Founded on RockPutting into practice Catholic teaching

on land and the environment

NumbeR twelve iN the CaRitas soCial JustiCe seRies

For social Justice week 2007

9 to 15 september

CARITAS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND

2007

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Published by Caritas Aotearoa New ZealandPO Box 12-193Thorndon, Wellington, New Zealandcaritas@caritas.org.nzwww.caritas.org.nz

© CARITAS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND

Previous titles in the Social Justice Series:1 A Fresh Start: The Eradication of Poverty2 Homelessness3 Employment and Justice4 Health: A Social Justice Perspective5 The Digital Divide: Poverty and Wealth in the Information Age6 Paying the Piper: Ourselves, Our World and Debt7 Welcoming the Stranger: Refugees and Migrants in the Modern World8 Born to us: Children in New Zealand9 Out of the Depths: Mental Health in New Zealand10 In the presence of all peoples: Celebrating cultural diversity11 Renew the face of the earth: Environmental justice

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like the wise person who built a house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock.Matthew 7:24-25

This booklet and other Social Justice Week materials have been printed on paper produced from sustainable sources, after consideration of the options available to us to reduce the impact on the environment.

Caritas would like to thank the people whose pictures and stories appear in this booklet, especially: Sr Makareta Tawaroa, Sr Noelene Landrigan, Sr Colleen Woodcock, Terence and Jill Whelan, Markus Gripp, Rex Begley, Sr Barbara Cowan, Anne Waitai and the Tamareheroto hapu, Doña Clara and CALDH, Cathy Bolinga and Caritas Papua New Guinea, Ioane and Filifili Lemisio, Michael Mrong and Caritas Bangladesh, Benedict Ole Nangore and CORDS, Tobias Bareh, Linda Simmons, Abakada Kayumanggi Community Development Foundation and the people of the East Riverside community of Malabon, Mintu Deshwara, Barbara Rowley and Naenae parish, Cynthia Piper, Sharron Cole and Petone parish.

Research and writing: Martin de Jong and Lisa BeechAdditional writing: Te Hokinga Mai (pages 24-25) – Anne Waitai and Sr Barbara CowanPhotography: Adrian HekeAdditional photography: Lisa Beech, Martin de Jong, Tara D’Sousa, Mark Coote, Regina Scheyvens, Jonathon Moller, Max Simmons, John Lewin, Mary BetzCover photography: Adrian HekeGraphic design and print consultancy: Rose MillerPrinting: The Print Room

ISBN: 0-908631-38-3ISSN: 1174-331x

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“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like the wise person who built a house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock.”

Matthew 7:24-25

These words of Jesus give us hope. Even though the world as we know it seems threatened by human-induced climatic disaster, even though rain may fall, floods rise, and gales blow - if we listen to God’s Word, and to the teaching and guidance of the Church in making that Word applicable and relevant to our lives today, then we have cause to hope, because our actions will be “founded on rock”.

God is continually calling us to conversion. This includes calling us to think and act in ways which take into account the future of our planet and its people. This we call ecological conversion. We must care for the earth – for our environment. In the Bible, the whole idea of “justice” means right relations with our God, our neighbour and our environment. Right relationships with our environment is an integral part of our Christian ethic. It is the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from the deterioration of our natural environment.

The Old Testament Prophets cried out against the injustice of those who accumulated large landholdings at the expense of the poor, and the early Christian Fathers reminded us that the world was given for all, and not only for the rich. In many parts of the world, the separation of people from their traditional lands is a grave injustice.

As Catholics, we are told by Jesus to “build our houses on rock”, to imitate Him in our relationship with all creation, and to be truly stewards of God’s creation. We ask you to join with Caritas in this year’s Social Justice Week, and to consider ways of putting into practice Catholic teaching on land and the environment.

Bishop Robin Leamy

Episcopal Deputy for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Foreword

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Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction: God works through human history. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Land: God’s gift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

God's own: The last settled place on earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Rooted in the soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Land and identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Landlessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

This sacred earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Healing and reconciliation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Conclusion: Bearing fruit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Appendix: Catholic social teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Glossary of Te Reo Maori words used in the text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Contents

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God is with usMatthew 1:23

Introduction: God works through human history

“Christ is now in history. Christ is in the womb of the people. Christ is now bringing about a new heaven and a new earth.”

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Christians are sometimes accused of offering “pie in the sky” solutions to pressing world problems. The phrase itself entered our vocabulary from a song by Joe Hill, speaking of preachers who offer “pie in the sky when you die” to people asking for help with present-day hunger.

However, the reality is that both Jewish and Christian traditions are based in actual historical situations – the stories of how God was revealed to particular people, at a particular time and place.

Our Old Testament tradition is based on the extraordinary revelation of a God who intervened in human history to rescue the Hebrews from slavery, and led them to the promised land. The New Testament revelation is of the Incarnation, of God becoming flesh to share a human life with us, in a particular time and place. We know and experience God in the places we are born and live out our lives.

Our Biblical tradition is filled with the images of people who saw God’s hand in all creation. God is our rock, God is water in a parched land, as immense as the forces of nature, or as approachable as the “still small voice” on the mountainside. The writers of the psalms speak of a God revealed through nature. They show their love and their knowledge of God in particular places: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land” lament the exiles from Israel who were taken to Babylon as slaves.

However, the Old Testament writers knew a world in which human activity was seen as operating in accordance with natural forces over which they had no control. The writer of Ecclesiastes who said “A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains forever” could not have envisaged the environmental destruction our generation faces, where human activity itself has put at risk the future not only of the people, but of our planet itself.

Our Catholic social teaching tells us of the importance of stewardship – of caring for all the gifts of the earth that God has given us. But there is a greater message too, that it is in this earth that we understand and know God. “It is in this world that Christian hope must shine forth,” said Pope John Paul II. 1

For some modern New Zealanders, whose ancestors – or they themselves – broke traditional connections with places, by choice or necessity, to come here, the attachment of people to particular places may seem strange. However, there are many others – both ancient and recent immigrants – for whom the roots are deeply connected to particular places in Aotearoa New Zealand.

As we consider both historic land issues in New Zealand and present day environmental concerns, it can be

1 Pope John Paul II: Ecclesia in Eucharista, 2004

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helpful to understand that throughout the world there are many situations of conflict and injustice related to land. There is also a wealth of Catholic social teaching to draw on in considering the morality of land use.

Some of these relate to people forced from traditional homelands, a process which began with the behaviour of the first colonists of the “New World” of the Americas, and drew a response from Catholic theologians of that time which led to an understanding of universal human rights.2 For other people alienation from land results from

environmental disasters, both natural and man made, but often resulting from factors over which people’s actions have some control.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are now more people displaced by environmental factors than by political ones – more than 25 million, compared to 22 million political refugees – with those numbers predicted to increase as climate change affects more island nations and coastal areas. 3

2 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: The Church and Racism, 19883 UNHCR: The state of the world’s refugees, 2006

In the 16th century, soldier turned Dominican priest – and later Bishop – Bartholomé de las Casas witnessed the violent dispossession of the peaceful people of Latin America by the Spanish colonisers. The horror he saw led him to argue in the courts of Spain for the rights of indigenous people to their land. This contributed to the development of the understanding of human rights and dignity, in both Catholic social teaching and broader international humanitarian law and conventions.

In his 1552 book An account of the devastation of the Indies he described the slaughter of the original inhabitants of much of Latin America and the devastation of their environment, for example: “Thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan are for the most part and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste.” He said the inhabitants of the Indies had never committed any act against the Spanish Christians who invaded them, until they were first the victims of “countless cruel aggressions”. Such cruelty he said was committed “not for the honour of God” or “to promote the Salvation of their Neighbours” but “in truth, only stimulated and goaded on by insatiable Avarice and Ambition” to acquire the Kingdoms of the West Indians.

Despite the work of de las Casas and other theologians, and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, however, 500 years later, the descendants of those who survived the Spanish slaughter continue to face violent dispossession.

Guatemala in the latter decades of the 20th century suffered huge conflict and human rights abuses. Over 100,000 people were killed in the highlands, many of them indigenous people deprived of their last remaining lands. Now, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is working with Trocaire (Caritas Ireland) and local partner Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH) to take legal cases against those responsible for the atrocities, and help those who fled return to their land.

