known as the flora and fauna claim. First lodged in 1991, this pan-iwi claim addressed the ownership and use of rights in respect of mātauranga Māori or Māori knowledge and indigenous species. The Waitangi Tribunal’s whole-of-government report, ‘Ko Aotearoa Tēnei’ was released twenty years later, and found that Aotearoa’s laws and government policies ‘in many respects, […] fall short of partnership, instead marginalising Māori and allowing others to control key aspects of Māori culture […] Iwi and hapū are therefore unable to fulfil their obligations as kaitiaki (cultural guardians) towards their taonga.’1 Its 700+ pages cover concerns including decisions about flora, fauna and the wider environment; resource management; Mātauranga Māori in Science; rongoā Māori (Māori medicine); the commercialisation of taonga species and bioprospecting.
It is with all of these concerns (and more) in mind that we chose trees as the subject of Enjoy’s third Occasional Journal. Our mandate was simple: a wide brief would be sent out as an open call for contributions. We knew there would be other dendromaniacs out there, but even still, the responses we received were varied and wider in scope than we had anticipated. Presenting work that is personal and theoretical, historic and contemporary, visual and written, our contributors have risen to the challenge of considering trees in original, critical, and challenging ways. We hope that the diversity of the following responses will allow for contrasts, comparisons, discussion and further questioning from readers around the world.
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity… and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the Man of Imagination Nature is Imagination itself.2
New Zealand Ministry of Justice, “Wai 262: Ko Aotearoa Tēnei: Report on the Wai 262 Claim Released.” http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/waitangi-tribunal/news/wai-262-ko-aotearoa-tenei-report-on-the-wai-262-claim-released, (accessed 14 February 2015).
William Blake, “Letter to the Revd. Dr Trusler”, in The Portable William Blake, ed. Alfred Kazin (London: Penguin, 1977): unpaginated.