Kaitiakitanga

Kaitiakitanga

 

Intro:

Kiaora I’m talking about Kaitiakitanga and it’s a term that means to protect life in our oceans, lands and sky’s. So a Kaitiaki is a guardian and a set of practices that someone  dose

Kaitiakitanga practices:

Some of the practices consist of planting, watering, harvesting, and storing crops and other resources like flax. It is considered a obligation of mana whenua (not sure what it means)  to protect the land they whakapapa back to 

Key Concepts:

One of the Key concepts is the mana (power) of a forest. For example it’s expressed in the birds and other natural features like abundant fruit growing Vigorously. 

A forest and a elemental will allow fruit to grow and bird’s to arrive

Traditional Kaitiakitanga:

Traditionally there was an intimate relationship with Maori and their environment. Kinda like racism back then their environment was their skin tone. What it says on my source is “the health of a community was reflected in its environment and vice versa” 

Connection to Nature:

In maori culture humans are seen connected to the environment and land around them. Kaitiakitanga show’s this in a more modern way. There are two words, Tangata Whenua meaning people of the land, Are a set of people who have authority over land because of their ancestors’ relationship to it. Humans and the land are viewed as one and people don’t have control over the land. In some of the tribes tradition’s people could change into birds, fish and other animals and there are also many instances where features of the landscape are identified  with the human body. All of these instances show an experience of nature

Conclusion:

In short, Kaitiakitanga has a very long backstory and is also very useful. Kaitiaki help the land around them by doing many things for their environment, And maybe we could create a new type of Kaitiakitanga like picking up rubbish, cleaning streets and maybe even going the extra mile and creating public gardens.