‘The breath of the mountain is my heart’: indigenous cultural landscapes and the politics of heritage

Abstract

This paper examines the socio-political implications and consequences of heritage practices related to indigenous cultural landscapes in post-settler nations. Although cultural landscapes are natural and material, they are also, more importantly, inscribed with meaning by those for whom they are heritage. Using a critical heritage studies framework, this paper examines the historical, cultural and legal contexts of Tongariro National Park and its nomination to the World Heritage list. I argue that narratives surrounding the Gift of Tongariro silence the colonial histories of the Park. I show how the ecological integrity and scientific, aesthetic, and conservation values of the Park are promoted, and in the process, Maori people’s complex and multifaceted relationships to the land are reframed as a relationship to the ‘natural’ world. I argue that to truly decolonise heritage, we must locate and acknowledge how our models, theories and practices of heritage work through systems of power and exclusion.

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