On 20 March 2017 the New Zealand parliament passed the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill which established the Whanganui River as a legal ‘person’ with all of the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of the same. The Act endorses and illustrates how Māori perceive their relationship to the natural world. The passing of the Act challenged the river people to restore their ancestral river to good health. Changes in land use beginning in the later part of the 19th century had seen soil fertility decline, water quality deteriorate and the soils that sustained life in its catchment increasingly washed out to sea. These impacts profoundly changed the lifestyles of the people that belonged to it. Describing the issues facing the river iwi (tribes) and their response to them will help illustrate traditional understandings relating to the river, the whenua (the land) and the life sustaining capacity of the soil. It also serves to demonstrate the relevance of traditional knowledge to addressing the current ecological crisis. This viewpoint focuses on key concepts from Māori understandings of the natural world that relate to the primary themes of this conference and suggest how they can contribute towards deepening and broadening our knowledge of soils and what needs to be done to sustain them. In particular the concept of ‘mauri’ will be explored and how that relates to the capacity of soils to support the life that belongs there. Māori, and many traditional peoples, regard the whole landscape as essentially interdependent and consider that the wellness of any part of it, be it soils, vegetation, water quality, etc., can only be understood within the context of the whole network of connections that sustain life. The challenge for researchers, from an indigenous perspective, is to be mindful of the ‘whole’ while focusing on the areas of their particular expertise.

中文翻译：

---

Papatuanuku，地球母亲：21 世纪土壤管理中的土著知识

2017 年 3 月 20 日，新西兰议会通过了 Te Awa Tupua（旺格努伊河索赔解决）法案，该法案将旺格努伊河确立为具有相同权利、权力、义务和责任的合法“人”。该法案认可并说明了毛利人如何看待他们与自然世界的关系。该法案的通过挑战了河流人民恢复他们祖传河流的健康。19 世纪后期开始的土地利用变化导致土壤肥力下降，水质恶化，流域中维持生命的土壤越来越多地被冲刷到海中。这些影响深刻地改变了属于它的人们的生活方式。描述河流 iwi（部落）面临的问题以及他们对这些问题的反应将有助于说明与河流、whenua（土地）和土壤的生命维持能力有关的传统理解。它还有助于证明传统知识与解决当前生态危机的相关性。这一观点侧重于毛利人对自然世界的理解中与本次会议的主要主题相关的关键概念，并建议它们如何有助于深化和拓宽我们对土壤的认识，以及需要采取哪些措施来维持土壤。特别是将探讨“毛里”的概念以及它与土壤支持属于那里的生命的能力的关系。毛利人和许多传统民族，认为整个景观在本质上是相互依存的，并认为其任何部分的健康，无论是土壤、植被、水质等，都只能在维持生命的整个联系网络的背景下进行理解。从土著的角度来看，研究人员面临的挑战是在关注其特定专业领域的同时注意“整体”。