Wellington WEA Programme News
Speech to the Federation of Workers Education Association
Unions and the Environment
May 1 2006
Sharon Clair
Maori Vice President
CTU Te Kauae Kaimahi
Tena koutou katoa
Greetings to you all, it is truly an honor for me to be invited here to speak with the Wellington group of WEA on the connection of Trade Unions in Aotearoa and the Environment.
Today, May Day 2006, workers around the world are celebrating the proud record of achievements of more than 100 years of trade union solidarity. We pay homage to all those who throughout history have done so much to promote and defend the rights of working women and men, create social justice and fight for equality, human rights and democracy.
They have taught us that Trade Unions play a vital role in ensuring that we must continue to create a tomorrow that our grand children will value. This involves keeping this planet alive; looking after each other and our natural resources. It means workers must mobilise by applying a rights based approach that integrates the environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development. This can be achieved through the sharing of stories and the transference of knowledge.
I understand that the WEAs focus is to create a sustainable world. And that you believe that Sustainability is not just about how we use natural resources. It is also about our societal structures and relationships with each other. WEAs promote education that increases understanding of cultural, social, political and economic situations.
We live in a time where self indulgence is rewarded. Success is measured upon how much we have. GREED is the enemy of humankind.
When I was a child my family would visit our papakainga (home base) every weekend, we would celebrate our coming together with a mass and the children would be sent outside while the adults talked. Outside to me as a child was over 30 acres of native bush. My brothers, sisters and cousins would venture into the bush and swing from vines, slide down the backs of a gully of fern so dense that we never fell through, explore the river and try and cross the pond when it iced over in winter. As a child I lived off game, my father was a great hunter and in season we would be packed into the car to collect our kai moana. Sitting on the back step with a pot full of pipi's that had been freshly cooked in our copper is a cherished memory.
I am a child who knows what it is like to live off the land, with the land and for the land. This is what grounds me to the land and my home. This is the place that I find my strength and energy. And because of this I am able to participate in society in a positive and productive way.
However I fear, as we continue to take from the land we take these important learnings from our children. We must stop and reverse the trend to take, and start to give, give to the land, give to our homes, give to our children the positive lessons of the land.
Our children and our grandchildren are learning it is ok to consume more than is needed whilst those in undeveloped and developing countries continue to strive for the basic human rights of access to clean water and one meal a day.
There is a need for us all to be more conscious of the social and environmental indicators that point to us only having seconds left.
I know that we share something in common and that is that the CTU and WEA share a common value for education. We know that advancing, encouraging and providing continuing and community education will promote a just and equitable society. I was encouraged to read that you believe this should be done in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi
What kind of a Maori would I be if I didn't speak on the Treaty. And so I take this opportunity to deliver some understanding I have on the treaty and the environment.
Article II of The Treaty of Waitangi obligates the crown to preserve for Maori their culture and traditions. This introduces the Treaty partners into the management of our natural resources. Whilst these provisions exist in current legislation they are often misunderstood or not taken seriously to the point where the Maori reality is ignored. 1
The very wise Rev Maori Marsden said
"Man is the conscious mind of Mother Earth and plays a vital part in the regulation of her life support system and man's duty is to enhance and sustain those systems" 2
History has shown us that when limits of environmental sustainability were exceeded, we move on to new land, or rely on technological inventiveness to try to mend the unforeseen disasters. There is an emerging recognition that
"the most important new frontier for redressing environmental crises and
healing the Earth community now is the frontier of the mind and spirit, the
realm where ethics are shaped and responsibility taken for the state of our
world." 3
A shift in our thinking on consumption is required for environmental protection. This shift is an ethical approach to designing for sustainability. This approach includes four active principles
1. If we look to Maori knowledge we can learn this ethical approach. Maori have long practiced and understood the concept of communal use of land, waters, forests, fisheries being given by Papatuanuku our Earth mother. As such these resources did not belong to humankind but belonged to the earth. We have the right to harvest the bounty of Papatuanuku's resources but we do not own them. We have but 'users rights'. This is the definition of Kaitiakitanga, we are the keepers, the conservators, the protectors of Papatuanuku's resources which we have the responsibility to take care of. 4
2. Whanaungatanga underpins the social organisation of whānau, hapū and iwi and includes rights and reciprocal obligations consistent with being part of a collective. It is the principle which binds individuals to the wider group and affirms the value of the collective. Whanaungatanga is inter-dependence with each other and recognition that the people are our wealth. This is social responsibility where the interest of the community is paramount.
