Caring for the natural world sits at the heart of many cultures and belief systems. In Aotearoa, that care is deeply woven into both faith and whakapapa.
For students studying the Diploma of Christian Studies, the Care of Creation paper explores what it means to be stewards of God’s creation – the environment we live in every day. For those in the Te Takawai programme, this learning is enriched further, placing the environment as a taonga tuku iho and drawing on both theological and lived whakapapa.
Across five delivery sites, ākonga spent the second half of this semester exploring how Christian ideas of stewardship and mātauranga Māori perspectives speak to one another.
For Deacon Jayell Smith, a fourth-generation minister from Nuhaka, the paper has helped bring together two worlds she has always known.
“As Māori, we’ll look at how we look after our whenua, our pātaka kai, kaimoana and all that. That was what we were brought up with when we went to the sea. We were our own kaitiaki in the taiao,” she says. “But I didn’t know that it also had a reflection in Genesis, or even the story of Moses parting the sea.”
Through her studies, Smith has found new depth in scripture.
“The stories of scriptures aren’t always just what is written. There is more behind them. When I think about what we do as Māori – how we hold on to our tikanga and our kawa while caring for our whenua and our animals – I can see those connections.
“Throughout the scriptures there are loads of stories about kaitiaki. I just didn’t realise how much responsibility we carry.”
As part of the course, students and kaimahi from Te Rau Theological College in Gisborne gathered for a weekend wānanga in Manutūkē, a place rich in both ancient Māori history and the story of Christianity in Aotearoa.
There, they visited native forests and wetlands where Rongowhakaata and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri iwi are leading conservation work. Walking through these spaces, ākonga were able to experience firsthand the mauri of an environment that sustained their tīpuna.
“Going through the forest felt peaceful,” Smith reflects. “We saw nature at its best, and it made me wonder what our people were thinking when they saw certain things, or animals – were they a kaitiaki or a warning?
For Deacon Smith, learning about Care of Creation has deepened something that was always within her.
“It’s helped heaps. The things I took for granted growing up and learning from my mum, because I was always doing things differently, but always being nice to the earth, incorporating our Mātauranga Māori that was already there.
“But now, seeing how that connects with the Gospel and the scriptures – I’m like ‘Alright, OK.”