One of the programmes trains villagers to become “barefoot forensic scientists”. They will exhume bodies of victims such that the evidence will be preserved and accepted in the court system. A formal death certificate can then be obtained, so that the relatives of those killed can reclaim their land, become legal citizens in the place they were born, and begin to rebuild their lives.

During an exhumation, Doña Clara holds a portrait of her husband whose remains are being unearthed. He was fifty years old when soldiers shot him in 1982.

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In the midst of this, we remember that the Son of God took flesh and lived with us – in a particular time and place, with a specific people, in a specific culture. The birth narrative of Jesus, which we celebrate enthusiastically each Christmas, includes the less starry-eyed experience of his family fleeing persecution by King Herod. Early childhood experiences of dislocation and dispossession may have contributed to his message to us today to offer hospitality to newcomers – “I was a stranger and you welcomed me”.

As Pope John Paul II said to the Church in our region in 2001: “All that God did in the midst of his chosen people revealed what he intended to do for all humanity, for all peoples and cultures. The Scriptures tell us this story of God acting among his people. From deep within human history, the story of Jesus speaks to the people not only of his time and culture but of every time and culture. He is for ever the Word made flesh for all the world; he is the Gospel that was brought to Oceania; and he is the Gospel that now must be proclaimed anew.” 4

4 Pope John Paul II: Ecclesia in Oceania, 2001

Tiakingia te whenua, Tiakingia te tangata

Caring for the land, caring for the people“My earliest memories are of pushing corn into the ground,” says Sr Makareta Tawaroa who has returned to live on her family land at Kaiwhaiki Marae, on the Whanganui River.

The land now occupied with homes was once covered with gardens. “All of this was kai – potato, corn, kumara. There was a time when we all had our gardens. When I was a kid, you didn’t buy fruit, didn’t buy bread and butter, and certainly didn’t buy meat. We used to go for a walk, you would pick a thistle here, some wild briar there. There were blackberries and gooseberries. We didn’t need to take sandwiches. There were the cutty grasses – some are better than others to eat – and the dandelions. That was all kai.”

While caring for children who have made their homes with her, Sr Makareta also wanted to see her family land once again being used to grow fruit and vegetables, to support the people who live on it, but also to help restore the land itself. “Now my biggest role is to learn how to nurture the awa, the soil, and the birds, the animals and, most importantly, the mokopuna. I feel this is my greatest vocation,” she says.

Sisters of St Joseph and friends, Noelene Landrigan and Colleen Woodcock, see their work with Makareta and the whanau as part of their commitment to tangata whenua. “We see working with Makareta as a way in which we can link more closely with the life and aspirations of Whanganui iwi.”

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Land: God’s gift “Land, a common good for all of humanity”.

Cardinal Etchegary

At Pentecost, we pray: “Lord send out your spirit, and renew the face of the earth”. Pope Benedict said in 2006 that we need to recognise Pentecost as the feast of creation, made not to exist of itself, but from the creative spirit of God. “We cannot use and abuse the world and matter merely as material for our actions and desires: we must consider creation a gift that has not been given to us to be destroyed, but to become God’s garden, hence, a garden for men and women.” 6

Catholic social teaching tells us that when God created man and woman, he gave them “the good things of the earth for their use and benefit”.7 However, because creation is entrusted to human stewardship, the natural world is not just a resource to be exploited “but also a reality to be respected and even reverenced as a gift and trust from God.” 8

Before we look at land issues in our world today, we need to consider the nature of land in God’s eyes, as revealed through Scripture and Church teaching. “Creation … is a gift of God, a gift for all, and God wants it to remain so… The earth is God’s and … God has given it as a heritage to all the children of Israel.” 9

Catholic social teaching upholds the right to private property, but not as an absolute right. It subordinates private property to the principle of the universal destination of goods. It especially criticises large landholdings which are poorly cultivated, or left uncultivated for speculation, when the growing food needs of the majority – with little or no access to land – require increased food production. Nobody has the right to deprive a person who has use of land of its possession. On the other hand, “any form of absolute and arbitrary possession exclusively for one’s own advantage is forbidden: we cannot do whatever we want with the goods that God has given to all.” 10

This ultimate Lordship of God over the earth is expressed in the Hebrew tradition of the Jubilee and sabbatical years. The Jewish tradition is outlined in Leviticus 25:4-5 – “But during the seventh year the land shall have complete rest, a Sabbath for the Lord, when you may neither sow your field nor prune your vineyards. Do not harvest the grain that grows by itself without being planted, and do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines; it is a year of complete rest for the land.” The Hebrews rested the land every seven years. It is a practice echoed today by many organic farmers, though more flexibly. Terence Whelan, a farmer in South Taranaki, says, “You have to shut your farm up every seventh year – or more practically, shut one seventh of your farm up each year.” It gives time for the soil and organisms to renew themselves naturally. In addition to resting the land every seventh year, every fiftieth year was a Year of Jubilee: “You shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee year for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.” Leviticus 25:10 In the Jubilee ideal, the early Hebrews had the answer to continuous land agglomeration by the rich. Whether land had been given away, sold, or lost through unpaid debts in the 50 years prior to the Jubilee, it would be given back, and the temporary possessors compensated for any improvements they had made on the land. The Jubilee tradition intended that concentration of land ownership would be avoided. It would take the profit out of landholding, leaving no incentive for speculation.

The New Zealand Catholic Bishops have said that the sabbatical and jubilee traditions point to a future which would be good news for the poor, the broken hearted and all who needed to be set free. “They celebrated these years by allowing the earth to lie fallow, by setting slaves free, cancelling debts, and allowing people to return to their land if they had lost it… Their faith involved the idea of restoring right relationships with one another based on acknowledging that the earth ultimately belongs to God alone, and that God has given it for the benefit of all.” 11

The world is given to all, and not only to the richSt Ambrose

5 Cardinal Etchegary: Introduction to Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace document: “Towards a better distribution of land”, 1997 6 Pope Benedict XVI: Homily for Pentecost, 20067 Pope John Paul II: Address at Alice Springs, 19868 Pope John Paul II: Ecclesia in Oceania, 20019 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: Towards a better distribution of land, 199710 Ibid11 New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: The Church in Jubilee, 1996

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Jubilee was – and is – about restoring good in people’s lives and communities, about re-establishing justice, restoring land, and restoring equality. The poor could reclaim their property, and the rich would have to recognise the rights of the poor – to have what they needed to live a decent life.

“The earth and resources were given for all of us,” says Sr Noelene. “We realise that we have used the abundance of earth in an exploitative and unsustainable manner. We have to recover a mystique of rain, otherwise we will never have clean water.”

“Like five-year-old children, we have to fall in love with the outdoors,” says Sr Colleen. “Little children show such awe and wonder when seeing small creatures – every little insect is greeted with such rapture.”

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Cathy Bolinga of Caritas Papua New Guinea sees the effect of environmental destruction on the lives of her people. “Papua New Guinea has the majority of its population living in the rural areas, and most of their livelihood is dependent on the environment. When logging and other resource development takes place, it affects the livelihood of these people. Their hunting, gardening, food sources and medicine sources are destroyed.”

People’s nutrition is poor as food sources are lost from the forest, sea and rivers. “The rivers have become polluted with machinery, oil and chemicals.” As logs are transported on the rivers, there is a build-

up of mud and sand banks, “making it shallower than before and the fish population has decreased.”

Other impacts include destruction of natural habitats, and soil erosion. “Barren areas where trees once thrived have become vulnerable to soil erosion, particularly those on slopes. They wear away into the water systems and eventually into the sea.” Cathy says also the logging companies bring benefits, which local people enjoy. “But there needs to be proper assessment of the benefits before going ahead with logging operations, as the impact on the environment can be unstable in the long run.”

She says the destruction of the environment is the destruction of God’s creation. “We human beings did not create the environment, but the surrounding environment is there for us to use and look after so others who will come after us will also use and benefit from this environment. So that makes us become stewards of the environment which is God’s creation. And in order for us to pass it onto the future generation we need to conserve and sustain the environment. So we need to ensure that the activities that are taking place now must consider the future generation. The land and the environment are for all generations now and the future to benefit.”

