From Protecting to Respecting Marine Relations in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Coastal marine areas are complex ecological systems that serve as receptacles of water from land, rivers, streams and the ocean. They are culturally embedded terrains, involving complex relational systems between the natural and human communities. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Crown laws and policies have failed to effectively manage the multitude of pressures facing coastal marine environments. However, these laws and policies evolved within settler-colonial power structures that excluded Māori from lawmaking, ownership and management of marine domains. This article situates Aotearoa’s marine governance challenges within a global context. Māori and Indigenous governance models are positioned as transformative, offering pathways for legal pluralism, co-design and biocultural conservation beyond preservationist Western conceptualisations, that better account for the legal and political authority, or rangatiratanga, of Indigenous Peoples. By foregrounding Indigenous agency and knowledge systems, this work advances a shift towards relational governance frameworks that respect rights, restore ecosystems and sustain cultural continuity.