Five climate lessons from Māori communities (that are guaranteed not to depress you)

Story by Nadine Anne Hura (via The Spinoff)

The Deep South Challenge is producing a podcast that will capture the stories of some of the researchers and communities working in our Vision Mātauranga programme. Our Kaitakawaenga Nadine has been travelling the country, listening to their kōrero. [READ on thespinoff.co.nz]

There’s a kind of awe that hits you when you understand the scale of the loss and the commitment required to heal and recover.

Yet, over and over again, people I spoke to reiterated that hope on its own isn’t the thing keeping them going. “Hope is abstract,” Shirley Simmonds of Ngāti Huri told me. She has recently made the move home to Pikitū with her whānau and is deeply attached to the shovel with which she’s she’s helped to plant the beginnings of a food forest, and also tree seedlings on land that was once – and will eventually again be – blanketed in native ngahere. “Hope needs to be activated through work,” Simmonds said. “Sovereignty is inherently practical. The solutions are within us – kei a tātou te rongoā.”

The podcast will be available in March 2024, co-hosted by Ruia Aperahama.