Tēnā koutou katoa, Tālofa lava, Kia orana, Mālō e lelei, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Taloha ni, Ni sa bula vinaka, Noa‘ia ‘e mauri, Kam na mauri, Halo olgeta, ‘Ia orana, Kaselehlie, Hafa adai, Namaste, Aloha kākou,
Lunar Kaitiakitanga: Guardianship from Aotearoa and the Pacific
In June 2026, plans are stirring for Te Wānanga o Hina as a significant meeting in partnership with Space Place/Carter Observatory, bringing together Māori, Moana Oceania and Pākehā knowledge holders, artists, scientists, researchers, policy-makers, and space industry partners. Hosted by Desna Whaanga-Schollum (Taipōrutu), with co-hosts Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu (Kanaka ʻŌiwi), Kate Genevieve and Tim Corballis at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
This gathering is both for the protection of, and guided by, Hina, our companion in times of grief, transformation, and renewal. As space activity expands on the Māhia Peninsula and lunar missions accelerate worldwide, we come together to explore how the Pacific might guide space futures grounded in kaitiakitanga and relational ethics.
Our meeting for the Moon begins in whakapapa and the living relationships between people, whenua, waters, ancestors, and celestial kin. It recognises the deep knowledge across the Pacific, upholding Indigenous sovereignty, mana, and kaitiakitanga/guardianship, drawing on protocol in Aotearoa and across the Pacific that offers a model of power-sharing and ecological care.
We do not begin within the narrow norms of existing space law, but root the lunar kaupapa in tikanga, constitutional transformation and the recognition that natural entities already hold legal mana in Aotearoa, restoring Te Mana o te Whenua and reinstating kaitiakitanga by tangata whenua. The wānanga draws lessons from the ongoing challenge of ensuring the New Zealand government upholds Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty), He Whakaputanga and the encouraging step of the legal recognition of personhood of natural entities, such as the great mountain of Taranaki and the watershed Te Awa Tupua as a living, integrated whole. The same recognition can be extended to the Moon, respecting its mana and practising manaakitanga, reciprocity, and care. These precedents point ways for legal frameworks and protocols that can evolve to align more closely with ecological and cultural understandings across the Pacific.
“The Treaty to me has never been about Treaty rights; it’s always been about the rightness that comes from people accepting their obligations to each other.”
— Moana Jackson, “Where to Next? A Conversation with Moana Jackson,” Counterfutures 4 (2017): 102.
— Moana Jackson, “Where to Next? A Conversation with Moana Jackson,” Counterfutures 4 (2017): 102.
Numerous lunar missions are planned in the coming years, with pressure at Māhia to radically increase the amount of rocket launches, and Aotearoa is in its infancy in developing strategy, policy, and presence in the aerospace sector (MBIE strategy 2023). Maori and Pacifica voices must lead on this question of how to work, adapt, and respond and to create expressions of collective stewardship that speak to the shared interests of communities across Oceania. The Pacific islands are coordinating ecological and diplomatic leadership on questions of climate. The strength of coalition is already proven, through the Alliance of Small Island States, through the High Seas Treaty, through Indigenous consortia that form new centres of protocol and moral precedent.
Our Perspectives on the Rights of the Moon from Oceania (Whaanga-Schollum et al. 2024) pointed to the diverse knowledges of Oceanic peoples to lead discussions developing lunar governance. Bound by ethics of inclusivity and knowledge-as-empowerment, we seek to work alongside communities of interest, growing coalitions with Indigenous groups across Oceania to ensure that these priorities are heard by national (Rocket Lab, NZ) and international stakeholders. In 2025, Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori | School of Science in Society has given the project key support, and connected us with the vital work of Dr Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu, Vaʻaomanū Pasifika, Pacific Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, and recipient of a Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fast-Start grant (2021–2024) retracing the storylines of Pacific women voyagers and navigators.
The wānanga encourages collaboration in support of a long-existing, vibrant Pacific network of moon activists; practitioners, artists, and researchers advancing the protection of the lunar environment and wider celestial relations, so that we may transform space practices to better step up to the responsibilities of making care on a damaged and rapidly changing planet that threatens the moon with the same extractive exhaustion.
Organising Group
Desna Whaanga-Schollum Hon.FRAIC (Rongomaiwahine, Pāhauwera, Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti ki Māhia) Taipōrutu, Te Māhia-mai-Tawhiti is a designer, artist and cultural strategist. Currently resident in her iwi territories on the East Coast of Aotearoa at Taipōrutu, Desna has played a unique and pivotal role as an Indigenous Design Activator, providing leadership for Indigenous creativity and sovereignty. Desna’s leadership in Indigenous design and governance has been recognised with an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2024). Under Desna’s transformative stewardship, Ngā Aho, Māori Design Professionals Inc., has emerged as a beacon of collective Indigenous empowerment and Place-based methodologies.
