Ko te wai te toto o te whenua, ko te whenua te toto o te tangata…water is the blood of the land, and land is the blood of the people.

*The views expressed by this Rangatahi member are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the organisation(s) they represent.

Name

Tyra Begbie

Your whakapapa / background

Taku ara rā, ko Tūrongo 

I wawaea ki Te Tai Rāwhiti

Ko Māhinaarangi Ko te rua rā i moe ai a Raukawa.

E tu ana au ki te tihi o tōku maunga a Wharepuhunga

Ka matai taku tiro ki nga wai marutau o Mangaorua

Ki tōna pari ko tōku turangawaewae a Pikitu

Raukawa te iwi, Raukawa te tangata, Raukawa te nohonga o tōku hapu a Ngati Huri

He uri tēnei o Hoturoa, te kai arahina o tōku waka o Tainui

Ko Tyra tooku ingoa

I am Tyra Begbie, a descendant of Tūrongo and Māhinaarangi. I am Raukawa and Raukawa is me, I am Ngāti Huri and Ngāti Huri is me.

I am currently in my fourth year of a Bachelor of Environmental Planning in Te Ara Taiao Stream at the University of Waikato. Beyond my degree, I am a staunch Raukawa girl who finds the centre of the universe in Te Wāotū, Pikitū. A place that has grounded my kaitiaki obligations for te taiao (the environment), tāngata (people), and atua (deities).

What excites you about the opportunity to be a Rangatahi Advisory Panel Member for The Aotearoa Circle?

At present, the current system often excludes rangatahi voice in the decision-making of climate action at all levels. It overlooks the important aspect that all decisions made directly impact the future of rangatahi; yet, they have limited voice in this space. In understanding this gap, the Rangatahi Advisory Panel allows the opportunity to challenge this and emphasize the importance of engaging with rangatahi on the decisions that will overtly affect their tomorrow. Through my connection with Mercury, this platform also allows me to draw on a combination of values that seek to mobilise a range of different climate responses. At the person level, as a rangatahi Māori I have an inherent whakapapa obligation to protect and sustain the environment. Thus, through this platform I am able to contribute my lived experiences and intergenerational knowledge to help amplify the voice of nature and climate.

From a Māori perspective, rangatahi are the vessels that ‘challenge’, ‘revolutionize’ and ‘transform’ the status quo. As rangatahi, we are the ‘products’ of intergenerational knowledge, raised with more awareness about the degradation of the taiao, and the urgency with which it needs to be addressed. This deep knowledge and experiences are what can be utilised to create a generational wave of rangatahi change-makers; who stand staunch in their ancestral and contemporary knowledges, to bring forth highly innovative and locally specific responses to the climate crisis.

What is your vision for the future of Aotearoa New Zealand or the industry you work in?

Vision: “Ka noho teina te tangata, ka noho tuakana ko te taiao. Humans sit as a junior relative; the environment sits as a senior".

I exist, not as a product of the environment, but rather an extension, a manifestation. You exist, not as a product of the environment, but rather an extension, a manifestation. Therefore, if we are environmental manifestations culminated by our waters and lands and tribes and mountains and ancestors; it is our responsibility, obligation, and burden to protect our primordial beings. For we are them, and they are us.

In this statement, I encapsulate my vision for transforming the lens through which we see the environment and people's relationship to it, as tāngata ki te whenua (people to the land). Through a critical indigenous lens, reshaping the way in which the environment is considered means that national statute can be representative of a view that maintains te taiao in a sense of connectedness, interrelatedness, and interdependency. This will therefore, change the way in which we view climate change and the values of the environment. To me this is an exciting opportunity to give motion to an endless and radical influx of change needed at this time within our global climate crisis.

 To achieve this:

• Reclaiming our reciprocal relationships to ngā mana o te atua, ngā mana o te tāngata, and ngā mana o te taiao

• Decolonising environmental management

• Creating a systems shift based on holistic values

• Decentralising power, reclaiming local circular systems

• Giving effect to the obligation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi; enabling iwi and hapū full rangatiratanga over lands, waters, taonga, and fisheries

• Integrating western science/knowledge and mātauranga Māori in to national planning and environmental standards

What are your biggest concerns when it comes to the state of Aotearoa New Zealand?

Cows have more mana than people!

I wonder, how is it, that cows have more mana than people? And as in people, I mean Ngāti Huri? Not literally, because an animal shipped from different lands will never have more mana than mana whenua. But literally, because the system we exist in denies the mana of mana whenua to access our pā; yet in the same instance, the cow’s mana allowed them to enter our pā freely - while we were begging for the exact same right.

This statement references the real-life events that occurred in 2022 when my hapū, Ngāti Huri were trying to access our sacred wahi tapu to mourn its destruction caused by a quarrying company. Whilst trying to work with the Waikato Regional Council, South Waikato District Council, and Heritage New Zealand to gain access to our pā site, cows in the farming area were able to enter our pā and graze freely on top of our ancestral land. For us as rangatahi, we saw this as a metaphor that represented how maladjusted our Aotearoa planning system is; and more broadly how deeply entrenched colonial dominance is in New Zealand society. Thus, my biggest concern is the lack of recognition of treaty obligations, co-governance, and kaitiaki responsibilities.

For Māori, climate change is a pressing global challenge with local impacts that threaten the spiritual, physical, cultural, social and economic wellbeing of whānau, hapū, and iwi. These impacts are prolonged and intergenerational, and present unique challenges for Māori; whose identity, livelihoods, and culture are continuously at stake. He whakaaro Māori - we as tāngata are intrinsically embedded into the fabrics of the environment, and are but one thread within the realm of Te Ao Mārama. Our knowledge, belief systems, and worldviews are rooted at the center of our taiao which bonds all elements of our identity. As a result of climate change, has and will continue to have a direct impact on this traditional relationship with Ranginui and Papatūānuku, now and for generations to come.