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The Native Landscapes of Negotiation Identifying the Beach, the Swamp, and the Bush: The term ‘native’ is one which has, like the three ‘native’ landscapes of the Beach, Bush and Swamp, metamorphosed in meaning as the surroundings and context of the culture of New Zealand have transformed. There is evidence that, when used by colonial peoples within the context of New Zealand, the term ‘native’ had traces of distaste and negative connotations (as noted in the New Zealand Oxford Dictionary.)39 The native forest and the native people were both unknown and foreign, and so were viewed with distaste, even fear. These negative connotations have occurred because there is so much ‘unknownness’ within these concepts of native landscape. Each term, while defined in black and white within the context of a dictionary, is still far from being defined and understood by the population. The importance of using the word ‘native’ landscapes for these three pivotal ‘scapes lies in this transformation of the cultural meaning and associations with the word as the surrounding culture changed. As there have been many years of ‘miscommunication’ with the land, it is of paramount importance to reach an understanding of these unknown landscapes, these native landscapes, so that a dialogue can be reopened. Within this dialogue of native landscapes, time is a key construct. All landscapes are governed by time. Their life span is much longer than that of humans and is of a cyclic nature, which will go through 100 year, 1000 year, and longer cycles of regrowth, rejuvenation and depletion. What is particularly significant for the three landscapes identified is that while their natural progression through time continues to evolve, all three have been subject to very stringent changes and obvious impacts during the two stage colonisation of New Zealand. All three are arguably in a state of flux, of negotiation, within space and time. Most importantly, that negotiation within time, history, literature and physical boundaries has been documented from the moment culture began its dialogue with the natural landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand. And so, within the analysis of the Beach, the Bush and the Swamp lie the markers of change on the land physically; the fence lines, drains, forests and farmlands. Most importantly, through studying these markers, one realises they catalogue the change in cultural approach to these physical negotiations of transforming these native landscapes into the pasture lands of present day society. It becomes more than just rediscovering the physical representation of these landscapes, instead creating an exploration of the conceptual negotiation which operates between each of these landscapes and the way in which they are understood and portrayed within culture. 39 ‘The New Zealand Pocket Oxford Dictionary’. (1997) (Second ed.). Auckland: Oxford University Press. 692