Indigenous climate justice in Aotearoa New Zealand: the dangers of (mis)recognition within climate policymaking

Abstract

This paper explores Indigenous climate justice in the settler-colonial context of Aotearoa New Zealand. We adopt the interdisciplinary approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the extent to which Māori knowledge systems (mātauranga Māori) and Māori status as Treaty partners with the New Zealand Government (the Crown) were recognised and included in New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act (ZCA). Through our exploration we reflect on and explore Māori experiences of climate injustice through lack of recognition or misrecognition. CDA helps identify whose voices dominated the ZCA process, revealing unequal power relations between stakeholder groups, the Crown, and Māori. By analysing policy documents, long-form submissions from Māori, and interviews with Māori we shed light on the power dynamics that shaped the ZCA process and the implicit assumptions regarding Māori participation in climate policy decision-making. The misrepresentation of Māori as stakeholders rather than treaty partners perpetuates historical legacies of colonization. By applying CDA within the context of climate justice, we highlight tensions between Māori aspirations for partnership and the actual treatment of Māori as stakeholders rather than Treaty partners. By closely examining the narratives surrounding the formation of the ZCA, CDA reveals the ways in which Māori voices are sidelined, their aspirations and concerns dismissed, their Indigenous knowledge systems (mātauranga-a-iwi and mātauranga-a-hapu) marginalized, and their rights to retain their tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) violated.