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"Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko au:" A Māori housing development process
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Fletcher, Marcus Anzac Kewene; Ringham, Sandra Lee; White, Iain
Tangata whenua (People of the land/Indigenous people of Aotearoa) are being recognised as emerging property and land developers in Aotearoa New Zealand (hereafter, Aotearoa). Literature and practice demonstrates how Māori are developing housing in different ways than traditional developers, supporting the wellbeing of whānau (families), hapū (sub-tribes) and iwi (tribes), while contributing to addressing the national housing crisis. The distinctiveness of these approaches are important to understand if we want to deepen our knowledge of urban development and the modelling of housing markets in Aotearoa. This thesis aims to reveal, codify and examine Māori decision-making processes relating to how and why we develop housing in Aotearoa and the values and principles that inform these approaches. Utilising Kaupapa Māori Theory and taking an insider/whānaunga (relatives) approach to the research, four whakawhiti kōrero sessions with Waikato whānau and kaimahi (workers) were undertaken to better understand how and why Māori develop housing and the processes and rationalities at play. The thesis has three contributions for academia, environmental planning and the housing sector in Aotearoa: insights into the values and rationalities that influence Māori urban development; the introduction of a Māori housing development framework; and insights into how the framework may be utilised to contribute towards more accurate and sophisticated agent-based modelling (ABM) or urban growth modelling. The findings and discussion identified six prominent values that Māori utilise to develop housing: kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga, orangatanga, whānaungatanga, ūkaipōtanga and rangatiratanga. Being rooted in Māori knowledge and epistemology essentially demands differing rationalities for when Māori undertake housing development, which are placed within an overarching framework. The framework represents a new tool to disrupt the current understanding of ‘developers’ as a single entity with a defined pathway that influences all development behaviour. Moreover, it demonstrates how whānau, hapū and iwi draw on the established learning and guidance of our tūpuna (ancestors) and the strides taken to reclaim tino rangatiratanga (self-determination). The thesis argues that academics, environmental practitioners and the housing sector should re-examine their understanding of developers in Aotearoa to become more pluralistic, which may present new challenges and opportunities for ABM and urban growth modelling. This framework argues some aspects may have potential to be incorporated into these technical analyses, while other aspects should be considered in the context of Māori and Indigenous Data Sovereignty to protect the contributions and mana of the participants within this thesis, or resist the ability to be captured altogether.
The cultural and ecological health of the Tokaanu Stream
(The University of Waikato, 2025) Eastwood, Kevin; Burdon, Francis
Freshwater ecosystems worldwide face increasing threats from human activities like land development and altered flow regimes. These pressures, along with climate change, jeopardize water quality and quantity. Despite these challenges, effective management can improve water quality and habitat, thus sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. Lake Taupō, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest freshwater lake, holds immense significance for the local iwi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa. The Tokaanu Stream is a tributary of Lake Taupō that was once considered a premier fly-fishing spot. However, the stream has been severely impacted by the Tongariro Power Scheme, which required it to be bisected and channelized to accommodate the Tokaanu tailrace. Coupled with land-use changes in the catchment, these alterations have caused the local hapū, Ngāti Kurauia, who have mana whenua over the lower stream, to raise concerns about its ecological and cultural degradation. To address this problem, I developed a cultural monitoring framework (CMF) in collaboration with Ngāti Kurauia, alongside conventional stream monitoring, at six sites in the lower Tokaanu Stream. The bespoke CMF was developed through kōrero and wānanga (discussions and workshops) with Ngāti Kurauia. This participatory approach resulted in a CMF with 16 attributes covering vegetation, birdlife, water quality, pollution, engineering, and substrate. Regular assessments revealed a longitudinal decline in stream condition from the most upstream site (Site 1) to the most downstream (Site 6). The state of Site 3 was identified as the most desirable, whilst Site 5 was the most degraded. Alongside the CMF, I assessed stream health using conventional scientific measures. This monitoring also showed a longitudinal decline in stream ecosystem health moving downstream. Water quality worsened, with indicator bacteria increasing from 45 to 190 CFU/100 ml and total ammoniacal nitrogen from 0.029 to 0.125 g/m3 over the 4 km segment. Deposited fine sediment cover was high, increasing from 69% cover at Site 1 to 83% at Site 6. Cellulose degradation rates (a functional indicator) were diminished at Sites 5 and 6 in both years, even with warming from geothermal springs. Macroinvertebrate communities, monitored in 2023 and 2024, initially showed a linear decline moving downstream in 2023. However, in-stream remediation in early 2024, undertaken by a private contractor, significantly improved macroinvertebrate indicators at impacted sites (Sites 4-6). The challenges facing the Tokaanu Stream are complex, stemming from geothermal inputs, urbanisation, upstream agriculture, and channelization. Declining water quality may be linked to faulty sewage infrastructure in Tokaanu Village. The stream's diversion includes a tailrace spillway that prevents larger downstream flows, potentially reducing scouring events crucial for natural sediment dynamics. These changes have significant ecological and cultural ramifications for Ngāti Kurauia. To better understand and address these issues, I argue for an additional downstream State of the Environment (SOE) monitoring site. The current site, near the upstream spring, fails to capture the full impact of catchment inputs, including diffuse pollution from Tokaanu Village and altered sediment dynamics from the diversion. An additional SOE site, coupled with the findings of my thesis, would provide crucial knowledge to support efforts in restoring the Tokaanu Stream's ecological health and the mana of Ngāti Kurauia.