10

God’s own: The last settled place on Earth

“Experience shows that disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence, and vice versa. It becomes more and more evident that there is an inseparable link between peace with creation and peace among people.” 12

Pope Benedict XVI

What of this place – our place – “the last settled place on Earth”.13 How have we treated God’s own gift to us here?

In geological and human time, New Zealand is young. Isolated from other land masses for 70-80 million years, it evolved plant and animal species not seen elsewhere, marked by an absence of ground-based mammals. Birds and bush were prolific. On the edge of the Pacific “rim of fire”, its regular earthquakes and volcanic activity testify that it is a land still very much “in formation”. Both our Pacific and European ancestors here did not fully appreciate the nature and extent of the gift – nor its fragility. Its soils – largely thin, acidic and low in nutrients – were suited primarily for the plants which had evolved to live on them.14 Its birds, many of them large or flightless, were vulnerable when mammals arrived, especially the human variety.

Within 200 years of human settlement, moa and other large birds had disappeared, and the rats and dogs the new arrivals brought with them were also taking their toll on smaller creatures. Clearances and widespread burnings reduced forest cover on the new land from 85 percent to about 53 percent by the time Europeans arrived. 15

However, as with their settlement of other islands in the Pacific, the Polynesians eventually adapted their resource use and demand to the ecosystems on which they depended. They made some major mistakes but “by trial and error”, according to historian Michael King,

the first settlers managed “to turn New Zealand’s natural and environmental conditions to human advantage.” They learned to conserve supplies. When items became scarce, a rahui or prohibition was put on them, until the resource recovered. They survived, and turned an imported culture into an indigenous one, “connected inextricably to the roots and soil of New Zealand”.16 “In the process of colonising the land and learning about its ecology, the Polynesian island settlers became Maori.” 17

When Europeans arrived in force, the transformation intensified. What took twenty centuries in Europe, and four centuries in North America, happened in about 100 years in New Zealand.18 The bush was reduced to a quarter of the total land area – most of it not felled for timber, but burnt to make way for pasture.19 Grass, largely native tussock, once covered only five percent of the country. Now over half the country is sown in introduced grasses.20 Environmental scientists Richard Tong and Geoffrey Cox say native forest and cultivated land now coexist as “two totally different and largely incompatible ecosystems in unnatural and uneasy proximity”, on “perhaps the most highly modified country on earth”. The soil which feeds us – and our economy – has been hugely modified, and our “clean and green” farmlands are kept producing through imported fertiliser and introduced nitrogen-fixing plants. 21

The lowland native forests which bore the brunt of the attack once covered almost 60 percent of the country, but now exist as scattered remnants. Ecologist Geoff Park says these forests were once pieces in a jigsaw. When removed, birds no longer had access to rich floodplain forests and coastal swamps: “the hill and mountain forests went silent”. In the mid-1980s he began a journey to find out what had happened to the coastal lowlands. His journey led him to conclude that New Zealand’s forests were not “vacant space” before European arrival. “As its soil is more than an accumulator of fertility for pre-destined farms, its forests have a human past that, as we uncover evidence of the experiences it extinguished, is becoming part of our young society’s dark quarrel with its soul.” 22

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?Job 38:4

12 Pope Benedict XVI: Message for the World Day of Peace, 200713 Te Papa: Blood, earth, fire exhibition, 200614 Richard Tong and Geoffrey Cox: Clean and Green? The New Zealand Environment, 200015 Ibid16 Michael King: The Penguin History of New Zealand, 200317 Geoff Park: “Whenua — The ecology of placental connection” in Theatre Country: Essays on landscape & whenua, 200618 Michael King: The Penguin History of New Zealand, 200319 Richard Tong and Geoffrey Cox: Clean and Green? The New Zealand Environment, 200020 Te Papa: Blood, earth, fire exhibition, 200621 Richard Tong and Geoffrey Cox: Clean and Green? The New Zealand Environment, 200022 Geoff Park: Nga Uruora (The Groves of Life), 1995

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“Many years ago all this used to be bush,” says Sr Makareta. “It was all chopped down for building houses in colonial times, and it has never really recovered.” Now the hills behind her home are covered with gorse – sprayed several times a year. “They should never spray pesticides so close to people’s homes.”

23 NIWA/Royal Society of New Zealand: Climate Change: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report – Impacts: New Zealand & the South Pacific, April 200724 Fr Michael McKenzie: Address to Caritas Oceania regional forum, 200625 New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: Environmental Justice statement, 200626 NIWA/Royal Society of New Zealand: Climate Change: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report – Impacts: New Zealand & the South Pacific, April 200727 New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: Environmental Justice statement, 200628 Caritas, Submission on Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change, 30 March 2007

In a report released in April 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the Australia/New Zealand region has seen a 0.3-0.7ºC warming since 1950, and a 70mm rise in sea level. “We are already experiencing the impacts of climate change,” said a report summary. 23

Small islands such as in the South Pacific are among four world regions likely to be especially affected by climate change. Places like Kiribati are already seeing rows of coconut trees destroyed, black soil rendered infertile, and fewer and smaller fruits harvested. Lagoons have become vulnerable to high tide and storm surges. 24

New Zealand can expect to see environmental refugees from such places, and New Zealanders should be prepared to welcome them. The Bishops of New Zealand have recognised that “life on many Pacific Islands will become untenable. … As in other parts of the world, those most suffering the consequences of climate change are those who have played the least part in contributing to it.” 25

New Zealand itself faces threats to agriculture and forestry production, water resources, and coastal communities. Though there may be some benefits from global warming in the first half of this century, by 2050, agriculture and forestry in the east will be reduced due to increased fire and drought. Water security will be a problem, and other parts of the country will see impacts on pastoral farming and horticulture. 26

New Zealand’s Bishops stress that in trying to minimise climate change, or adapt to it, “we have to work to ensure that the costs of any changes to our lifestyles are borne by those who can best afford them”. 27 In a statement on sustainable land management in the face of climate change, Caritas has also called for “equitable outcomes, which ensure the costs of reducing carbon emissions are shared across our society”. Individuals should not have to bear alone the cost of structural changes required for the good of society. If sustainability or climate adaptation threatens the livelihood of some farmers, “support should be there to assist them to move into more sustainable forms of farming or land use”. 28

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Rooted in the soil

God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being… From the soil, God caused to grow every kind of tree.

Genesis 2:7,9

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God shaped ha’adam – the first person from ha’adama – the soil. In Maori mythology Tane-Mahuta created the first woman from the red clay of the earth.

Such an identification of people with land and soil can be seen also in the scientific study of “the Iceman” of the Tyrolean Alps in Europe. From a 5200-year-old preserved body, geochemists studying isotopes in the man’s body were able to pinpoint the valley of his birth, because the isotopes were mineralogically identical to the rocks which had formed the soils there – soil which grew food for himself and his mother. 29

Few people today would have such a strong biochemical connection with place, but peoples who have lived long in an area feel a connection with it, through long years of gaining a livelihood from it, burial of ancestors, or burial of the placenta that nourished them in the womb.

The practice of placental connection is widespread in the Pacific and beyond. Whenua in Maori, the same term – and a similar connection between placenta and land – is expressed as fenua in Tahiti, fonua in Samoa, fanua in Tonga, and even in Bali: banua. Whenua – as land and placenta – signifies the belief that human beings were made from the earth, from Papatuanuku, and the placenta and umbilical cord should be returned to the earth. 30

The relationship between human beings and soil is expressed in our religious traditions, including the Creation story and our Ash Wednesday service reminding us that we came from dust and will return to dust. This is understood too in science. New Zealand soil scientist Harry Gibbs taught that our attitude towards soil should be one of respect “particularly if we remember that the mineral elements in our bodies come from soil and return there when we die”. 31

Sr Makareta: “Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko au – I am the land, the land is me. When you’re home you just naturally see that you’re part of the land. When I’ve been away from home, I feel that the call of the land and the river is very strong.”

Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you will return.Ash Wednesday service

29 Geoff Park: “Whenua – The ecology of placental connection” in Theatre Country: Essays on landscape & whenua, 200630 Ibid31 Harry Gubbs: New Zealand Soils, an introduction, Oxford University Press, 1980

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When Ioane and Filifili Lemisio’s second grandchild was born to their eldest daughter at home, there was no question they would retain and bury the afterbirth – whanua or taulaga in Tokelauan. It’s just something their parents and grandparents did – and their ancestors before that. “It is like part of the body,” says Ioane. “If someone dies, you don’t throw away the body.” It is like that with the afterbirth – it is part of the body; it gave life to the child while in the womb.

Back home in Tokelau, they would have planted coconut, breadfruit, or banana over the placenta – a fruit-producing tree, symbolising the giving of life. Here in New Zealand, he chose a dark, glossy-green taupata – self-sown from a neighbour’s property. Fast-growing and hardy, its red berries will feed the birds.

The Lemisios rent their Lower Hutt home from Housing New Zealand. Having planted the tree, Ioane feels a greater stake in the land. “It is hard to move away from here. If I moved away from here, I would need to take the tree with me.”

e te atua, manaakitia tenei taewa maori, manaakitia tenei whenua, manaakitia tenei whanau, me o matou mahi, mo tenei ra, i runga i to ingoa tapu, amene O God, bless this Maori potato, bless this land, bless this family and the work we do this day, we say in your name, Amen

Terence and Jill Whelan have been farming organically since 1986 on land in South Taranaki bought by Terence’s grandparents in 1963. They grow feed for conventional and organic dairy farms: silage in spring, hay in late summer and autumn, and winter grazing for up to 600 cows.

“The belief in creation by God is at the centre of our living and therefore the way we view the land under our care,” say Terence and Jill. Their view that “creation is ongoing” is supported by discoveries around the world, but also their own observation and evolution of practices on the farm.

“For example our choice of genetics for animal breeding and seed for pasture renewal is based on what the immediate environment – nature – has taught us. We believe we express ourselves as Christians in the way we live, including the manner in which we farm.”

In addition to stock feed on their property near Patea, Terence and Jill Whelan have also grown potatoes. Then in 2001, they were approached by Markus Gripp who’d been growing taewa – Maori potatoes – 10 minutes down the road for his local marae, Waioturi.

Markus had started growing taewa in 1998 after being given them by a friend. Initially, it was to provide a traditional – and much valued food – for marae in the area. But he soon saw the commercial potential, so that’s why he contacted Terence, who had more extensive growing knowledge and expertise – and also better soil. They went into partnership, and for the first two years, focused on

building up stocks of seed potatoes for commercial quantities. A wholesaler came on board early in the piece, and has helped market their product. Under the brand Organik Fresh, they are now the largest supplier of Maori potatoes – seven varieties – in the country. They’re more disease-resistant and have a longer harvesting time than conventional potatoes, which are usually bred for a fast growing season.

Markus says it’s an excellent partnership: Terence owns the land, he owns the seed, and they employ casual labour in the harvesting season. “We want to do the best for the potato,” says Markus, “and we want to do the best for ourselves. I need him. He needs me. There are doors we both need to go through. There’s doors I let him [Terence] go through, and there’s doors he let’s me go through.”

While Maori acknowledge some varieties arrived with early explorers, sealers and whalers in the 1700s, they also have traditions that speak of taewa well before this period. Whatever their origin, they became a staple food for Maori, who grew them up and commercialised them, selling them to early European settlers. This lasted until the 1850s, when colonisation removed much Maori-owned farmland and the selective breeding of potato varieties began. “It’s a taonga to us Maori, and I treat it as such,” says Markus. “We can hold and manage it ourselves, on a commercial basis.”

e te atua, manaakitia matou, No te mea kua mutu o matou mahi, mo tenei ra, i runga i ingoa tapu, amene O God, bless those that are here, therefore our work is finished this day, we say this in your name, Amen

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Land and identity

“Certain peoples, especially those identified as native or indigenous, have always maintained a special relationship to their land, a relationship connected with the group’s very identity as a people having their own tribal, cultural and religious traditions. When such indigenous peoples are deprived of their land, they lose a vital element of their way of life and actually run the risk of disappearing as a people.” 32

Pope John Paul II

When Pope John Paul II visited New Zealand and Australia over 20 years ago, he recognised the indigenous cultures of our part of the world, and the close and sustainable relationship that they traditionally had with the land.

“You lived your life in spiritual closeness to the land, with its animals, birds, fishes, waterholes, rivers, hills and mountains. Through your closeness to the land you touched the sacredness of man’s relationship with God, for the land was the proof of a power in life greater than yourselves. You did not spoil the land, use it up, exhaust it, and then walk away from it. You realised that your land was related to the source of life,” Pope John Paul II told Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. 33

Catholic social teaching recognises the intrinsic connections between the injustices involved in loss of land ownership throughout the world, and the environmental destruction that often accompanies this. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has said that exploitation of mineral and forest resources is frequently accompanied by oppressive working conditions and violence against small farmers and indigenous peoples. “In these conflicts, intimidation and illegal arrests are used, and, in extreme cases, armed groups are hired to destroy possessions and harvests, deprive community leaders of power, and eliminate people, including those who take up the defence of the weak, among whom many Church leaders.” 34

They shall dwell in the land and own itPsalm 69:36

32 Pope John Paul II: Message for the world day of peace,198933 Pope John Paul II: Address at Alice Springs, 198634 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: Towards a better distribution of land, 199735 Home of Compassion: Audacity of faith, 199236 Pope John Paul II: Ecclesia in Oceania, 2001

However, the history of the Churches has not always included the active defence of indigenous rights. Suzanne Aubert protested against ministers of religion who “while directing their eyes to heaven, stole the ground from under the Maori’s feet”.35 Archbishop Desmond Tutu has a similar complaint from the perspective of Africa: “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray’. We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.”

Pope John Paul II apologised in 2001 on behalf of the Catholic Church for any part played in such injustices: “Aware of the shameful injustices done to indigenous peoples in Oceania, the Synod Fathers [Bishops of the region] apologised unreservedly for the part played in these by members of the Church” and promised support for resolution of past injustices: “The Church will support the cause of all indigenous peoples who seek a just and equitable recognition of their identity and their rights”. 36

Sr Makareta: “To link with the land we’ve got to be home. We need to have more people living at home. There are many marae that have no one there. They just have a chimney, urupa, a couple of fruit trees. There are 60 thousand of the tangata whenua living in Sydney, and 30 thousand in Queensland. There are more away than those who are at home. When you move away from home, you no longer connect to the land, to your people, and to your ancestors and your past. We have to live at home. It’s important that our moko know where they come from.”

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The connection between environmental destruction and alienation of indigenous people from traditional homelands is evident in Caritas’s international programmes work.

Michael Mrong of Caritas Bangladesh tells of the destruction of the Adivasi village of Amoir (pictured), where the households of 29 families were burned to the ground on 10 February 2007.

Michael, who is himself Adivasi, the indigenous people of Bangladesh, says eviction of indigenous peoples is always a precursor to environmental destruction of the forests. His people say that when trees fall, the other trees of the forest cry. “When Adivasi are evicted, they hear the cry of the land, the cry of nature, and they also cry.”

37 Sanjeeb Drong: Why Eco-Park on Khasi and Garo Ancestral Land? Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum, 2001 http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/eco17.htm 16 June 2007

Tobias Bareh, pictured with his co-worker Sylvia in the Adivasi Integrated Community Development Programme of Caritas Bangladesh, is a Catholic catechist and community leader. “I want my people to know about their traditions, their roots, their land,” he says.

Tobias and Sylvia are of the indigenous Khasi people, who depend on betel leaf as an important cash crop

to support their economy. However, the betel leaf is a vine which grows in the forest on existing trees. Deforestation is intruding into their area, and each tree cut down represents lost potential income from betel leaf production.

The Khasi gained international attention in 2002-2004 for their protests against government plans to turn part of their lands into an “eco-park” and indigenous people into tourist attractions. A Khasi headman explained indigenous opposition to the eco-park in 2001 to former Caritas worker Sanjeeb Drong:

“We are the children of the forest. We were born here and grew up here. We have been living here for hundreds of years. We will not leave this forest. We can not survive if we are evicted from the forest in the name of this eco-park. The graves of our ancestors lie in this forestland. We can not leave them. If we lose this forest, we will lose our life and our ancestors. Taking away our land is plucking out our life because we draw our life from this forest. We were born in this forest and we want to die here.” 37

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Displacement

“What injustices and conflicts will be provoked by

the race for energy sources? And what will be the

reaction of those who are excluded from this race?

