Abstract
This essay elucidates how the experiences of the tuna (eels) endemic to Aotearoa, New Zealand, and the many ways they have been represented in narrative form exemplify the dynamism of whakapapa (origins, relationships, genealogical knowledge, and layer-making) in Te Ao Māori (the Māori world). Tuna are at once treasured whanaunga (relations), valued sources of sustenance, indicators of the health of the country's waterways, mysterious boundary-breakers, and slippery subjects who often feature in Māori art and literature. Considering tuna and their lifeways can provide multiple ara (passageways or routes) for critically reflecting on their multispecies relations and on how those relations may be made more just. Through the discussion of ancestral narrative, as well as poetry, prose, and visual artworks that center the perspectives and characteristics of tuna, the essay explores the ways Māori worldviews, knowledges, and te reo Māori (the Māori language) draw to, from, and with tuna and help us as Māori understand and maintain our relationships with, and obligations to all our other-thanhuman relations. In doing so, the essay gestures to the ways in which wider multispecies justice initiatives might find alignments within these representations and relationships too
