges better equipped to tackle this era of multiple, overlapping crises.
Chair: Brigitte Bonisch-Brednich
Part Two—Writing Oceanic care
Speaker: Bonnie Etherington, Lecturer in Literary and Creative Communication, School of English, Film, Theatre, Media and Communication, and Art History, VUWǀTHW.
The ways that colonial powers map and describe Pacific Island locations have enormous environmental, social, and political effects on Oceania’s communities. Coming from a literary perspective, Bonnie asks how contemporary writing about the ocean helps us think through issues of colonialism, climate change, and climate futures in the Pacific. Focusing on poems by Marshallese climate activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, this seminar demonstrates how her poems do not only confront colonial depictions of the Marshall Islands and of Oceania, but also posit an Indigenous ethics of oceanic care and activism that is applicable for all of us in Oceania.
Chair: Sam Hassibi
Fiona McCormack is a marine and economic anthropologist who conducts field research in Aotearoa, Hawaii, Ireland and Iceland. She researches the impact of ocean enclosures in marine spaces and local and creative resistances to environmental inequalities. She has a particular interest in marine socio-ecological relations and their potential to evoke new ways of living in an era of environmental decline.
Jacinta Forde is an Indigenous anthropologist whose research focuses on the Pacific and Aotearoa. She has looked at the change in culture and its impact on health in Tonga and her PhD research focuses on the relationship Māori have with the moana, specifically the management and significance of the endemic shellfish, toheroa.
Bonnie Etherington received her PhD in English from Northwestern University. Prior to her appointment at Te Herenga Waka, she was a Lecturer in Literature for the University of the South Pacific, and the 2020-2021 Environmental Futures Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her academic research focuses on contemporary protest narratives, poetry, and art, created by Indigenous authors from Oceania. Bonnie’s thesis won AAPS's 2021 Tracey Banivanua Mar PhD Prize.