The Multiple Pathways of Climate Justice in Aotearoa New Zealand

In recent years, the topic of the climate crisis and our current environmental collapse has come to rightly dominate discourse across sectors, with the heritage discipline not only grappling with increasing impacts on heritage landscapes, but also how to best advocate for its integral role in mobilising effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. However, amongst this rise of interest, little recognition or resources have been focused on helping facilitate a voice of resilience, or platform of response for Māori and the wider Indigenous community in the South Pacific. This is despite Indigenous being used as the poster child for environmental impact, injustices, and climate urgency, heralding a unique and often victimising narrative that focuses predominantly on loss and damage. This chapter presents work done in Aotearoa New Zealand to explore the impact of the climate crisis on Indigenous heritage landscapes as framed through a Te Ao Māori lens. It not only highlights the apparent environmental and intergenerational injustices and how these experiences manifest in heritage spaces but also raises significant long-standing tension, and a complex history brought about by colonisation, with the climate crisis often seen as secondary in light of more pressing threats, yielding a critical look at the entangled complexity of climate responses and realities.