These are questions that show how respect for nature

is closely linked to the need to establish, between

individuals and between nations, relationships that

are attentive to the dignity of the person.” 38

Pope Benedict XVI

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,

charged particularly with the protection of people fleeing

political persecution, reports that in the past decade

approximately five times as many people have been

displaced by environmental disasters, as by conflict. 39

A major contributor is what is now called “development-induced displacement” – the forced movement of people to make way for large infrastructure projects. This is estimated now to number 10 million people each year. Unlike political refugees, those displaced by development do not have a protection regime. Many face permanent poverty, living in urban slums or they “become part of floating populations which may spill over into international migration”. 40

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace described this situation in 1997, saying that economic activity based on the use of natural resources was steadily expanding into land traditionally occupied by indigenous populations. They said that in most cases the rights of indigenous inhabitants have been ignored when major projects such as large scale agricultural concerns, the building of hydroelectric plants, and the expansion of mining and forestry activities have been planned and implemented. 41

Your land before your eyes strangers devourIsaiah 1:7

38 Pope Benedict XVI: Message for the world day of peace, 200739 UNHCR: The state of the world’s refugees, 200640 UNHCR: The state of the world’s refugees, 200641 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: Towards a better distribution of land, 1997

People were losing land to different users,” says Benedict Ole Nangore, coordinator of the Community-Owned Rural Development (CORDS) programme in Tanzania. “Because of that threat a number of pastoralist communities felt that they were losing a very important part of their livelihoods.”

CORDS, a Caritas partner agency, works with Masaai pastoralists, who have traditionally depended on a wide grazing area for their herds and crops. Their sustainable use of the environment depends on an extensive, rather than an intensive, use of natural resources. Investors have increasingly acquired use of Masaai land for mining, hunting blocks, large scale farming, wildlife parks, and hotel and tourism development. As the land available for the pastoralists shrinks, there is a greater intensification of use of the land that remains.

Some of the consequences of this are that land is overgrazed and regrowth is sometimes unpalatable. At other times overgrazing leaves the land vulnerable to erosion and degradation. “There are intruders who infringe on the set systems of

land use,” says Benedict. This leads to conflict over land – sometimes between villages and developers, and at other times between villages forced into unnatural competition for resources.

CORDS responds by assisting villages to obtain collective title to their lands and natural resources, giving them more control over decisions made in their traditional areas. Village elder Ruben Loosinawai says that obtaining land certificates reduces arguing between villages. “It empowers the village to exercise the right for use of village land.”

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In many cases, indigenous people do not have formal legal ownership of traditional lands they have occupied for generations. In these situations, some developers have been able to claim the backing of the law, particularly when others have obtained legal title to the land on which indigenous people live. However, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace says the property rights upheld by the law in these situations are often “in conflict with the right of use of the soil deriving from an occupation and ownership of the land, the origins of which are lost in memory”.

Land occupations, road blockades and similar forms of resistance are sometimes the only options open to indigenous people to mark their claim to their land. In these situations, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace says “indigenous populations can run the absurd but very real risk of being seen as ‘invaders’ of their own land”.

Development-induced displacement is also resulting from our response to the environmental challenges

of today. As the world searches for ways to replace our dependence on burning fossil fuels with more sustainable options, there has been a rush into “bio-fuels” development. The United Nations warned in April 2007 that unless this is managed, it could result in widespread food shortages and displacement of indigenous people and small farmers. 42

“The benefits to farmers are not assured, and may come with increased costs. [Growing biofuel crops] can be especially harmful to farmers who do not own their own land… At their worst, biofuel programs can also result in a concentration of ownership that could drive the world’s poorest farmers off their land and into deeper poverty.” The world has an urgent need to find new forms of renewable energy. But just as huge hydroelectric schemes have caused massive displacement of peoples, so the impact of any new energy producing or conservation schemes need to be considered in terms of their impact on the people immediately affected by them.

42 United Nations: Sustainable Energy: A framework for decision makers, April 2007

In 1991, Linda achieved a childhood dream to live in a rural home, when she bought a property in Makara, near Wellington. Years of backbreaking effort turned a steep hilly section into a garden now visited by horticultural

groups from around the Wellington region. “It was immeasurable in terms of time and money.”

Her dream has been shattered by plans to build a windfarm opposite her home. The impact of noise is expected to be significant. “It has been likened to a truck continually going up hill in low

gear and to a washing machine stuck in the spin cycle.” Although Linda’s home was one of eight properties acknowledged as being “significantly disadvantaged”, and research has found that property values are likely to fall by a third, no compensation will be paid.

Linda says the community has a sense of disenfranchisement. “All the way through we were completely dispensable, our chosen environment and way of life was completely irrelevant.” Linda supports renewable energy, but asks why rural people have to pay the price to enable city dwellers to maintain their lifestyle without change. “They will cover the country with turbines, just so people can keep on buying their appliances.”

Sr Noelene: “We need to listen to and heed earth, as well as listening to the words of Jesus. Human affairs are rooted in the geological and biological systems of the planet. Humanity is part of creation and we evolved through the processes of the earth. Does our starting point have to be Catholic teaching on land and the environment? Why not humanity’s primary relationship with Earth?”

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Landlessness

“To call for the acknowledgment of the land rights of people who have never surrendered those rights is not discrimination. Certainly, what has been done cannot be undone. But what can now be done to remedy the deeds of yesterday must not be put off till tomorrow”. 43

Pope John Paul II

Western society has many people who are far enough removed from subsisting on the land to not feel as if they are landless, even if they don’t have a piece of earth they feel they belong to. For some, the forces that removed people from land have become lost in the history of migration.

Others have clear family memories of dispossession. For some of British descent, it could be the Clearances of Scottish history in which the homes of the clans were burned to force them from the land for the development of large scale sheep and cattle farming. Measures like this forced people to the cities, and provided a workforce dependent on wages for the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

The forces that alienate many people in the world today from their traditional homes are not different to those that may be part of the family trees of New Zealanders of British origin. However, unlike 19th century Britain, migration is not usually a solution for most landless people today. Desperate poverty on the margins is the more likely outcome.

Blessed are the humble; they shall possess the landMatthew 5:5

43 Pope John Paul II: Message at Alice Springs, 1986

Tagalog became the national language of the Philippines, out of 87 different language groupings, in part because it was the language of trade of the inhabitants of the fertile Luzon plains. These people transported their wares for sale by river. The word itself means “river people” from its roots “taga” meaning people and “ilog” meaning river.

But for many modern Tagalog people, the term “river people” now has a different meaning. Those living in the East Riverside community of Malabon, Manila literally have no other place to live than to build their homes over the river.

This community of over 3000 people lost their land in the 1950s. Local officials had established land title under the homes and farms they and their ancestors had occupied from time immemorial. The land was sold for factories and residential development, and a wall built leaving only a narrow strip of land, about the width of the average New Zealand road, alongside the river. There was nowhere for the people to live except by building their homes on stilts over the river. The increasingly polluted river floods their homes several times a year, leaving a permanent legacy of poor health and skin disease.

The Deshwari people were promised prosperity when they were brought from India to Bangladesh as bonded labourers to work in the

tea gardens of Sylhet. Instead they were shown a bamboo grove and told to build their own houses.

“I am interested to tell you about land,” says Mintu Deshwara, “but what can I say? If the job goes, we

go, bag and baggage.” The permanent tea garden workers earn around NZ50¢ per day. Their only access to land and accommodation is based on their employment.

Mintu’s father says of their situation: “It is tradition, what to do?” But Mintu puts his hopes in education to enable him to be taken seriously as an advocate for his people. “I study, I protest. When you read more and more you challenge the Manager. The Manager gets his shoes put on by labour.”

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In some places, the accumulation of large landholdings by wealthy people contributes to landlessness. Such a system is opposed by the Catholic Church. Scripture tells of the prophets raging against the accumulation of large landholdings: “Woe to those who add house to house, and join field to field until there is nowhere left and they are the sole inhabitants of the country.” Isaiah 5:8-10

In other parts of the world, displacement of indigenous people often follows mass migration. The forces that alienated Maori from their land in New Zealand – confiscations, large purchases of land by government or agents, forced acquisition for public works or institutions, and individual titling of communally owned land to enable sales – are familiar also today in places such as Timor Leste and West Papua.

