Western worldview versus Māori worldview — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Jessica Tregidga is in her first year of a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, with a prior Diploma in Architectural Technology. As part of her education she’s doing ‘The Landscapes of Aotearoa’ course at Unitec, which looks into how the past is influencing the present, and how we can provide for the future landscapes of Aotearoa, exploring the evolution of tāngata (people) and whenua (landscapes) in Aotearoa New Zealand, in terms of Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Pākehā / Te Ao Hurihuri (the western worldview and changing worldview).

Her essay is one of a series of articles we are running written by landscape architecture students.

Kia ora tātou

Ko Tutamoe te maunga

Ko Kaipara te awa

No Takuira ahau

Ko Tregidga tōku whanau

Ko Jessica tōku ingoa

Nōreira, tēnā kōutou, tēnā kōutou kātoa

A western worldview is a view that sees humans as dominant over nature and feels natural resources should be used for the beneﬁt of humanity. A traditional western worldview is more concerned with science and concentrates on compartmentalised knowledge rather than focusing on understanding the bigger related picture. This creates a mindset that is very skeptical and requires proof as a basis to believe, so if something is not tangible then high chances are it is not real.

Designing in a western worldview was very common in the past. There was often little regard to sustainable practices as well as the design and placement of buildings in relationship to their environments. Overtime, with the many changes to the environment, the western perception of designing has altered where we now think about the wider relationship land and building have with one another.

Designing with a western worldview makes way for many problems to occur because you don't realise there is a problem until it appears in front of you and it is harder to resolve which is what we are seeing now with climate change which is quite a large issue that building design does contribute too due to the construction materials used.

A western worldview in architecture and landscape architecture has no respect for the land that it is being designed around and if you have no respect for this land then you are not thinking about how your design affects it. A site in Auckland could have the same building or public space as one in New York because with a western perspective it's just a building or a space that accommodates people it doesn't need to be anything else. A western worldview could even see spaces that have no real purpose being built because once again there is no respect for the land it is being built on.

Māori were not primitive and uneducated at the time of colonisation; they had their own beliefs, and their own way of life that simply did not align with the western worldview. For a traditional Māori worldview the natural world forms a cosmic family: the weather, birds, ﬁsh and trees, sun and moon are all related to each other and to the people of the land. This means that the people are therefore intrinsically linked to the biodiversity of the world. Therefore tangata whenua (people of the land) have a unique role in being guardians of the land that they inhabit, to preserve it through their own system of resource management for future generations to inhabit because while we will one day be gone the earth will live on and nurture future generations but that entirely depends on what our actions are now.

Sunset over the Wairoa River, Northland.

When designing with the Māori worldview in mind materiality/sustainability would be a big part of design as you would be thinking about how your design is impacting its surrounding area. Also is the building important and needed for the future or are you just designing a building that will be demolished in the future only for another to go up. Designing with a Maori worldview requires more thought than a Western worldview as you are thinking about if you truly need this space, what you must sacriﬁce to gain it, and what is the most low impact way to achieve it because you have a certain respect and understanding for the land that you inhabit.

A view of Tutamoe the maunga Jessica associates with home.

My worldview over the course of studying Landscape of Aotearoa has become a mixture of both Western and Māori. I understand that for our societies to survive we need to use the earth's natural resources but it should also be understood that the environment is a living breathing entity and we could ruin what was never truly ours to begin with. Therefore we should take into consideration what we are actively doing to the world and how it has a negative impact, and understand its resources are not inﬁnite so it is foolish to take them for granted because the natural world will always be here long after we are all gone but what we do will have lasting effects for the generations after us.

Having grown up on a rural 10-acre block also gives me a sentimental feeling towards the natural world. To live beside a native bush and watch how it interacts with the world is something special. I don't want to lose that just to build another house that doesn’t consider the natural world. I study architecture because I am amazed at how buildings, and in terms of this class, landscapes can create unique spaces that are so impactful to people and I want to be able to create something like that myself. But I believe to be able to create an impactful space you have to be knowledgeable on not only the people that will inhabit that space but also the land that you are designing in and how you are going to create an impact there. This is the reason why I chose to take Landscapes of Aotearoa as my elective to cultivate a better understanding of Māori views in terms of land and buildings as it is beginning to be a prevailing undertone to buildings and spaces that are designed today and New Zealand is where I call home and will one day be designing.

The coming and going tides at Ripiro Beach (tai timu tai pari).

This class has developed my knowledge far beyond what I already knew and has given me a deeper insight and perspective to topics I thought I knew about which I am very grateful for because it allowed me to have this conversation and go more in depth into a topic that is not discussed enough.