Kia Ora = Hullo: In New Zealand this is Maori Language Week.
To enhance an illustration please click it. The trout fishing season opens
But... !This post is not about Maori Language Week or buying a fishing licence. Those happenings just lead us into our real topic – indigeneity. Learning te reo phrases is importantly interesting. Buying a fishing licence is pleasantly anticipatory. Coping with indigeneity is a nightmare. Indigenous rights?Maori use of themselves the term tangata whenua, meaning first people of the land –indigenous. Customary fishing rights are guaranteed to tangata whenua under Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi. These rights are protected by law in the: Treaty of Waitangi (Fisheries Claims) Settlement Act 1992. 1992 Deed of Settlement.² Sometimes a Maori individual or group catches trout by netting, say for a special gathering such as a funeral – a tangihanga (tangi.) Taking trout like that and without a licence is against the law. The defendant ends up in court, customary rights are denied because trout are introduced not indigenous, and the result is a big fine and occasionally even a prison sentence. Resentment runs high. Biodiversity and trout
More thinkingWill Harvie wrote a very enlightening piece for Stuff, May 5 May 2018, about NIWA scientist and angler Phillip Jellyman. Here is some of Harvie's story. It's mainly about brown trout.
Waterfalls this size are barriers that browns can't get past. Above the waterfalls, native galaxias fish were common and often thriving. Below the waterfalls, galaxias were "repeatedly absent". This was true regardless of the land-use beside the streams. Citing more than 100 scientific papers, Jellyman and colleagues detail the "significant deleterious effects on native biodiversity" by brown trout.⁴ What about economic benefits?Jellyman says, according to Harvie: 'Recent national data on the economic value of brown trout isn't available. In 2011, the Department of Conservation estimated that the Taupo area trout fishery, mostly rainbow trout, was worth $70 million a year. A 2014 master's thesis by Liang Jiang estimated the value of the Otago freshwater fishery was $88m-$130 annually. ' Is this a counter to the invaders' damage? In some commentators' minds it certainly is. VexedBoth with humans, as seen with the customary rights argument, and with animals, as seen in the harm by trout to native fish, the indigeneity question is vexed. I wish the word and the concept could be done away with – ditched. Is there real importance as to who or which was first in a place? I would like to be pragmatic and say we live in the present and what is here is here. In terms of people, and speaking of New Zealand, let us all be New Zealanders whenever we came. Yes let us all value our basic culture heritage. Let me wear my kilt if I want to. But let us put main effort into becoming and being an harmonious, united New Zealand culture. No fuss over who came first or last. In terms of animals, we need to recognise that humans have always moved animals around the world. Accept what's here but control what is dangerous or destructive. Some may have to be limited or even exterminated but let not the criteria be 'who got here first.' Let the blackbirds and the tui live in the same garden if they want to – and the oak and the pohutukawa. There is nothing sacred or holy about being first. □ John McInnes Friday 18 September 2020 References: please click the red text. ¹ Te Puni Kokori ² Fisheries NZ ³ New Zealand Government Biodiversity Release Strategy ⁴ Will Harvie, Stuff, Jellyman Cartoon by Judith Cowley: [email protected] ##########
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