To decolonise

The Problem: climate crisis, mass extinctions, environment degradation, war, refugees.

The Cause: capitalism, the power of business over elected governments, the drive for profit for a few over the rights of many. Government efforts at tackling The Problem have been stymied at every turn by big business with opposing vested interests.

The Solution: Decolonisation.

I am sure that many people have the idea that colonisation was something that happened in the 18th and 19th centuries and that we have moved on from there.

We need to admit the extent to which we are still colonised. And I don’t think many people do. Which leads to a rather superficial idea of what decolonisation means. 

Colonisation is not just strutting Europeans in pith helmets out to exploit new lands. It is a state of mind, a very insidious one that persists strongly today. Embedded in it is the attitude that nature is there for us to exploit – that we are the apex creatures who are separate from nature, that we have been given ‘dominion’ over nature. 

Also inherent in colonialism are patriarchy and racism, which are both still rampant today. Our minds remain colonised by a distant European sense of entitlement. I am able to write this because I know it: I was brought up in Britain in the 50s and 60s. I was a product of the private school system which was designed to indoctrinate us with a sense of privilege and superiority. Somehow I escaped and have Aotearoa’s biculturalism to thank for opening my eyes.

Colonisation and capitalism are one and the same thing. Capitalism is the weapon used against nature. Capitalism is the army of shock troops who have no moral code, who only act out their pre-programmed orders to exploit to the limit, then move on. As long as capitalism remains, so will the colonial mindset. To be sure, the colonial/capitalist model has brought prosperity to many, though by no means all. But now it has gone too far and is failing to respond to the current crises. And I would say that it is no longer politically and philosophically tenable.

Colonialism has many ramifications, many radical outcomes, but I would like to focus on just one implication: land. 

As Māori say, I am the land and the land is me. Land is the basis for everything. The Green Party is discussing how colonialism severed Māori connection to land and how they want to redress this by returning some land. But they are missing the point: colonialism severed contact for everyone. The issue is not just about giving land and connection back to Māori (though that is the most important one), it is doing that for everyone. The climate crisis demands it.

As long as we think we are separate and treat nature as a resource to exploit, then we are doomed. But humans have not always lived like this. And many indigenous cultures still don’t. So I think it is important to look to them for an older, more resilient model. 

As I understand it, pre-colonial cultures like Māori did not own land, they belonged to it. Tribal groups had ‘mana’ or authority over their rohe, but within that area different smaller groups (hapū or whānau) had often overlapping rights to different areas, depending on their activity. Some would also move between different areas seasonally. With resource collection rights came responsibilities, kaitiakitanga: because we are the land, so we have to look after it and hence our ongoing security. To maintain their rights they had to exercise ahi kā, continuous occupation, keeping the home fires burning. This ensured that no person or family claimed more than their share, or more than they needed.

Land ownership with title deeds and fences came here on a ship from Europe as a weapon of colonisation. And it was not that old in Europe either. A few hundred years ago people used to build their own cottage, often in a village, but they grazed common land outside the village which no one owned. Until, that is, the rich passed a law that anyone who fenced land would then own it. Of course, only the rich could afford the fencing which was probably carried out with the labour of the farmers, denying themselves their own grazing and cropping. 

It is also important to note that land in those days was meaningless if you could not travel to and from it within a day. So farming plots were all ringed around villages. Small and sustainable.

This, for me, is a good starting model for the future. Food, water and energy security are basic human needs and rights. There is no way they should be controlled by market forces. Germany suddenly woke up to this fact very recently when it discovered that its enormous reserve tanks of gas happened to be nearly empty – why? Because they are owned by Russian gas companies! 

We can only approach sustainability and carbon zero if we ditch the market model of energy and foodstuffs being shipped around the world. They do not need to be – we can grow all we need here and most of it can be done right next to our towns and villages. 

Similarly with energy. Putin’s threat would have been immeasurably reduced if the west had not relied on Russia for so much of its fossil derived energy, which has also paid for his war effort. Renewables can all be local – you don’t need filthy oil tankers plying the sea and roads, making us dependent on amoral companies.

But I want to come back to land. In a post-colonial world how can anyone own land? By this I do not mean the herbaceous borders around your house, but all the rest, including productive farming land. As Davids Wengrow and Graeber say in The Dawn of Everything, “Landed property’ is not actual soil, rocks and grass. It is a legal understanding, maintained by a subtle mix of morality and the threat of violence.” Or as Mao put it more bluntly, “Property, like political power, ultimately derives from the barrel of a gun”.

How can we embrace indigenous principles today to create a better relationship with nature and land, and hence tackle current crises? 

If we are serious about moving on from colonialism, then we need to address the problem of land ownership. In a post-colonial world, no-one should be able to own rocks, mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, thus excluding others. Nor should they own the source of our basic needs. We all have a right to be nourished by land and we all have a right to land’s life support systems like food and water. 

I would go even further and say no-one should own land if they can’t demonstrate ahi kā. So goodbye corporations, absent landowners and other exploiters who have no incentive to practise kaitiakitanga. Goodbye fences with ‘Keep out’ and ‘No trespassing’ signs. 

Aotearoa has the opportunity to lead the world here. The only way that we can address the climate crisis and reduce our impact on the environment is by tackling colonialism/capitalism. But there will be a fight!