(Un)Heard Voices of Ecosystem Degradation: Stories from the Nexus of Settler-Colonialism and Slow Violence

Leane Makey (), Meg Parsons, Karen Fisher, Alyssce Te Huna, Mina Henare, Vicky Miru, Millan Ruka and Mikaera Miru
Additional contact information
Leane Makey: School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Meg Parsons: School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Karen Fisher: School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Alyssce Te Huna: Te Uri o Hau, Ngāti Whātua, Matakohe 0953, New Zealand
Mina Henare: Te Uri o Hau, Ngāti Whātua, Matakohe 0953, New Zealand
Vicky Miru: Te Uri o Hau, Ngāti Whātua, Matakohe 0953, New Zealand
Millan Ruka: Te Uriroroi, Te Parawhau, Te Māhurehure ki Whatitiri, Ngāpuhi-Nui-Tonu, Porotī 0179, New Zealand
Mikaera Miru: Te Uri o Hau, Ngāti Whātua, Matakohe 0953, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-27

Abstract: We examine the ecosystem degradation of the Kaipara moana as an example of the nexus of settler colonialism and slow violence. Settler colonialism is a type of domination that violently interrupts Indigenous people’s interactions and relationships with their land-, sea-, and water-scapes. Slow violence provides a conceptual framework to explore the slow and invisible erosion of ecosystems and to make visible how unseen violence inflicted upon nature (such as deforestation and sedimentation pollution) also unfolds at the intimate scale of the Indigenous body and household. Here, we present how the structural violence of settler colonialism and ecological transformations created a form of settler colonial slow violence for humans and more-than-humans which highlights the ethical and justice features of sustainability because of the link with settler-colonialism. We argue for the need to include local knowledge and lived experiences of slow violence to ensure ethical and just ensuring practices that better attend to the relationships between Indigenous peoples and their more-than-human kin (including plants, animals, rivers, mountains, and seas). We build on this argument using auto- and duo-ethnographic research to identify possibilities for making sense of and making visible those forms of harm, loss and dispossession that frequently remain intangible in public, political and academic representations of land-, sea-, and water-scapes. Situated in the Kaipara moana, Aotearoa New Zealand, narratives are rescued from invisibility and representational bias and stories of water pollution, deforestation, institutional racism, species and habitat loss form the narratives of slow violence. (Please see Glossary for translation of Māori language, terms and names.)

Keywords: Indigenous Māori; slow violence; eco-social violence; ecosystem restoration; geo-creative practices; knowing-doing; settler-colonialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/14672/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/14672/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:14672-:d:966093

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().