Treasured relations: Towards partnership and the protection of Māori relationships with taonga plants in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

For more than three decades, the system of intellectual property for plants in Aotearoa New Zealand has been the subject of controversy. Critics claim that the system fails to fulfil the promises of the nation's founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi|The Treaty of Waitangi (1840), which guarantees that Māori will retain tino rangatiratanga (absolute sovereignty) over their taonga (treasured and significant) plant species. The 2021 Plant Variety Rights Bill aims to address this concern while also complying with international obligations that New Zealand undertook when it joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans‐Pacific Partnership (2018). Thus, the Bill endeavours to uphold the government's commitments under Te Tiriti and to give effect to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention. These plural and sometimes divergent goals manifest a deeper tension that underlies how legal systems in Aotearoa New Zealand conceptualise human relationships with nonhuman beings and environments. While a Pākehā (Western/European) approach to intellectual property conceives of plants as alienable economic objects, tikanga Māori (customary protocols and values) understands that like humans, plants possess mauri (lifeforce) and whakapapa (genealogy) that connect these beings with the environments they inhabit. This article explores how tensions between ontological, legal, and political systems imbue the Plant Variety Rights Bill. While the proposal represents a progressive reform, it may fall short of living up to its aspirations for authentic partnership between Māori and the Crown.