Noticing the Native and Invasive Species of Aotearoa NZ

in AOA New Zealand I've learned to listen I've learned to listen to new voices those I've ignored until now those who have always spoken but are rarely heard like the voices of the wind and of the water and what I hear in the present has in turn taught me about the past those who left Footprints have shaped the land as I say goodbye to Alor there's one voice I'll never forget a teacher who shares an intimate relation with us humans a teacher created by the hands of tan mahuta guardian of the natural world I listened and I heard an echo of the past still reverberating through the present long ago before the arrival of the Europeans aloa was a land of birds and [Music] Forest birds that flourished isolated from other land masses early European visitors remarked on the volume of the melodious bird song but the birds of today facing the destruction of habitats of native trees draining Wetlands pests and competition from introduced species really are few and far between so I decided to visit a wildling conifer Forest introduced invasive trees that although natural overrun native forests therefore leaving little space for birds and a forest without bird song is a strange and sad Place hi everyone so I'm here in Richmond Forest right now which is the area that I'm currently living in the weather has finally changed here it is officially fall and it's very cold down here in the southern hemisphere I think this is a pretty great way to end my experience here in New Zealand because I'm walking through this Pine Forest right now it's really quite a bizarre experience because in any native forest or bush here in New Zealand it's very common to hear the Beautiful course of birds and it's just not like that here in this monoculture of Pine Forest it's just dead in comparison it's really bizarre and along the way I found some examples of where Native species have held on have endured persisted some trees some bushes my Uka kanuka and I was just thinking right um Charles Darwin very much was a proponent of that a species is a product of its environment right that we adapt and evolve to a certain place because of the conditions because of the surroundings what the land is like uh the climate weather whatever and so now that that has been irreparably changed um well yeah of course there are no other native birds here which makes me really sad and going a little bit deeper than that it really makes me think of what the indigenous experience must be like that over the course of a 100 years or so everything has changed the surroundings and you find yourself looking around saying where are my people where where are the birds where are the native trees where the native bushes Everything Has Changed that must be heartbreaking it must be heartbreaking to wonder where your people have gone I'm not an indigenous person but I have so much empathy for them and being in a position of privilege it's very hard to navigate where the line is of how to respect a culture and uplift it and how to be culturally sensitive and I'm trying very hard to find that line walking through this Forest I've just felt oh my God this must be what it feels like to have everything around you entirely changed your whole way of life completely erased to where you can only find a couple of native trees on the way ahead your people the plants the environment the land all changed just walking down this Trail I've experienced that I don't want to make any kind of assumptions or generalizations about indigenous people and their experience because I have no idea what that is like but at the same time I can't be silent anymore I can't stand here and look at this Pine Forest that is entirely devoid of native life and say that's okay so this is my way of speaking out and saying hey this is not right and maybe these words won't amount to [Music] anything but I can't be silent anymore I can't [Music] [Music]

Channel: Samuel Spadaccini

Views: 480

Keywords: New Zealand working holiday, Tane mahuta, Birds of aotearoa, Native species, Invasive species, Wildling conifer forest

Id: WwP_ZrNZWHQ

Length: 7min 11sec (431 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024