Assertions of cultural autonomy: indigenous Maori knowledge in New Zealand's community-based Maungatautari Eco-island project

This paper describes, situates and evaluates the use of indigenous knowledge by local Maori stakeholders in the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust and project, a multi-stakeholder community-based biodiversity conservation project located on New Zealand's North Island. Local Maori groups known as Mana Whenua (subtribes with ancestral rights to certain lands) connect through ancestral and tribal ties to Maungatautari, a prominent mountain in the Waikato region and site of the project. They have with varying success asserted cultural rights and sought for inclusion of cultural protocols and indigenous knowledge. In conjunction with the pursuit of their Waitangi Treaty claim for lost land and rights, this has further (re)constructed and crystallised notions of culture and identity for them. These efforts have and will continue to provide leveraging power to Mana Whenua within the project, which enables them to implement their cultural knowledge and protocols in a “culturally safe” and inclusive multi-stakeholder partnership; accentuate their sociocultural uniqueness from other New Zealanders; and contribute on their own terms to the development of Maungatautari as a compelling ecotourism site and a globally significant biodiversity conservation reserve.