E noho ana au ki Te Whanganui-a-Tara

Te Taiao is the environment all around us. It’s the paths that we walk through everyday, the plant matter we interact with, and the entire ecosystem that we are an irrevocably impactful part of. 

Te Taiao isn’t confined to national parks and manicured city greenspaces: it’s in our backyards, it’s the gutters next to highways, in the mushrooms growing in our flat bathrooms, in our urban streets and lichen sprinkled fences, curving coastlines, and rural farmland. It’s the whale that visited the Wellington waterfront last week and the Lyall Bay critter-filled rock pools. It’s the houseplants giving us extra oxygen in the Salient office. This issue aims to question the perspective that the environment is something divided from ourselves. Instead, we want to explore the idea that the environment is a whole system that we are both part of and reliant upon. 

While climate change tends to be the best trigger of existential dread, there’s no denying we are in a wider ecological crisis. Globally, humans and livestock far outweigh wild animals: livestock comprises 60% of animal biomass, humans 36%, and wild animals just 4%. In Aotearoa, our biodiversity crisis is well documented, with 94% of reptile species, 82% of our bird species, and 76% of our freshwater species either facing extinction or at risk of it. Most of our freshwater rivers and lakes are choking with pollution and invasive pest species, and our oceans face plastic pollution, overfishing, and acidification, all while having extremely limited protections. The list could go on—but I think that’s enough humans-are-killing-the-planet depression for today. 

While we could probably publish a full 24 issues about the facts and figures of our ecological crisis (but we’re already ‘too niche’ so we’ll scrap the idea for now), the stories we want to tell are those that aim to reconceive how we relate to the environment, challenging us to imagine a less destructive future. We want to take the time to think about, and tell the stories of, the environments around us: the ones that are special to us, the ones we live in everyday. We are not as separate from nature as we often think. 

We can’t talk about the environment in Aotearoa without talking about mātauranga Māori, decolonisation, and the importance of land back. Colonisation is to blame for the ecological and climate crises we’re facing today. With Māori generational knowledge of places and environments extending far further back than Pākehā have been in Aotearoa, it’s time to step back and listen to those who can tell their stories far better than us. If we want to save ourselves from climate destruction, we need to let indigenous peoples guide us on how to make change. 

In this issue, Te Waikamihi kicks us off with an essay on why climate justice = decolonisation, and why kaitiakitanga is crucial to achieving that. Pippi takes us on an urban exploration tour of Te Whanganui-a-Tara through the lens of local photographers. Our wonderful Sub-Editor Tessa has her 2023 feature debut, writing about her whakapapa to Taranaki Maunga as he nears official legal personhood, and what legal personhood means for the maunga, awa, and whenua legally recognised this way. Maia takes us on a walk through Wellington’s winding paths and shortcuts, exploring our micro forests just seconds from your front door. We also have a book review, where Bridey tells us what to read when our world is figuratively, or literally, on fire. 

In our news section, Zoë and Ethan launch our 2023 Candidate Korero election coverage with Green Party Wellington Central candidate Tamatha Paul. Niamh dives headfirst into Big Pharma, investigating why only two countries in the world allow pharmaceuticals to advertise: America and Aotearoa. Niamh and Zoë visit our stinky little friend down the road, Massey University, and investigate why they’re getting robbed of even more staff and course cuts than we are here at Te Herenga Waka. Ethan also tells us about the sneaky, anti-capitalist vending machine on campus that’s giving everyone free little treats.

Also, don’t worry, we saved the daffodils we found for our editorial photo. They’re sitting in a glass milk bottle vase on our desk. 

Arohanui,

Maia and Fran xoxo