Maori relate to the land as kin. Sister of Mercy Tui Cadogan explains: “Maori identify themselves as tangata whenua. In the Maori mind, this denotes belonging to whenua rather than whenua belonging to Maori. The relationship with whenua might best be described through an explanation of whanaungatanga.” This is about kinship, about right relationship to te Atua (God), nga tangata (people), and te whenua (the land). “A landless Maori is literally a non-person; there is no ‘place’ they belong,” says Tui Cadogan. “The links between whenua and identity is crucial to understanding the Maori perspective”. 44

For Christians, one of the most significant land conflict issues is that taking place in the Holy Land. The

establishment of a home for Jewish people after World

War II meant homelessness for many Palestinians. In

the midst of competing claims either by one side that

the state of Israel has no right to exist, or on the other

side that Israel has a Biblical right to all land between

the sea and the River Jordan, there is need for both a

humanitarian response to the suffering of those made

homeless, and for a just and peaceful reconciliation

between the peoples of the land.

Fr Gerard Burns was a guest of Caritas Jerusalem in

2002. “In the midst of all the politics, are the ordinary

Palestinian people, cooped up in the Gaza Strip, under

curfew in Ramallah, in a refugee camp in Jenin or exiled

in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan,” he wrote. “They are

trapped, humiliated, and hunted. They remember what

was promised to them by the UN in 1948, and what they

ended up with. They know where their villages, olive

groves, and orange plantations once stood.” 45

The Catholic Bishops of North Africa and the Arab

Regions have called on all Christians to recognise their

concern and duty towards the Holy Land, where our

spiritual roots lie. “If all the Churches of the world

recognise their duty towards the Holy Land, and if

they all join together in common and concerted action

to sensitize their governments, their people and the

international community, their intervention will become

a decisive factor in the attainment of peace, justice and

reconciliation in the Holy Land.” 46

44 Tui Cadogan: “A Three-Way relationship: God, Land, People, A Maori woman reflects” in Land and Place, He Whenua, He Wahi Helen Bergin and Susan Smith (eds), Accent Publications, 2004

45 Fr Gerard Burns: Unpublished report to Caritas, 200246 Regional Episcopal Conference of North Africa and Conference of the Latin Bishops of the Arab Regions: Message, 2004

Sr Makareta once met landless people in South India who were forced to dig up a child they had buried. “They didn’t even have land to bury their dead. They had buried the child without permission. The landowner told them to dig it up. That was poverty I had no concept of. At least we have land to bury our dead.”

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This sacred earthCatholic tradition has long venerated sacred places. Our reverence for the places of the Holy Land where Jesus lived and walked is not just about reliving the past. It is also about understanding his words better through knowing more about what he meant when he said them. For example, Christ’s images of God as living water spring even more vividly to life when understood in the context of a hot, dry land.

However, our understanding of sacred places does not end with the New Testament story, as if all truth is forever found only in Christ’s physical footsteps. Most Catholics are familiar with pilgrimage destinations like Lourdes in France, Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia, and of course St Peter’s Square in Rome.

More of us are also coming to recognise important national historical sites associated with the unfolding story of the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand: sacred places such as Motuti, where Bishop Pompallier is now interred; and Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, inseparable from the memory of Sisters of Compassion founder Suzanne Aubert.

In addition there are many other places where people often have “a sense of the sacred” – the Catholic respect for cemeteries is closely matched by the sense of tapu Maori have for urupa. While an overemphasis on church as building, rather than community, perhaps dominated thinking in the past, there is a growing realisation that our churches may in fact encompass people, buildings and the surrounding environment.

Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.Exodus 3:5

For Social Justice week in 2006, St Bernadette’s parish, Naenae, Lower Hutt, organised a working bee to tidy up the parish grounds and plant new flowers and shrubs – to make the place more attractive, and for use inside the church.

They had a special Mass, where celebrant Fr Pat Greally spoke on the need to recognise God in creation. When it came to blessing the parish grounds, parish leader Barbara Rowley says, “we came to a realisation that they were already blessed; it was already holy ground … so it was more of a thanksgiving.” The prayers became an acknowledgement of God’s gift.

And the grounds have been well-looked after since. One parishioner, Michael O’Sullivan, has taken particular responsibility for the front garden. Says Barbara Rowley, “There’s an appreciation of the grounds, there’s more respect for them.”

Some places have special meaning or significance in different ways for different groups of people. For Maori who identify themselves by physical landscape features, such as mountains and rivers, the sense of relationship to those places is great. Other New Zealanders have often come to share an understanding of these relationships, or identify themselves closely to land where their forebears worked. For others, instead of specific attachments and relationships, there is a sense of awe and wonder at God’s creation, and a general awareness of the integral goodness and sacredness of earth and land.

Sr Noelene: “I know I have a connection with land I grew up on in Eltham. As a child I felt part of the earth in my body and my body remembers those experiences.”

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Casual travellers on State Highway 3 between Palmerston North and Sanson will pass a large, concrete structure at the top of a broad, high hill and may think it is just another war memorial. In fact, the 1940 monument at the top of Mt Stewart commemorates the area’s early European settlers. But the hill – Whakaari – is also significant to local Maori.

This was something recognised by Palmerston North Diocese spirituality and social justice advisor Rex Begley and his family when they bought three acres just behind the memorial, 500 metres off the main road, intending to build a house on the property. He bought it for the view, wanting to put a house on it, and move out of Palmerston North where his family had been living the previous 16 years.

He knew the hill was a maunga tapu – sacred hill – for the people of Kauwhatu marae, people he shared the bread with at the monthly Maori Mass

at Ss Peter and Paul church next to the marae.

To acknowledge that, he invited the Kauwhatu people to lead a dawn ceremony to “light new fires” for his new place. They had karanga, karakia, and his parish priest, Fr Craig Butler, blessed the four corners of the property. Rex said it was an “acknowledgement that this place has a long history, largely unknown to me”.

There is also something special in the Maori concept of the feet – waewae. In regard to his “new land”, he wondered, “What feet have been here before mine? … there’s a sacredness about it.”

Rex himself is of Ngati Kahungungu and Ngati Rongomaiwahine descent. He knew it wasn’t “his” land – he wanted to acknowledge those who had mana whenua over the area. As someone had said to him, “the land responds to the tangata whenua”.

When they came out to work on the land while the house was being built, he and his son would always say karakia beforehand. After they moved in, he would begin the day with morning prayer outside. On a clear day, you could see to Taranaki and Te Wai Pounamu (South Island).

For him, the specialness of such a place is “both/and”. Both Maori and Pakeha have an interest. He’s met descendants of the European settlers, people who have strong ties to the area around Mt Stewart through their pioneer forebears, or their own farming memories. But there also needs to be an acknowledgement of the specialness of the place to Maori.

After two years on the property, he realised the work involved was too much for him. His family moved back into town – into the same house they’d left a couple of years before. Fortuitously, it had come on the market again. Does he think he was on Whakaari for a reason? “I think I was there to pray over the land.”

To travel to a sacred place is to undertake a pilgrimage, recognising that the journey there and back is often one of discovery and learning, of oneself, of God, and of others. It is a strong Catholic tradition, and expresses the continuing power of the earth and its stored history to make a mark on our personal story today.

We journey out and back again, returning as a different person with fresh eyes, perhaps to see “our place” as if for the first time. Anglican Bishop Whakahuihui Vercoe said in regard to the 1998 Hikoi of Hope: “A hikoi is a journey of expectation, setting out to find a new place that God intends for you.” Perhaps that is the journey we

face to a sustainable future in Aotearoa New Zealand – to find or see our place anew, and make it the place that God intends for us.

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Healing and reconciliation

“Renewal and reconciliation concern not only the interior life of each individual, but the whole Church, and also the whole of human society.” 47

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference

Over the past 170 years, through land purchases and gifts, parts of the New Zealand Catholic Church – through parishes, schools and religious communities – have collectively gained significant land holdings. In some places, the land was gifted to the Church by Maori, who understand that if it is no longer required

for the purpose for which it was given, then it should be

returned. In other places there are no issues with how

Church land was acquired, but there may be sites of

special importance to Maori, such as urupa or pa sites,

which need acknowledgement.

