Abstract
Histories of settler colonialism often equate dispossession with land loss, but for many indigenous communities erosion of fishing rights and loss of wetland environments constitute a significant part of their colonial experience. For the residents of the Taieri Native Reserve, located in southern New Zealand (see Map 7.1), the impact of drainage technologies on local indigenous food gathering and cultural practices underpins their colonial story, for it resulted in the eventual loss of the local wetland, effectively eroding any possibility of sustaining family and community life at the reserve. Between the 1870s and 1920s the fate of the river and wetland was debated and contested in multiple forums: local councils, drainage boards, board of conservators, as well as in a series of government inquiries, which culminated in the Taieri River Improvement Act 1920. This law extinguished Māori fishing rights over Tatawai, a shallow tidal freshwater lake that formed part of the wetland system, in the name of ‘improvement’ and ‘progress’.
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Notes
The key study of the land court is D. Williams (1999), ‘Te Kooti Tango Whenua’: The Native Land Court, 1864–1909 (Wellington: Huia);
also see C. Hilliard (2012), ‘The Native Land Court: Making Property in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand’, in S. Belmessous (ed.), Native Claims: Indigenous Law against Empire, 1500–1920 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 204–22.
On the politics of water in New Zealand see N. R. Wheen and J. Hayward (eds) (2012), Treaty of Waitangi Settlements (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books);
L. Te Aho (2011), ‘Waikato: River of Life’, in J. Ruru, J. Stephenson and M. Abbott (eds), Making Our Place: Exploring Land-Use Tensions in Aotearoa New Zealand (Dunedin: Otago University Press), pp. 145–58.
On this point see, T. Ballantyne (2012), ‘Water and the Dynamics of Colonial Domination in Southern New Zealand’, Keynote Lecture, Empires from Below Symposia, 6 April, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and P. Wood (2005), Dirt: Filth and Decay in a New World Arcadia (Auckland: Auckland University Press), pp. 40–8.
G. Tipa (1999), Environmental Performance Indicators: Taieri River Case Study (Wellington: Ministry for the Environment), pp. 6–7;
G. Sutherland (1962), Coast, Road and River: The Story of Taieri Mouth, Taieri Beach, Glenledi and Akatore (Balclutha: Clutha Leader Print), p. 7;
R. J. Stuart (1981), Henley, Taieri Ferry and Otokia: A Schools and District History (Outram: School Jubilee Committee), p. 17.
W. A. Taylor (1952) Lore and History of the South Island Maori (Christchurch: Bascands), p. 181;
S. Bray, G. Thomas and V. MacGill (1998) Under the Eye of the Saddle Hill Taniwha: Maori Place Names and Legends as Viewed from Saddle Hill, Extending From Green Island South to Taieri Mouth and Across to Maungatua, Then North to the Silverpeaks (Mosgiel: Nga Tutukitanga o Taieri), p. 8; Sutherland, Coast, Road and River, p. 9.
Waitangi Tribunal (1991), The Ngai Tahu Report 1991 (Wellington: Tribunal), pp. 281–2.
A. H. McLintock (1949) The History of Otago: the Origins and Growth of a Wakefield Class Settlement (Dunedin: Otago Centennial Historical Publications), p. 203.
E. J. Peters (2000) ‘Aboriginal People and Canadian Geography: A Review of the Recent Literature’, The Canadian Geographer, 44 (1), p. 46.
‘Census of the Native and Half-caste Population Resident in the Southern Portion of the Middle Island as taken by Mantell in 1852’, in A. Mackay (1873), A Compendium of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs in the South Island, Vol. 1 (Wellington: Government Printer), p. 275.
W. Parkes and K. Hislop (1980) Taieri Mouth and Its Surrounding Districts (Dunedin: Otago Heritage Books), p. 19.
Alexander Mackay to Native Minister, 7 February 1868 in A. Mackay (1872), A Compendium of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs in the South Island, Vol. II (Wellington: Government Printer), p. 148.
Dr Munro, ‘Notes of a Journey through a Part of the Middle Island’, 20 July 1844, in T. M. Hocken (1898), Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand (Settlement of Otago) (London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company), p. 245.
E. Shortland (1851) The Southern Districts of New Zealand: A Journal, With Passing Notices of the Customs of the Aborigines (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans), pp. 170–1.
T. Smith (1941) Tai-ari Ferry and Henley ‘Our Native Place’: A Souvenir of the Schools Jubilee, 24th-27th January, 1941 (Dunedin: Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspapers), p. 13.
G. Park (2002) ‘“Swamps Which Might Doubtless Easily be Drained”: Swamp Drainage and Its Impact on the Indigenous’, in T. Brooking and E. Pawson (eds.), Environmental Histories of New Zealand (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 162.
Also see G. Park (1995), The Groves of Life — Ngā Ururoa: Ecology and History in a New Zealand Landscape (Wellington: Victoria University Press)
and M. Hatvany (2008), ‘Environmental Failure, Success and Sustainable Development: The Hauraki Plains Wetlands through Four Generations of New Zealanders’, Environment and History, 14, pp. 469–95.
K. Pickles (2003) ‘The Re-Creation of Bottle Lake: From Site of Discard to Environmental Playground?’ Environment and History, 9, pp. 419–34.
See H. Goodall (2008), ‘Riding the Tide: Indigenous Knowledge, History and Water in a Changing Australia’, Environment and History, 14, pp. 1–31.
G. Park (2006) Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape and Whenua (Wellington: Victoria University Press), p. 180.
Also see A. Clark Hill (1949), The Invasion of New Zealand by People, Plants and Animals (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press).
A. W. Crosby (1986) Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
J. Hunt (2007) Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bitter-Sweet Story (Auckland: Random House), p. 185.
Waitangi Tribunal (1995) Ngai Tahu Ancillary Claims Report 1995 (Wellington: Tribunal), p. 216.
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© 2015 Angela Wanhalla
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Wanhalla, A. (2015). Living on the Rivers’ Edge at the Taieri Native Reserve. In: Laidlaw, Z., Lester, A. (eds) Indigenous Communities and Settler Colonialism. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137452368_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137452368_7
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