Indigenous people in North America have been mapping aspects of their land and resources for many years. Many First Nations communities in Canada have done this type of mapping which is known by various names such as 'cultural mapping', 'land use and occupancy mapping' or 'tenure mapping'. In the hands of Indigenous groups these maps play a powerful role in negotiations, in the courtroom and in natural resource planning. In New Zealand and Australia, considerable mapping has also been undertaken, however, this is often to record customary land and resource use for heritage or native title purposes.

In this paper we discuss the international context within which this mapping occurs before looking at a project we are currently running in New Zealand with Ngati Hori (a clan in Hawkes Bay) that in part will explore the role of these maps in contemporary land and resource planning as well as policy making. For Ngati Hori the maps will serve as a starting point for generating discussion and knowledge of cultural values in the catchment area. The maps will also be a useful tool for engagement with the regional council on the health of their fish and fish habitat and water allocation policy. The mapping is part of a larger project with the primary objective of creating a model to facilitate Maori engagement on water flow allocation in New Zealand where cultural values in fisheries and fisheries habitat are dependent on the restoration of water flows within a water body. We end the paper with a discussion of the applicability of these ideas to the Australian context.

Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats.