Rethinking Freshwater Management in the Context of Climate Change: Planning for Different Times, Climates, and Generations

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore environmental justice as an intergenerational imperative for Indigenous peoples by examining how different conceptions of time shape responses to climate change. We offer insights into how bringing Māori, Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, understandings of time can open new spaces for thinking about and planning for climate change in ways that do not reinforce and rearticulate the multiple environmental injustices (disproportionately experienced by Indigenous peoples because of settler colonialism). We examine how Māori concepts of time (as a spiral) and kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship) challenge the dominant framing of climate change (premised on anthropometrism and forward-thinking temporality) and provide the opportunity to consider how climate justice (encompassing both mitigation and adaptation) as involving intergenerational responsibilities to both human and more-than-human beings.