Bibliography: Maori Sustainable Development, Horticulture and Cultural Resilience

Adger, W. N. (2000). Sociological and ecological resilience: Are they related? Progress in Human Geography, 24: 347-364.

Amin, A., Cameron, A. and Hudson R. (2002). Placing the Social Economy. London and New York: Routledge.

Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (Eds.). (2004). The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader. Malden, Oxford and Carlton: Blackwell.

Anderson, A. (2002). A Fragile Plenty: Pre-European Māori and the New Zealand Environment. In E. Pawson and T. Brooking (Eds.), Environmental Histories of New Zealand (pp. 19-34). Auckland: Oxford University Press.

The Diffusion of Sustainable Technologies to Maori Land: A Case Study of Participation by Maori in Agri-Food Networks

Abstract: Within innovation diffusion literature, indigenous peoples have historically been described as ‘laggards’: slow to adopt new technologies. While accepted as the originators of (acceptably ‘quaint’) traditions, Maori, like other indigenous peoples, are targeted as passive adopters of new and theoretically beneficial innovations. However within sustainability discourse, indigenous peoples are considered to possess innovations conducive to sustainability. For Maori, this assumption has converged with niche marketing strategies in agri-food networks and Maori initiatives to participate in research programmes. This paper details the diffusion of innovative objects in the form of taewa or ‘Maori potatoes’ within sustainability research programmes. Knowledge sourced from Maori in their role as kai tiaki of taewa have seen attempts by research institutions to accommodate Maori growers within collaborative programmes. However, the intended diffusion of collaborative research with Maori outwards from ‘core’ research institutions is paradoxically reliant on a counter-diffusion of ‘Matauranga Maori’ from Maori growers. This counter-diffusion is subject to validation from Maori collectives: if cooperation is withdrawn by these collectives, progress is not possible. Rather than the non-adoption of sustainable technologies by Maori, such withdrawal is interpreted as non-participation in unsustainable networks.

Keywords: Maori horticulture, agri-food networks, potatoes, innovation diffusion.