I have had the privilege of working alongside ākonga students, in the pursuit of tertiary education in social work, child and adolescent mental health, young people in a residential respite facility and supporting frontline social work practitioners in super vision and now with whānau families, tamariki children and hapori communities in the prevention and postvention of suicide.

While I am a registered social worker, my education is really in Sociology, Anthropology and History but due to the ‘strong’ encouragement of a kaumatua (elder) Turoa Haronga, because I was facilitating learning on a social work programme, I completed competence to practice and then registration as a social worker.
My passion and commitments are to progress tangata whenua knowledge and skills in any field of practice and to challenge mainstream / generic services, where constraint of the legitimacy to practice as the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa may be evident. In keeping with this commitment, I also work to tautoko (support) all indigenous peoples in the same endeavours.

Mauriora!

Miriama R. Scott

Sustainability is Custodianship: It is not a Responsibility; it is an Obligation.

The presentation will contend that embedded in the notion of sustainability is the notion of preservation and this concept implies a form of action. It is advocated that the action necessitates a perception of custodianship or kaitiakitanga in the indigenous language of Aotearoa.

The questions are asked if we are to preserve, what drives the rationale to preserve and why the role as custodians in the action of preservation and what is the connection of these two concepts to sustainability and community?

The answer is proposed that To Bridge Communities and Build Sustainable Futures, we need to consider what we do now that has emanated from the past, which will undoubtedly influence the future and therefore we are custodians, preserving the continuity of community and Te Taiao the environment.

It is argued that the sustainability of the community depends on the wellbeing of Te Taiao the environment, as does the welfare of future generations and therein lies the bridging of communities that have been and are yet to come.

Therefore, the tempo of time, the longevity of place, the constraint of space, the obligation of custodianship and the sustainability of challenge become instrumental in how we preserve community and the integrity of who we are in the face of an ever-changing future.