Former Caritas Director Manuka Henare recommends

that all appropriate Church bodies investigate, in

cooperation with local Maori, how land originally

became alienated from Maori ownership, on a similar

understanding to the expectations the Church might

have about not purchasing stolen cars for its car fleet.

Here are three stories of how Catholic communities have

sought reconciliation and found fulfilling partnership.

I will replant them firmly in this landJeremiah 32:41

47 New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: A commemoration year for Aotearoa New Zealand, 199048 Cynthia Piper: “Parish life – a photographic essay” in D. O’Sulivan and C. Piper: Turanga Ngatahi: standing together, The Catholic Diocese of

Hamilton 1840-2005, 200649 Ibid

A gift has different meaning in different cultures.

For some cultures, the moment of giving is the key

moment, with the recipient left to make what they

wish of the gift. In others, the moment of giving is

less important than the use the recipient makes of the

gift. For example, in Philippine culture, a giver does

not expect to see a recipient open their present, but

will look to see that the recipient makes use of it at a

later date (for example, by wearing gifted clothes).

Gifted land has a particular meaning and

understanding for Maori, different from that for

Pakeha. Sometimes land was given to the Church on

the understanding that it was to be used for Church-

related purposes, for example a church building or

parish school. When the Church no longer needed it

for such purposes, the land should be returned.

One place where this has been understood and put

into practice is in Hamilton Diocese, where land was

given for a Catholic church at Raukokore, on the East

Coast, by Wi Pahuru Heremia of Maruhaeremuri in

1930. The church was built through voluntary labour

overseen by Hoane Pirini (Te Whanau a Apanui), a

katekita from Te Kaha.

By 2002, the Raukokore church and another at Omaio

were no longer in use, and they were returned to

the descendants of the original donors in ceremonies

at Otuwhare (Omaio) and Wairuru (Raukokore)

marae. At Omaio, Bishop Takuira Mariu spoke of

the generosity of those who gifted land for both

churches. 48

“What we are doing today is important from the

Church’s point of view and from your point of view as

well,” said Bishop Mariu. “In many ways it is historic

because it is not often that we actually give property

back, and some will say, well, maybe it should have

happened a few years ago. But today is the day it

is happening and it’s done now. With the formal

handing over of the documents, we now rest this

property back with the family.” 49

Gifting back the church and land at Omaio in 2002

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In 2001, Sacred Heart parish Petone, Lower Hutt, asked parishioner and local historian Sharron Cole to research matters relating to parish land. Focus fell on a cemetery gifted to the Church in 1852 by the local iwi, Te Atiawa. In 1956,

the cemetery had been closed by the local council, headstones removed and the remains of 44 graves dug up and reinterred elsewhere on the site to make way for drainage. A special Mass was celebrated, and a common memorial erected with the names of those known to be buried there.

Two headstones remain in the lower cemetery, that of Te Atiawa paramount chief Wiremu Tako Ngatata (Wi Tako), whose uncle had gifted the land; and the other of Rev Dean John Lane, Lower Hutt parish priest from 1886-1924.

With the headstones and the memorial set back against a bush-clad hill, few people recognised this small patch of green beside State Highway 2 as anything special. No signs or fences marked it as a cemetery.

But Sharron Cole’s research, and discussions with local Maori led to Sacred Heart parish and the Petone hapu of Te Atiawa deciding on joint guardianship or kaitiakitanga of the cemetery. A service of healing, reconciliation and commitment at the cemetery in 2004 marked the beginning of this new relationship.

In welcoming the initiative, then Archbishop of Wellington Cardinal Thomas Williams said, “May it restore the bonds of friendship initiated a full century and a half ago.” Now, nothing happens in regard to the cemetery without the parish and hapu talking and deciding together.

The integrity of the cemetery has been again threatened as work begins on a new highway interchange. The parish and Te Atiawa worked together to agree on a protocol with the roading authorities on how the work will proceed, including the building of a fence around the site before construction starts.

In 2007, Wi Tako’s memorial will be cleaned and relettered (his name is only barely readable), and a combined service of rededication take place on 18 November, the anniversary of his death in 1887. Wi Tako was a convert to Catholicism. Archbishop Francis Redwood conducted his funeral, which drew 4000-5000 people, including 50 members of Parliament. Morrie Te Whiti Love has described Wi Tako as “a diplomat of sorts between Maori and the Europeans”. One hundred and twenty years on from his death, he will still be bringing the two groups together.

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Te Hokinga Mai: The return of Mowhanau beach house property to TamareherotoAnne Waitai, Kaitiaki o Tamareheroto

Sr Barbara Cowan, Sisters of St Joseph, Whanganui

The 7th of October 2006 was an historic day for the Sisters of St Joseph and for the people of Tamareheroto – and a new experience for the Congregation of Sisters. It was the day on which the title of their property at Mowhanau Beach, north of Whanganui, was returned to the rightful kaitiaki, the hapu of Tamareheroto. It was an experience that has led to a new kind of relationship with the tangata whenua, the people of Tamareheroto. This journey of many hui, of disappointment, uncertainty and of transformation begins some years earlier.

barbara: In 2002, we, the Sisters of St Joseph Whanganui, began to research who were the original iwi or hapu who held mana whenua over the land on which our Sacred Heart College Whanganui stood. This research was triggered by the closure of the college and the pending sale of the land. Our research led us to an ongoing dialogue with the people of Tamareheroto, one of the hapu of the Nga Rauru iwi.

People of the hapu shared with the Sisters the story, the purakau, the significance to them of the whenua, the land, and what the loss of that land had meant for them. This land had been alienated from the iwi and hapu in 1841 by the New Zealand Land Company. It was clear that the pain and distress the loss of land had caused the Maori people was relived in the retelling. In coming to a decision about the disposal of the college land we, the Sisters, struggled with our diversity of thought and feeling as to how we might restore the title of the land to the tangata whenua and at the same time honour other financial commitments and the ongoing needs of the Sisters. We continually kept before us a commitment that lies at the heart of our vision and mission, that we

acknowledge te Tiriti o Waitangi as the basis upon which relationships between Maori and the Congregation must rest. This commitment underpinned our efforts to finding ways of addressing situations where there had been an unjust acquisition of land. Like most hapu, Tamareheroto had suffered from the hand of colonial law with its cruel and ongoing consequences and had made them an invisible people. Ultimately the hapu was offered the first right of refusal on the land.

anne: We saw the sale of the Sacred Heart College property as a continuation of our mamae, as we of Tamareheroto were in no financial position to consider any opportunity to purchase the property that we held as significant to the history of the hapu. After the final closure and sale of the property we acknowledged a financial offer from the Sisters, but sadly declined this wonderful gesture. The primary reason for this was, that from our perspective the whenua has no monetary value but is however rich in history. Our whakaaro is that our tupuna will forever weep if the land is lost and gone forever and that their mokopuna will have no soil on which to stand as mana whenua.

My daughter Raukura asked if at any time the Sisters felt that they had land in our rohe they did not want, we would like them to remember us and maybe through the kindness of their Congregation they might return that land of which we were kaitiaki. The prayers and compassion from our dearly beloved Sisters of St Joseph have slowly helped heal our mamae which is slowly helping the pain to subside.

barbara: For many years the Sisters had owned a house at Mowhanau Beach. After talking with the Tamareheroto people we learnt that land belonging to the hapu in the Mowhanau Beach rohe had been sold by the then Trustees, the Chiefs of Putiki, another Whanganui iwi. The progressive sale of their whenua in this area, completed in the 1940s, was against the will of the Tamareheroto people. We were also told that the present playground area at Mowhanau had been designated native reserve and had been the fishing grounds of the hapu. Raukura told us of the devastation she felt when the people had to stop drying their fish through the force of a Whanganui District Council bylaw. The practice of drying fish was considered unhygienic and aesthetically displeasing by the settler neighbourhood. The Sisters agreed an offer

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would be made to return the beach house property, which is close to the playground, to Tamareheroto.

