The land shaping the people: A cultural look into a new land management scheme for South Wairarapa

Abstract

With this thesis bringing attention to the region of Wairarapa, it will show awareness to the significant cultural and biodiversity that this district holds that makes it such a rich place within Aotearoa, New Zealand. With two natural features sitting at their doorsteps, Lake Wairarapa and the Remutaka hillside, this region holds much to preserve and want to save. Maori culture holds countless values of the landscape that can be used to heal the land surrounding the lake, which in turn will heal the people living amongst it. These values are held with great appreciation in the culture, many believe all should live with these values for the land.

This thesis will help in bringing the Te Aranga Maori design principles to the surface so more can live with the land naturally and not just on it. This research will explore how these design principles can be used in bringing the landscape back to its prior state, and working with natural interventions to bring wahi tapu into the land and its people. In dealing with the current challenges and goals that present generation live with to make Wairarapa one to grow in and with.

These ideas can generate discussion to how people might live more sustainably with the use of natural systems in the landscape, to the production of natural products. It will also allow for more research topics to be produced from the older ways people used to live with the land. To show the diverse cultures present today, in how others could benefit from the ways and means they used to be. With dealing with present challenges and needs from today’s generation as we cannot ‘restore’ what once was, we have to ‘regenerate’ a new way of living, that is beneficial for all.