ABSTRACT
The global phenomenon of the exploitation and privatization of natural resources has impacted the wellbeing of peoples worldwide. The neoliberal tendency to deregulate the public “commons,” such as the case in New Zealand where the government’s attempts to privatize the Mighty River Power met fierce resistance from indigenous Māori, underscore the tensions of capitalist expansionism. The privatization of natural resources and the exploitation of land to generate new sources of profit in many cases undermine indigenous 1 treaties and policies designed to protect the environment. Indigenous worldviews about the relationship between “wo/man and nature” and awareness of the risks placed upon the environment and its inhabitants given the probability of waste generation and contamination inform the discourse and resistance to such efforts.