On the 7th of October 2006, Sisters and members of Tamareheroto gathered at Mowhanau to officially sign a deed of transfer that restored the title of the land to the hapu. All those present, including the children, were invited to add their signatures to the deed alongside those of the official representatives of both groups. There was an agreement that we, the Sisters, would lease the property from the hapu for up to 25 years. The possibility of returning the land to the hapu seemed to be a way of keeping faith with te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi – and responding in particular to the hapu.

anne: As the Sisters are aware we are not in any way financial. Even though the Congregation has leased the property for their lifetime, the Uri of Tamareheroto would like to reiterate that the principles in the agreement that we utilise the property at no cost to us is an act of good will and a gesture that cements our unique relationship. Our use of the property is of course dependent on when it is not being used by others who have made a prior booking.

The process of the transfer of the land and house at Mowhanau has taken some time to complete. However, the final outcome has been an overwhelming success for all. What saddened us as Tamareheroto is that we have had to relive our history repetitively and so it has in a way impeded a way into the future. Again we hoped that it would be perhaps easier as time progressed, but it seems this has been a summit for some to climb.

barbara: Over the years a close relationship between the Sisters and the hapu has formed. We, the Sisters, could never have dreamed, prior to the restoring of the title of the Mowhanau land, of the ways in which the relationship with the Tamareheroto people is growing. There are people we have come to know since 2002 and others we are meeting as time passes. It is a partnership

of warm and deep respect for each other, of open communication, one that is constantly taking new and surprising directions that impact on the life and mission of the Sisters of St Joseph. We have been greatly impressed that throughout the journey the hapu has been intent on including the children, nga tamariki, as much as possible in various hui. The people want their children and their children’s children to hear, to know and pass on the korero, the story that has been lost to so many of the hapu.

anne: Throughout the whole of Aotearoa there are many similar Tamareheroto situations, and it is because of gestures such as this by the Sisters of St Joseph that tangata whenua could be given the opportunities to reinstate the mana and the rangatiratanga and all those things we hold dear to our very existence. Our unique relationship we hope will provoke such relationships to come to fruition. The 7th October 2006 we hope will be a day for all to remember long into the future.

Signing the Mowhanau deed transfer: Sr Marie

Roche, Sr Marie Skidmore, representatives of

the Sisters of St Joseph, Raukura Waitai, Richard

Moore, the Congregational lawyer, and Anne

Waitai. Raukura and Anne are Tamareheroto

Trustees.

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Bearing fruit

“Every person and every family can and must do something to alleviate hunger in the world by adopting a lifestyle and consumption compatible with the safeguarding of creation and with criteria of justice for those who cultivate the land in every country.” 50

Pope Benedict XVI

Despite the urgency of the current world environmental situation, to care for the earth from a Christian perspective requires first of all, appreciation of God’s gift for all humanity to share – the earth and its fruits. And listening; in response to the world situation, to “hear then what Yahweh asks of you – to live justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.” 51

Pope John Paul II told agricultural workers in 2000: “You know the language of the soil and the seeds, of the grass and the trees, of the fruit and the flowers. In the most varied landscapes, from the harshness of the mountains to the irrigated plains under the most varied skies, this language has its own fascination which you know so well. In this language, you see God’s fidelity to what he said on the third day of creation: ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit (Genesis 1: 11)’.” 52

Jesus too knew “the language of the soil”. He used it and other aspects of nature in his parables. How do we, who have put some distance between us and the soil, reconnect with the land of our birth or new homeland? Some suggestions follow:

Take a walk – a long walk

Grow some of your own vegetables – start with

simple ones such as cabbage, silver beet, rhubarb

Plant a fruit tree

Find out what trees or shrubs are native to your

region and plant some of those. It may only require transplanting self-sown plants already on your property to a more suitable place.

Find out about the land history in your area. Where

were the areas of Maori occupation before European arrival? When and how was it acquired from the tangata whenua? Are there past injustice or hurts that may need acknowledgement, understanding and reconciliation by present members in the community?

In the third film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Return of the King, a signal for aid is sent from Gondor to Rohan by a network of bonfires, each lit progressively from mountain top to mountain top, as a sign to the next. The images were computer enhanced for a fictional world. But the real land on which that world was based was our land – Aotearoa New Zealand. Can we, in this still-fledgling, still “learning how to live wisely” land, be a beacon of hope for the world? Can we recover enough of our wildness, our naturalness, to show the world there is hope? Can we be a land of new zeal for caring for the earth and all who dwell upon her?

Sr Makareta: “There are many little ways in which we can all play a part. There’s room for everyone, from growing things in their own back yard, from growing things in pots, to a big project like our work here. We need to listen more sensitively to our whenua. It is always speaking to us.”

The one who received the seed in rich soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit.Matthew 13:23

50 Pope Benedict XVI: Angelus, 12 November 200651 Song based on Micah 6:8 52 Pope John Paul II: Homily for the Jubilee of the Agricultural World, 2000

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APPENDIX

Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching is a body of thought on social issues that has been developed by the Church over the past hundred years. It reflects Gospel values of love, peace, justice, compassion, reconciliation, service and community in the context of modern social problems. Catholic social teaching is continually developed through observation, analysis, and action, and is there to guide us in the responses we make to the social problems of our ever-changing world.

We can trace the beginnings of Catholic social teaching back to 1891 when Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Rerum Novarum. In this document, Pope Leo set out some basic guiding principles and Christian values that should influence the way societies and countries operate. It talked about the right, for example, to work, to own private property, to receive a just wage, and to organise into workers’ associations.

Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

human Dignity

Every single person is created in the image of God. Therefore they are invaluable and worthy of respect as a member of the human family. The dignity of the person grants them inalienable rights – political, legal, social, and economic rights. This is the most important principle because it is from our dignity as human persons that all other rights and responsibilities flow.

human equality

Equality of all people comes from their inherent human dignity. Differences in talents are part of God’s plan, but social, cultural, and economic discrimination is not.

Respect for human life

All people, through every stage of life, have inherent dignity and a right to life that is consistent with that dignity. Human life at every stage is precious and therefore worthy of protection and respect.

the Principle of association

The human person is not only sacred but also social. The way we organise society directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to develop. People achieve fulfilment by association with others – in families and other social institutions. As the centrepiece of society, the family must be protected, and its stability never undermined.

the Principle of Participation

People have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the well being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable. Everyone has the right not to be shut out from participating in those institutions necessary for human fulfilment, such as work, education and political participation.

the Principle of the Common Good

Individual rights are always experienced within the context of promotion of the common good. The common good is about respecting the rights and responsibilities of all people. The individual does not have unfettered rights at the expense of others, but nor are individual rights to be subordinated to the needs of the group.

the Principle of solidarity

We are one human family. Our responsibilities to each other transcend national, racial, economic, and ideological differences. We are called to work globally for justice. The principle of solidarity requires of us that we not concern ourselves solely with our own individual lives. We need to be aware of what is going on in the world around us.

Preferential Protection for the Poor and vulnerable

Our Catholic tradition instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first. The good of society as a whole requires it. It is especially important that we look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor.

the Principle of stewardship

We have a responsibility to care for the gifts God has given us. This includes the environment, our personal talents, and other resources.

the universal Destination of Goods

The earth and all it produces is intended for every person. Private ownership is acceptable, but there is also a responsibility to ensure all have enough to live in dignity. If we have more than we need, there is a social obligation to ensure others do not go without.

the Principle of subsidiarity

No higher level of organisation (such as government) should perform any function that can best be handled at a lower level (such as families and local communities) by those who are closer to the issues or problems.

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awa river

hapu sub-tribal group

hui meeting

iwi tribe

kai food

kaitiaki guardian

kaitiakitanga guardianship

katekita catechist

karakia prayer

karanga call

korero speech/speaking

mamae pain

mana prestige, authority

marae the open area in front of the wharenui/meeting house

maunga mountain

moko/mokopuna grandchildren

purakau story

rangatiratanga sovereignty

rohe traditional area

taewa Maori potato

tamariki children

tangata people

taonga treasure

tapu sacred

tiriti o waitangi Treaty of Waitangi

tupuna ancestor

turangawaewae Literally “a place for one’s feet to stand”

uri descendants

urupa cemetery

waewae feet

whakaaro understanding

whanau family

whenua land

GLOSSARY OF TE REO MAORI WORDS USED IN THE TEXT