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A Cultural Health Index for Streams and Waterways: A tool for nationwide use

1 Introduction

2 Development of the Cultural Health Index

3 Evolution of the Cultural Health Index for streams and rivers

4 Engagement with Māori values

5 Conclusion

Glossary

References

Acknowledgements

Appendix 1: Recording form used to assess sites in the Taieri, Kakaunui and Hakatere catchments

Appendix 2: Recording form used to assess sites in the Tukituki ctchment

Appendix 3: Table used to assign the 1-5 scores for the nmber of species present at a site

Appendix 4: Final recording form used to assess sites in any catchment

Appendix 5: Examples of site assessments completed in the four catchment studies

Appendix 6: Ministry for the Environment's Environmental Performance Indicator Programme

2 Development of the Cultural Health Index

The Cultural Health Index (CHI) for rivers and streams is a tool that involves iwi in resource management processes. Funded by the Ministry for the Environment as part of its Environmental Performance Indicator (EPI) Programme, this work arose in an attempt to recognise and incorporate Māori values in river management. In addition to this, the index provides a diagnostic tool which identifies issues of concern to iwi. Remedial actions can then be prioritized using data gathered from field assessments. Monitoring aspects of the freshwater resource can also be undertaken.

Stage 1

The first stage of the CHI work documented the association of Ngāi Tahu with the Taieri River catchment and identified a sizeable set of indicators that Ngāi Tahu use to assess the health of freshwater resources (Tipa 1999).

Stage 2

In Stage 2 the indicators of cultural health and mahinga kai were refined to develop a tool and a process that could be used by kaitiaki to assess the condition of freshwater resources. This work focused on the Taieri and Kakaunui catchments (single-channel, rain-fed rivers) and involved Te Rūnanga o Moeraki and Te Rūnanga Otakou. The stream CHI was thus devised and first used in 2002 (Tipa and Teirney 2003). It has three components:

1. site status, specifically the significance of the site to Māori

2. a mahinga kai measure

3. a stream health measure.

Stage 3

Recognising the need to validate the CHI to determine whether the tool could be implemented more widely, a further stage was carried out. Stage 3 involved the application of the process to another river type in the rohe of Ngāi Tahu (the braided Hakatere [Ashburton] River) (Tipa and Teirney 2005). A major question was whether different river types might each need their own modified version of the CHI. Stage 3 also involved a river similar to the Taieri and Kakaunui (the Tukituki) but in the rohe of another iwi (Ngāti Kahungunu) (Tipa and Teirney 2005; see these reports for details of the rivers and analyses). The question here was whether different iwi might incorporate different values, perhaps requiring fewer or more than the three components of the CHI, or perhaps needing to incorporate different indicators in the assessment of the third CHI component (stream health).

2.1 Engaging Māori perspectives on freshwater

If the project to develop the Cultural Health Index is to be promoted as an example of the successful incorporation of a Māori perspective in freshwater management, the key question to be answered is - how does the index reflect the beliefs, values and practices of Māori? In this section we provide a brief overview of:

• the significance of freshwater to Māori
• indicators that Māori use to assess stream health.

2.2 The significance of freshwater to Māori

Water is the life-giving essence. Freshwater resources represent the connection that Māori believe humans enjoy with the spiritual forces operating in the environment (Ministry for the Environment 1997). Protecting the integrity of valued freshwater resources, therefore, is an important aspect of the responsibilities of those Māori who are mandated as kaitiaki.

Water may be considered tapu or sacred because of its properties: in relation to other water, tapu places, or objects, or because of its close association with the gods. Other water bodies may be accorded taonga value because of uses of the waterway, which unlike wai tapu, are not prohibited by tapu. (D Crengle in Ministry for the Environment 1997)

Values (both tangible and intangible) associated with specific freshwater resources include: the role of particular freshwater resources in creation stories; the role of those freshwater resources in historical accounts; the proximity of settlements and/or historical sites in, or adjacent to, specific freshwater resources; the value of freshwater resources as a source of tribal identity as well as mahinga kai; the use of freshwater resources as access routes or transport courses; and the continued capacity to be accessed, used and treasured by future generations (Ministry for the Environment 1997).

The Māori worldview does not separate spiritual and intangible aspects from the non-spiritual practices of resource management. Arguably, it is the intangible values ascribed to freshwater by Māori that are difficult for resource managers and scientists to accommodate within existing management regimes where objective, scientific philosophies and techniques predominate.

2.3 Indicators used by Māori to assess stream health

From a Māori perspective the Ministry for the Environment's approach to the development of Environmental Performance Indicators could not provide an independent, holistic measure of ecosystem health. Freshwater environmental performance indicators developed by the Ministry were restricted to the waterway itself and the riparian zone - macroinvertebrate community index, temperature, riparian condition, clarity, periphyton, occurrence of native fish, dissolved oxygen (percent saturation), and ammonia (mg/l).

This limited approach concerned Ngāi Tahu. It also represented an opportunity, as Ngāi Tahu were invited to suggest their own indicators through the Taieri River Project. The indicators identified by Ngāi Tahu whānui during Stage 1 (Table 1) and the Cultural Health Index (described in the next section) that resulted from Stage 2 represent the assessment of a mix of physical attributes of waterways and catchments and other values that Māori ascribe to freshwater.

The indicators listed in Table 1 reflect Māori concerns for health throughout a catchment, ki uta ki tai - from the mountains to the sea, and express a holistic approach to that health. All of the indicators identified represent the factors that kaumātua and Ngāi Tahu resource managers believe are conducive to a healthy river with a strong vibrant mauri. A waterbody with a healthy mauri will sustain healthy ecosystems, support cultural uses (including mahinga kai) and be a source of pride and identity to the people.

The perspectives Māori bring to resource management differ from those of non-Māori. A comparison of the indicators identified by kaumātua with western science-based indicators identified by the Ministry for the Environment's Freshwater Working Group reveal the extent of these differences (Table 1).

Table 1: Indicators of stream and river health as identified by kaumātua and MfE

There are similarities but some fundamental differences between Māori and non-Māori perspectives. One example that highlights the difference is the notion of water pollution. Māori spiritual values conflict with scientific measures. For example, from a western science perspective drinkable water may carry contaminants but at a level that is not toxic to humans. In contrast, Māori require drinking water to be protected from spiritual pollution which means certain discharge activities, regardless of the level of physical contamination, are prohibited (Ministry for the Environment 1997).