Sharon Clair Speech Unions, Sustainability and Democracy

Speech to CTU Biennial Conference
Unions, Sustainability and Democracy
15th October 2007

Sharon Clair
Maori Vice President
CTU Te Kauae Kaimahi

For more documents from conference, click here.

E nga mana, e nga reo, re nga waka o te motu
Tenei te mihi atu kia koutou

It is always both humbling and an honor for me to be invited to speak with you all who have given your precious time to come together as Trade Unionists to share our beliefs, our concerns and of course our connections to each other.  The connection of Trade Unions in Aotearoa to sustainability and democracy is of course closely tied to the Environment, our work environments, our home environments, our community environments and our global environment.

Today we celebrate the proud record of achievements of more than 70 years of trade union solidarity and the Federaton of Labour. 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.

As Trade Unionists we have a long established history of promoting education that increases understanding of cultural, social, political and economic situations.  I take this opportunity to share a little bit of Maori passion for the environment and I hope through this window of opportunity I encourage your zeal for our planet also. 

Trade Unions understand the desire to create a sustainable world. And we all here understand that Sustainability is not just about how we use natural resources. It is also about our societal structures and relationships with each other. These are our beliefs the beliefs of Workers.

However, we live in a time where self indulgence is rewarded. Success is measured upon how much we have. GREED is the enemy of humankind. We here about all things peaking, Peak oil, Peak water, Peak Fish, we live in a time when our dependence on fossil fuels means that extraction of unrenewable sources is unsustainable.  We consume more than we can supply.

For Maori loss of land, language and collective living was disconnection from who we were, where we belonged and what we believed.

I am in no doubt that the obsession to take means every one of us here today faces, loss of land and the disconnection from that which helps define who we are, what we belong to and what we believe.  It is time for workers to know what really faces this world if we do not reduce our consumption.

When I was a child my family would visit our papakainga (home base) every weekend, we would celebrate our coming together with karakia 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. Seeing a pig on our kitchen floor isn’t so fond a memory but none the less a reality from my childhood.
 
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 all of you here share a common value for consultation, discussion and education.  We know that advancing, encouraging and providing continuing and community education will promote a just and equitable society. Equity being a fundamental principle of democracy. Which leads me to talk about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and 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 whänau, hapü 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.  We acknowledge this existence through the Maori name given to the CTU 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.

The first Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment in Nairobi was attended in 2006 by CTU President Ross Wilson.  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 all of us here and union workers throughout this country? It means that we 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 water and our environment.  It is way past time that we cleaned up our own back yard and took stock of where we are taking our future.

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. 

Noreira koutou katoa
Mauri Ora, Mauri Mahi

~~~~~~~

Footnotes:
 
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