Kia ora koutou.
I have started this blog as part of my Education for Sustainability 2011 course with Niki Bould.
First off I would like to explain why I called this blog Ahi Kaa Roa.
The term ahi kaa roa literally translates to long fires burning. This term is usually used in Te Ao Maori in relation to land occupation and usuage. If you can keep your 'home fires' burning though occupation you have the rights and obligation to access the resources of that area.
Ko Rakaihautu te takata nana i timata te ahi kei ruka i tenei motu. Ka nohoia tenei motu, te Waitaha
Rakaihau is the man that started the fires on this island. The people that stay here are the Waitaha.
This whakatauki illustrates this point. The people of Rakaihau, an eponymous ancestor of some of the original inhabitants to the South Island, the Waitaha, keep those metaphorical fires burning through continued habitation.
However for me the ahi kaa concept goes further. From an economic perspective (whether that be financial, social or political economy) ahi kaa relates to the rights and obligation of living in a defined area or land occupation: while we inhabit land we have the rights to partake in the benefits that it allows. This being said, we also have a reciprocal obligation to ensure that resources are maintained for future generations.
A good case in point are the Titi Islands, which I will discuss in more depth at later dates. As whanau, we hold ahi kaa to these areas and therefore have the right to harvest the birds. But we do so knowing that we have the obligation to our children and their children so that they do the same.
Fire provides a necessity of life and therefore is vital in sustaining people. However in return people must sustain the fire to keep it burning. As we all know, fires need fuel, (part of the fire triangle that I will expand upon at another time), therefore to access the benefits of of the fire people have the obligation to provide the fuel.
If we view the metaphorical as practical, people need fires, fires need wood, people provide wood.
To ensure that these fires can be burnt inter-generationaly, which is at the heart of the concept, we must ensure that there is suffient fuel for the future.
So while the whakatauki initially speaks to the issues of land occupation and access to resources, for me the central theme inherent in this concept is sustainability. We have both the rights and the obligation.
For me this underpins my understanding of sustainability.
This is a great metaphor for sustainability Ron, we do need to keep the fires burning and teach younger generations from the older ones how to do so efficiently (without wasting materials and your own energy). My question is how do we teach the middle generations (from all cultures), who might have forgotten what their grandparents told them and subsequently burn the fires too hard (waste materials and their own energy), or let them die out (lack of care)? This is a great topic for conversation at our session tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteKia Ora Matua Carwyn,
ReplyDeleteI would like to first commend you on your long standing career seeking to enlighten and empower tikanga Maori and the Maori culture as a whole.
I would like to instigate a new discussion, regarding the resolution of whakapapa disputes through new technological instruments, I refer to the application or recruitment of professionally developed Agentic hardware and software to seamlessly asses the millions of records collected and perform all administrational filing capable to better reconnect or revive the Ahi Ka of Kaitiaki, living on and around whenua that should be rightfully governed and benefited from.
I promote this Korero amongst a government strategy, that, although promotes economic growth and diversification, raises some considerable concerns in relation to "fast-track" measure implemented under current government, "Free-Trade" Agreements entred into, and amendments of fundamental legislation, not limited to, but including The O.I.O bill/strategy and New Zealand First Bills.
I bring these to the table as I feel these changes and implementation will become the foundation for future grievances and create further complications with-in a Legal system already a heavily over utilised arm and stressed mechanism of the justice system. These directly relating to a extended series of Prudential oversite by bad actors, acting within capacity of their governmental functions and duties.
This is a discussion I feel to be long over-due with discussion essential if we hope to create a cohesive, practical legal framework for the generations to come.
Naku Noa,
Te Tuiringa Matua