The place-based knowledges of Indigenous communities can provide rich contributions to geoethical thought and practice. Traditional Indigenous Māori beliefs in Aotearoa New Zealand are animist and holistic and assume the existence of a metaphysical realm that imbues landscape features with a spiritual life essence; these beliefs inform a deep guardianship and sustainability ethic, and the agency ascribed to landscape features provides an Indigenous sustainability framework. The pluralist nature of geoethics means that geoscientists and engineers should be able to respectfully acknowledge Māori beliefs and connection to landscape to support meaningful community engagement, to mitigate negative impacts of ground disturbance from civil engineering works and to inform infrastructure design and construction. We present a case study of post-earthquake infrastructure reinstatement to explore these concepts and show that legislative and infrastructure recovery responses to disasters can be more harmful to Indigenous landscapes, comprised of sacred landforms and sites, than the natural event itself. In these contexts, engineers and other actors have (geo)ethical obligations that must balance wider societal needs and Indigenous rights and interests.