Her practice draws on whakapapa-based protocols, celestial navigation, and ecological ethics. Through design, art, and advocacy, Desna recentres Indigenous cosmologies grounded in sentience and mauri / life-essence. Her 2024 film SentientPlace has featured in leading international forums on heritage, art, and space, including ACHS, ISEA, HOEA, Ars Electronica, and the International Astronautical Congress. Lead author of Perspectives on the Rights of the Moon from Oceania (International Astronautical Congress, Milan, 2024), Desna continues to explore lunar relationships and Indigenous cosmologies of care (bit.ly/TeMatauAMaui).
Dr. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu (ʻo ia/she/her) is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi, Native Hawaiian, scholar of Critical Pacific and Indigenous Studies presently residing along the shores of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa-New Zealand and working as a lecturer at Vaʻaomanū Pasifika, Pacific Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She is a global citizen with Indigenous, Moananuiākea genealogies to Molokaʻi Nui a Hina and Kanakaʻaukai from Kalapana, Hawaiʻi. Her scholarship and creative practice engage moʻokūʻauhau, genealogical connections to the natural world, in an effort to raise global awareness about human and more-than-human relationships, Mana Wāhine, Indigenous and Pacific feminisms, epistemologies, and ontologies that inform critical, innovative and transformative futurities. Her research, curation, documentaries, animated films and visual art add to the growing body of knowledge expressed by Kānaka ʻŌiwi, Moana Nui, and Indigenous peoples working at the interface of social justice and environmental protection of our islands, earth, waterways, oceans, and the moon.
Her practice draws on whakapapa-based protocols, celestial navigation, and ecological ethics. Through design, art, and advocacy, Desna recentres Indigenous cosmologies grounded in sentience and mauri / life-essence. Her 2024 film SentientPlace has featured in leading international forums on heritage, art, and space, including ACHS, ISEA, HOEA, Ars Electronica, and the International Astronautical Congress. Lead author of Perspectives on the Rights of the Moon from Oceania (International Astronautical Congress, Milan, 2024), Desna continues to explore lunar relationships and Indigenous cosmologies of care (bit.ly/TeMatauAMaui).
Dr. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu (ʻo ia/she/her) is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi, Native Hawaiian, scholar of Critical Pacific and Indigenous Studies presently residing along the shores of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa-New Zealand and working as a lecturer at Vaʻaomanū Pasifika, Pacific Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She is a global citizen with Indigenous, Moananuiākea genealogies to Molokaʻi Nui a Hina and Kanakaʻaukai from Kalapana, Hawaiʻi. Her scholarship and creative practice engage moʻokūʻauhau, genealogical connections to the natural world, in an effort to raise global awareness about human and more-than-human relationships, Mana Wāhine, Indigenous and Pacific feminisms, epistemologies, and ontologies that inform critical, innovative and transformative futurities. Her research, curation, documentaries, animated films and visual art add to the growing body of knowledge expressed by Kānaka ʻŌiwi, Moana Nui, and Indigenous peoples working at the interface of social justice and environmental protection of our islands, earth, waterways, oceans, and the moon.
Kate Genevieve is an artist and Adjunct Researcher at Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori / School of Science in Society, and a guest in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, originally from Scotland and England. She leads the Cosmoimaginaries programme with the Astro Ecologies Institute, developing participatory and transdisciplinary projects that explore communication and imagination across ecological and cosmic scales, and co-organises the University of St Andrews’ SETI Post-Detection Hub. Over two decades she has been active in systems-change and creative responses to climate, serving on the boards of Intercreate Aotearoa and the chair of the ATNC Steering Group, and has convened international programmes, including Ecologies, Technologies for Schumacher College.
Her recent work for the Moon includes Lunar Imaginaries, hosted at Greenwich’s Care and Climate Gallery, and All Worlds, All Times, a performance workshop combining astrobiology, lunar futures, and participatory practices for imagining life beyond Earth. These collaborations connect creative and research organisations across Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, and continue through her work with Desna Whaanga-Schollum and Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, to strength collective solidarities and imaginative approaches to lunar protection.
Tim Corballis is an author, artist and chair of the Research Committee of Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori / the School of Science in Society in Te Whanganui a Tara. He has a background is in mathematics, philosophy and creative writing, with a PhD in the theoretical humanities. He is the author of five novels, including most recently the literary science fiction book Our Future is in the Air (Te Herenga Waka University Press). He has also worked as a collaborator on art projects such as the major 2020 Dowse Art Gallery exhibition Human Hand. Other writing includes commentaries on art, politics and culture, with recent work focusing on the aesthetics and politics of space technologies and closed systems.
Tim has been the recipient of a number of writing honours, including the Victoria University of Wellington Writers Residency (2015), the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers Residency (2005), and a first place in the Landfall Essay Competition (2013).
Further Reading
Pacific Perspectives on Lunar Rights
Maloney, M., Gorman, A., Gooch, T., & Margil, M. Declaration for the Rights of the Moon. Drafted by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Brisbane, 2021.
Whaanga-Schollum, D., Genevieve, K., & Salazar, J. F. Perspectives on the Rights of the Moon from Oceania. Initial work presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Milan, 2024.
