Today's Marists Volume 6, Issue 2

I AM THE LAND
Indigenous Reflections
on Laudato Si’
by Hemi Ropata, SM
The indigenous M – aori people of New
Zealand claim a connection to land that
is both profound and formational. We
say ‘ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko
au.’ which means, ‘I am the land, and
the land is me.’ This is not a metaphor –
in Thomistic terms we might say that the
land is substantive to who we are. It is the
foundation of our identity and of our being.
And yet, the land is dying. Pollution
and commercial run-offs poison our
waterways. Climate change affects
the availability of natural resources.
Traditional seafoods that were once
plentiful and available, even in my
own childhood, have been overfished
and effectively have disappeared. Only
11% of M – aori are proficient in their
own language. M – aori make up 14% of
the New Zealand population and 50%
of the incarcerated population (the
discrepancy is worse for M – aori women
who make up 63% of the female prison
population). Two-thirds of all people
shot by police are M – aori. M – aori who
work earn $140 per week less than the
general population. M – aori children live
in ‘material hardship.’ M – aori suicide
rates are nearly twice as high as those of
non-M – aori.
It might seem strange that I have listed
M – aori inequality statistics alongside the
effects of pollution and climate change.
Recall that for M – aori, the land and
the person are inseparable. Where in
Laudato Si’ Pope Francis states that “the
human environment and the natural
environment deteriorate together” (48),
keep in mind the M – aori position: the
human environment and the natural
environment are the same thing. So, it is
reasonable to think that the continued
degradation of the earth correlates with
poor social outcomes for M – aori because
ecology is a statement of human dignity.
It is truly an issue of social justice. The
proper care of the earth corresponds
to the proper care of our brothers
and sisters. Political structures that
hand over resources to the powerful
perpetuate systemic racism. Unfettered
greed and destruction lead only to death.
To paraphrase Patriarch Bartholomew,
“to commit a crime against the natural
world is a sin against ourselves, a sin
against one another, and a sin against
God” (Laudato Si’ 8). It is [a] violence
against the poor and the oppressed.
Therefore, what is the Christian
response? Pope Francis speaks
extensively on an integral ecology,
one that realizes that everything is
connected. An understanding of the
world in which consumption is replaced
with sacrifice, greed with generosity and
wastefulness with a spirit of sharing. A
way of loving, moving gradually away
from what I want towards what the world
needs, a liberation from fear, greed and
compulsion (See Laudato Si’ 7). And
what of a Marist response? This might
be illustrated in three M – aori concepts:
whanau (family), manaakitanga (care
and hospitality) and kaitiakitanga
(guardianship). Everything is connected
and so all of creation is one family given
to one another for the benefit of all. In
the same way that St. Francis was called
to care for all that exists, so too are we
called to care for and show hospitality to
our brothers and sisters. Ownership is a
foreign concept to M – aori; rather, having
possessions was only for the purpose of
serving future generations.
Nevertheless, despite all the injustice in
the world, there is still hope. For hope
“speaks to us of something deeply rooted
in every human heart, independently
of our circumstances and historical
conditioning. Hope speaks to us of a
thirst, an aspiration, a longing for a life
of fulfilment, a desire to achieve great
things, things that fill our heart and lift
our spirit to lofty realities like truth,
goodness and beauty, justice and love….
Hope is bold” (Fratelli Tutti 55). Perhaps
as Marists we are called to live in love so
that goodness, beauty and justice can
prevail, and so that we can promote the
boldness of hope to future generations.
20 Today’s Marists Magazine