ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief background about the indigenous people's of Aotearoa New Zealand and outlines fundamental principles that underpin their laws in relation to the environment. It describes the flaws, from an indigenous perspective, in the existing resource management framework and some contemporary domestic solutions to those problems which attempt to reconcile competing worldviews and incorporate laws from both indigenous and western systems. A recent case study will show that despite some promise on the domestic front, indigenous aspirations in respect of both their rights and their resources continue to be compromised. The chapter focuses on the international instruments that might serve to achieve those aspirations, such as the constitutional developments in South American jurisdictions that embed the rights of Mother Earth in constitutional arrangements, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Earth Charter.
