Privatisation by Association – Natural Resources and Electricity Generation

• In Event: Unsettling STS 2

Abstract

Against the wishes of many Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders, the National government partially privatised New Zealand’s electricity generating industry between 2013 and 2014. Using the Māori concept of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) I will examine how contemporary privatisation processes redefine Māori identities and relationships with lands and natural resources (rivers, lakes, geothermal resources and wind) in their tribal territories. This study introduces the moral dilemmas and ethical contradictions that emerge for iwi-Māori in relation to neoliberal privatisation. My paper asks: how do flax-root Māori understand the sale of electricity companies that draw on local natural resources which are recognised as: tūpuna (ancestors), tupua (spirit beings) taonga (treasures), atua (super-natural beings) and whānau (family); how do iwi-Māori describe their relationships with rohe (region) specific natural resources and electricity companies; how does iwi shareholdership in electricity generating companies influence Māori practices of environmental stewardship and how is the new Labour-led Government ‘thinking and talking’ about natural resources in New Zealand?

My discussion will reveal the complex range of Māori experiences and responses to privatisation in Māori rohe and contributes to scholarship on the impacts of privatisation.

Author

• Marama Muru Lanning, University of Auckland