3. The instititution of Rahui This principle is designed to prohibit exploitation, depletion, degeneration of a resource and the pollution of the environment to the point where the pro life processes of Papatuanuku might collapse. 5
This is known in Western terms as sufficiency, the taking and doing only what is necessary and not using more than is needed.
4. Wairuatanga is the principle reflected in the belief that there is a spiritual existence alongside the physical. It is expressed through the intimate connection of the people to the environment. Last year the CTU was gifted a Maori name this is Te Kauae Kaimahi which means the Jawbone of the workers. We have an upper jaw and a lower jaw Te Kauae Runga and Te Kauae raro. These are symbols of the existence of that which is permanent and that which is not permanent.
Chrisna du Plessis 6 draws from African culture three fundamental
principles of sustainability: supporting the ethical approach to sustainability and maintains that underlying all three principles is 'Spirituality' which means to revere all life and relationships between all forms of life.
Chrisna further acknowledges the indigenous reality by stating that these principles, underpin most if not all pre-industrial cultures, can be seen to lie at the heart of an ethical approach to the design of the built environment to ensure that the limits of environmental sustainability are not exceeded.
In January this year the President of the CTU Ross Wilson attended the ICTFU -APRO (International confederation of Free Trade Unions Asian and Pacific Regional Organisation) for the first Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment in Nairobi. This was sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The conference identified a key role for unions forging a partnership with the UNEP. Further information on the recommendations that came out of the conference can be found on the web, at www.WILL2006.org
The CTU Environmental policy endorsed in 1992 reflects the 2006WILL recommendations. But to further advance the CTU policy a recommendation endorsed at the January 06 National Affiliate Council meeting of the CTU was for CTU to adopt the WILL2006 recommendations as CTU policy.
What does this mean for union workers throughout this country? It means that your function as the Workers Education Association cannot and must not be silent on the environment and ethics which is a key feature to sustainability.
As champions for social justice, we must make a stand for solidarity. United against poverty and exploitation of our environment. It is way past time that we cleaned up our back yard and took stock of where we are taking our future.
We have about 300,000 children under 18 living in poverty in this country. This is unacceptable. Our young need to be able to have freedom from poverty so that they can be the leaders we need tomorrow. Poverty and impoverishment must end so that a strong, healthy, dynamic workforce can blossom.
In conclusion then let us not forget when we fail to face that we are driven by the compulsion to feel good. This compulsion prevents us from seeing what we should and that is our propensity to do harm. That harm is not only destroying our future, it is destroying the futures of our children.
Noreira koutou katoa
Mauri Ora, Mauri Mahi
Notes
1 (2003), Maori Marsden, The Woven Universe Selected Writings of Rev.Maori Marsden,: The Estate of Rev. Maori Marsden Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki
2 (2003), Maori Marsden, The Woven Universe Selected Writings of Rev.Maori Marsden,: The Estate of Rev. Maori Marsden Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki
3 Bob Fowles 'Meeting Human and Ecological Rights in Creating the Sustainable Built Environment'
4 (2003), Maori Marsden, The Woven Universe Selected Writings of Rev.Maori Marsden,: The Estate of Rev. Maori Marsden Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki
5 (2003), Maori Marsden, The Woven Universe Selected Writings of Rev.Maori Marsden,: The Estate of Rev. Maori Marsden Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki
6 Chrisna du Plessis 'Sustainability and Sustainable Construction: The African Context' Building Research & Information Vol 29, Nos 5, Sept-Oct 2001, 374-380
References
Bob Fowles 'Meeting Human and Ecological Rights in Creating the Sustainable Built Environment': Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Chrisna du Plessis 'Sustainability and Sustainable Construction: The African Context' Building Research & Information Vol 29, Nos 5, Sept-Oct 2001, 374-380
(2003), Maori Marsden, The Woven Universe Selected Writings of Rev.Maori Marsden,: The Estate of Rev. Maori Marsden Te Wananga o Raukawa ,Otaki