Environmental and Policy Works
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Archibald, Jo-Ann. Indigenous storywork: Educating the heart, mind, body, and spirit. N.p.: UBC Press, 2008.
Archibald, J.-A., Lee-Morgan, J., & De Santolo, J. (Eds.). Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. London: Zed Books, 2019.
Atalay, S., Lempert, W. , Shorter, D. and Tall-Bear, K. "Indigenous studies working group statement," American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 45, no. 1, D. Shorter and K. TallBear, Eds., pp. 9-18, 2021.
Clissold, Rachel, et al. "'We were all heartbroken': Emotional wellbeing and healing after the 2017/2018 Manaro Voui eruptions in Ambae, Vanuatu." Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, Nov. 2021
Cribb, M., Macpherson, E., & Borchgrevink, A. Beyond legal personhood for the Whanganui River: collaboration and pluralism in implementing the Te Awa Tupua Act. The International Journal of Human Rights, 1–24, 2024.
Heim, J. The development of a lunar land ethic. Culture & Cosmos, 23(2), 103–112, 2024.
Hutchings, J. Our lands, our water, our people. Guest editorial, Special Indigenous Edition. New Genetics and Society, 31(1), 1–9, 2012.
Hutchings, J., Smith, J., Taura, Y., Harmsworth, G., & Awatere, S. Storying Kaitiakitanga: Exploring Kaupapa Māori Land and Water Food Stories. MAI Journal, 9(3), Article 1, 2020.
Jackson, M. (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Porou). “Where to Next? Decolonisation and the Stories in the Land.” In J. Hutchings & J. Lee-Morgan (Eds.), Decolonisation in Aotearoa: Education, Research and Practice. Wellington: NZCER Press, 2016.
Johnson, A. From Mexico to the Moon: (Outer)spatialising ethnography. In J. Gorbanenko, D. Jeevendrampillai, & A. Kozel (Eds.), Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives (pp. 110–126). Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2025.
Kawharu, M. Dimensions of Kaitiakitanga: An Investigation of a Customary Māori Principle of Resource Management. DPhil thesis, University of Oxford. 1998
Kukutai, T., McIntosh, T., Boulton, A., Durie, M., Foster, M., Hutchings, J., Mark-Shadbolt, M., Moewaka Barnes, H., Moko-Mead, T. T., Paine, S.-J., Pitama, S., & Ruru, J. Te Pūtatanga: A Tiriti-Led Science-Policy Approach for Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland: Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga / Chief Science Advisor Forum, 2021.
Latulippe, N., Livesey, B., Whaanga-Schollum, D., Jamieson, C., Clark, J., & Kiddle, R. (B.) Maanjiwe Nendamowinan (The Gathering of Minds): Connecting Indigenous Placemakers and Caring for Place Through Co-Creative Research with the Toronto Islands. Environment & Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods and Practice, 2 (1-2), 96–120, 2023.
Macpherson, E. J. Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation. In: Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation: Lessons from Comparative Experience. Cambridge Studies in Law and Society. Cambridge University Press; 2019.
Maccone, C., et al. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 1st IAA Moon Farside Protection Symposium, Turin, Italy. Paris: International Academy of Astronautics, 2024.
Mika, J. & Scheyvens, R. Te Awa Tupua: peace, justice and sustainability through Indigenous tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 30. 1-21, 2021.
Reid, J., Rout, M., Whaanga Schollum, D., Ruha, C., & Hania, J. (2025). The Kaitiaki Intelligence Platform: conceptual foundations for an indigenous environmental sensing network. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 55(6), 1979–1997.
Salazar, Juan F., and Alice Gorman. "Social Studies of Outer Space: Pluriversal Articulations." In The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space, 1-21. N.p.: Routledge, 2023.
Sykes, A. Constitutional Reform and Mana Wāhine. In J. Hutchings & J. Lee-Morgan (Eds.), Decolonisation in Aotearoa: Education, Research and Practice. Wellington: NZCER Press, 2017.
Taylor, L., Gale, K., Greenaway, A., & Whaanga-Schollum, D. Aroha Mai ~ Aroha Atu. Pantograph Punch, 2023.
Whaanga-Schollum, D. Mauri – An opportunity to connect. In Designers Speak (Up), 2019.
Wilson-Hokowhitu, Nālani (Ed.). The Past Before Us: Moʻokūʻauhau as Methodology. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2019.
Voices of Moana: Pacific poetics of enviornment and care
Hura, Nadine. 2025. Slowing the Sun. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
Jetñil-Kijiner, Kathy. 2017. Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Perez, Craig Santos. 2022. Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Lehartel, Temiti. 2024. “Ô Moana Nui.” Litteramā’ohi, no. 28, October, 99-101. Papeete: Littéramā’ohi Éditions.
Nyman, Mikaela, & Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen (Eds.). 2021. Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
Teaiwa, Teresia K. 2000. Terenesia: Amplified Poetry & Songs. Honolulu: Ala Press.