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  • This paper explores how the Indigenous-led, community-supported campaign #ProtectIhumātao became a site for decolonisation work that nourished productive bicultural relations. For six years, we worked together, alongside others, to stop a transnational corporation building houses on culturally significant, but contested, whenua (land) at Ihumātao, Auckland. Pania draws strength from her Indigenous Māori whakapapa (ancestral relations), and Frances from being a New Zealander of Irish descent. Committing ourselves to the campaign kaupapa (values, principles and plans), we embraced different roles: Pania as a kaitiaki or land protector and Frances as a hoa tū tata or close friend, standing by, ready to assist. Along the way, we became our own whānau (extended family); a kaupapa-based whānau (people mobilised for a shared purpose). Here, we share knowledge from our campaign experiences to explore what becoming whānau means to us in relation to Ihumātao. Thinking and writing at the interface of Māori and Pākehā ways of knowing, we interact with ideas from Māori philosophy and Indigenous–Settler relations. Through telling our stories, we illuminate relational qualities that made our different roles and evolving relationship possible, and glean insights to inform ongoing Indigenous-led, decolonising practices at Ihumātao, and elsewhere.

  • This case study explores competing corporate and Indigenous visions for the future of Ihumatao, one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Valued for centuries by the hau kainga [home people], Ihumatao is also recognised as an exceptionally significant cultural heritage landscape. Here, transnational corporation Fletcher Building Limited acquired contested whenua [land] for a commercial housing development. Its vision of the future met sustained resistance from the Indigenous-led Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) campaign, now known as #ProtectIhumatao. This case study weaves the sociological insights of critical futures studies with the ethical-political challenges of decolonising research to explore conflicting future imaginaries at work in this escalating crisis. We critically examine selected campaign, corporate, government and United Nations texts. While the success of Fletcher's plan seemed inevitable, the SOUL campaign earned widespread support enabling the aspirations of the hau kainga to be heard. #ProtectIhumatao challenges our nation's commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, tino rangatiratanga [the exercise of unqualified authority or self-determination] and key international agreements on Indigenous rights. Further action is needed to secure a future for Ihumatao defined and controlled by the hau kainga. Only then will justice be assured.

Last update from database: 10/23/26, 4:11 AM (UTC)

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