Nō te terenga a ngā mātua tīpuna i Hawaiki, ki ngā mahi hao ika i ēnei rā, ko te mana moana tonu tērā, e toitū tonu nei, e toitū tonu nei.
“Toitū te marae o Tangaroa, toitū te tangata,” te kī a Robert Pouwhare, kaituhi o te pukapuka Mana Moana: Ngā Urungi o Te Ohu Kaimoana Toitū mō Anamata, e wherawhera ana ii te pānga a te tikanga Māori ki te rāngai hao ika i Aotearoa.
Ehara tēnei i te āhuatanga tauhou ki te Māori, e ai ki a Pouwhare, he mea tuku iho i a Māui.
“Me kī ko [Māui] te kaihī ika matua o te ao [mā te] tuku i tana karakia kia haere ki te hī ake i Te Ikanui a-Māui.”
Hei tāna, i mīharo katoa a Tauiwi ki ngā rauemi hao ika a te Māori i aua wā.
“Te taenga mai o Kāpene Kuki rāua ko Banks, ka titiro rātou rāua ki ngā mahi a te Māori, ngā hangarau ā ō tātau tīpuna.”
“Ka kī rāua, nui ake te pai o ngā kupenga a te Māori i ā rātau i kawea mai i Ingarangi.”
From Polynesian navigators to contemporary business
Mana Moana launched in Tāmaki Makaurau this week, linking the ancient pūrākau of tūpuna navigators to contemporary issues of sustainability and economic development.
“[The book is about] the full arc of Māori fisheries from when our tūpuna arrived in Aotearoa, but even before then and all the narratives and pūrākau that we carry in our whakapapa. Until the arrival of European-controlled fisheries [and] how expert our tūpuna were at that.”
“They’ve always been really good at it. And even now we think we still are good,” says kaituhi Carla Houkamau.
Pouwhare notes that while people are familiar with the confiscation of Māori land, they are less aware of the loss of mana moana.
“I pērātia anō te moana. Kei te wareware hoki tātau, he motu tātau i roto i Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa pērā i a Rarotonga, i a Hāmoa, i a Niue, i a Tahiti, i a Hawai’i, i a Rapanui.”
In their rangahau, the authors focus on Moana New Zealand (formerly Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd), established in 2004 through the Māori Fisheries Act and a company that’s rooted in te ao Māori values and committed to sustainability and success.
Owned by 58 iwi, the book showcases the ongoing struggle for Māori fishing rights, leading to the formation of Aotearoa’s largest inshore Māori pan-tribal business. It also covers how Māori lost control of fisheries and regained it through the 1990s Sealord deal and fisheries settlements.
“Māori own, at this point in time, around 33 percent of New Zealand’s commercial quota,” she says.
“Aotearoa is the only country in the world that’s transferred a very significant portion of a very significant primary industry to its indigenous people.”
Houkamau says she hopes to offer people a better understanding of how the fishery industry works today, which is quite different from how our ancestors viewed traditional fishing rights.
Navigating sustainable fisheries for the future
Engari, ko hea te anamata o te rāngai hao ika i Aotearoa nei? He aha hoki te wāhanga ki ngā tikanga Māori i roto i ēnei mahi?
Ko tā Houkamau e kī nei, me mōhio ngā rangatahi Māori ki ngā huarahi mahi e tuwhera ana ki a rātau.
“There’s lots of different careers that people go into fisheries,”
“If you don’t wanna go out in the water, there’s processing marketing, there’s also science you can get into the understanding biology.”
Hei tāna, he nui anō te pitomata i roto i ngā mahi ahumoana hei whakawhanake i te ōhanga Māori, kia mātaamua hoki te mātauranga Māori i roto i ēnā whakahaeretanga.
“When I think about what is future sustainability, I’m thinking about a business or a way of approaching fisheries that really does put the environment at the centre of what they do.”
“And in that way they see it as a balance [between] protecting the asset, but also making sure that it’s sustainable in that, it can keep supporting iwi that can benefit from that asset.”
Hei tā Pouwhare, “Mēnā kei [mā] te wai, kei te pai ngā kai o roto i te moana, [ka] ora tātau te tangata.”
Mana Moana is available to purchase at bookstores nationwide.