Sallow men & shallow graves
(The University of Waikato, 2025) McPherson, Rogan; Chidgey, Catherine; Slaughter, Tracey
For almost 30 years, members of the ‘Ludditious Faith of Our Heavenly Father, and the Foretellers of the Ongoing Apocalypse’ have been living a peaceful life. Fleeing the impending Y2K disaster, these Luddites buried themselves deep in the neglected wilds of east Aotearoa, founding the settlement of New Eden. Here, they follow the strict tenets set out by their founder and prophet, Enoch, while avoiding the technological apocalypse that has plagued the outside world. From their perspective, Y2K came to pass as a gradual moral degradation brought on by the onset of rapidly evolving technologies, and the greed and vanity of the 21st century has only cemented these beliefs. However, Enoch's sacrifice protected the Valley of Eden; thus, the year 2000 (and the sin of the millennium) never reached it. But that doesn’t mean New Eden is free of sin altogether. Sallow Men & Shallow Graves follows Margaret “Peggy” Matheson, a private investigator who loathes her profession and is ready for a career change. After completing her ‘final job’, she is reigned back in when a woman from her bloody past comes calling. Peggy agrees to find the woman’s daughter, but all she gets in terms of clues are rumours of an eccentric religious group living in the hills north of Gisbourne. To Peggy, it all sounds a little far-fetched. But when she finds evidence of other disappearances in the area, she can’t help but wonder if this cult - the so-called ‘Ludditious Faith’ - is responsible. While Peggy is our central protagonist, the novel briefly dips into the lives of those around her, such as Paisley (the main target of her investigation), William (the ‘Druid’ of the Ludditious Faith), and Tama (her guilt-ridden protégé). I explore the themes of guilt and deception and how they intersect with one’s perception of reality, both in terms of personal relationships and the overarching narrative of the cult. Throughout my writing process, I have endeavoured to avoid vilifying the cult as a whole. So often are fictional cults depicted as ‘evil’, but if you examine real communities like Jonestown or Centrepoint, what you find is a collection of ordinary people who lost their way in life, and a charismatic leader who can captivate an audience, and convince that audience that they are exactly where they need to be. Evil often begins and ends with one person, and everyone else - whether Luddite or citizen - is just trying to get by. Every character in this story has secrets: lies they tell themselves and others. But one reality I have aimed to enforce is that sometimes in life, you don’t get all the answers. Some, I offer freely. Others, I leave for the reader to decipher, interpret, or neglect. This story seeks your attention in some scenes and rewards it in others. It is a slow-burning narrative with a few small embers and flares along the way, but once it truly ignites, it doesn’t stop until there is nothing left but cinders and ashes.
Company formation in the Te Aroha mining district in the 1930s
(Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
During the early years of the Depression, a few investors sought to form companies to rework almost every portion of the Te Aroha Mining District. Some flotations failed, and even when companies were formed very little work was done. A wide variety of people were promoters and investors, very few of whom had any mining knowledge or access to capital. Competition for ground and low commercial morality led to conflicts and exaggerated claims (notably that Te Aroha’s lodes were linked to Karangahake and Waihi). The Mines Department, anxious to prevent misinformation about these ventures being used to extract money from the gullible and also anxious to defend the industry from harm, was concerned about fraudulent assays and misleading reports from self-proclaimed ‘experts’. All these under-capitalized ventures quickly failed, for what little development took place quickly revealed the poverty of the ore. These syndicates and companies are dealt with chronologically.
Mining in the Te Aroha mining district during the depression years
(Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
Because optimists believed there was payable gold still to be discovered in New Zealand, prospecting was seen as one way of soaking up the unemployed, and a subsidized scheme was established to assist those willing to try their luck. In the Te Aroha district, residents, despite their lack of geological knowledge, and supported by the local newspaper, held great hopes for a mining revival. In contrast, officials and the experts they consulted insisted that these hopes were in vain. After local businessmen and would-be prospectors exerted political pressure on the Minister of Mines, in whose electorate Te Aroha was situated, permission was granted to subsidize parties of amateur prospectors. Despite none of these parties finding anything worthwhile, the amateurs continued to claim to know more about the prospects than the experts. Some of the parties did little work, and as it was clear to officials that the subsidies were being wasted, these ceased, despite continued claims about potential discoveries. Some parties continued work, sometimes with private backing, prompting concerns about speculators trying to obtain ground. When a Labour Government came to power, it was no more willing than its predecessor to waste public money on fruitless prospecting. It was clear from the assays taken for both prospectors and experts that the value of the ore left by earlier miners was far too poor to permit a revival in mining, and on that note mining ceased at Waiorongomai