Mātauranga Māori 'needed' to help fight the world's biodiversity crisis

Sunday, 1 December 2019

Marlborough pupils take a tour of the Wairau Lagoon to learn about local Māori history. (Video first published in 2019)

The world is in the grip of a biodiversity crisis, but the issue is often lost in the loud clamour over climate change.

The warming planet is just one of a number of human-made factors including habitat change, invasive species, over-exploitation and pollution pushing the planet to the brink of an ecological collapse.

In May, the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) based in Germany released its substantive report on the state of the world's ecosystems.

New Zealand didn't fare so well, with 4000 native flora and fauna among the million species worldwide listed as being under threat of extinction.

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Dr Pricilla Wehi harvesting kuta. Wehi said mātauranga Māori is a potent force of knowledge developed over hundreds of years by Māori.

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NZ Ecological Society President Cate Macinnis-Ng said science and mātauranga Māori have equal value.

Now, scientists across the world are turning to indigenous knowledge - ignored and dismissed in the past - to help clean up the mess.

'The knowledge of indigenous people, traditionally passed down through generations, has been acknowledged as being critical to the prevention of mass biodiversity loss,' Landcare conservation biologist Dr Priscilla Wehi said.

Wehi said this knowledge - mātauranga Māori - was a potent force developed over hundreds of years through Māori interaction with nature, and long overlooked by the scientific community.

'There has been bias and there has been prejudice, we do have a long colonial history,' said Wehi. 'I'm really grateful we are hearing a lot more indigenous voices now.'

The Tara Iti Fairy Tern is considered one of New Zealand's most endangered indigenous breeding birds with an estimated population of around 45 individuals including 12 breeding pairs.

Wehi is the guest editor of the Ecological Society's special edition journal released on Monday, dedicated to mātauranga Māori. The studies range from restoring wetlands and urban rivers to food security.

When Wehi did a stocktake of the authoritative scientific journal she found just three mātauranga Māori papers had been published since the organisation formed in 1952. She said while that could be blamed on there being few Māori scientists and papers being published elsewhere, it was a reflection of the wider science community.

'It has been an enormous shame mātauranga hasn't been valued in the way that it should have been in the past,' Wehi said.

'Science has been dominated by a few groups of people for many years. Now we're really beginning to build a much more diverse and inclusive science community.'

In her research, Wehi found some differences between the two disciplines but scientific thinking and the accumulation of empirical evidence was also a feature of mātauranga Māori and other indigenous knowledge systems.

Māori Researcher Kiri Reihana co-authored one of the 14 papers published in the Ecologial Society's first ever mātauranga Māori journal. Her study looked at how bilingual environmental games can reconnect youth to nature.

Mātauranga Māori spans across many subjects relevant to science including navigation, weather patterns, customary management, climatic patterns and ecological knowledge.

Ecological Society President Dr Cate Macinnis-Ng said scientists don't have all the answers and need to look for help from others.

She said most of its 550 plus membership acknowledge the importance of mātauranga Māori but some have a different opinion. 'They're really a fringe group I would say, there are very few these days that are not supportive of this. We're moving forward.'

Science and mātauranga Māori were of equal value, she said.

'It's important we think about science and mātauranga being equal in the part they can play in conservation and ecology.'

She conceded her view was not always the consensus.

'I agree we haven't done it well in the past but that's not a good reason to not do it well now. We need to be constantly challenging ourselves to be doing these things better.

Both Wehi and Macinnis-Ng said scientists and Māori have mutual goals to protect and ensure the survival of species including humans. They're encouraging scientists to engage with communities, co-develop research and work with Māori on long term collaborations.

'We don't want to be the kind of people that come in, steal the knowledge, go away and use it for our own purposes,' said Macinnis-Ng.

Māori researcher Kiri Reihana co-authored one of the 14 papers published in the special edition. Her study looked at how bilingual environmental games can reconnect youth to nature.

Reihana considers mātauranga Māori a science.

'Pākēhā have a debatable opinion on whether they think it's relevant or valuable or equivalent,' Reihana said.

'Whereas for us it's normal. Now, it's bringing that into the public domain, the normalisation of it.'

She said it's just starting to emerge in the science field. It has a holistic approach and considers the interconnection of everything. A perfect match with ecology and its study of natural systems. But it can also be applied and used in business, education, health, justice and other sectors.

'We don't have to validate anything to scientists but we want them to see mātauranga Māori in an equivalent light because that's how it should be upheld.'

Reihana said it's a shame only now the world is in a man-made biodiversity crisis is science finally turning to indigenous knowledge for help. If indigenous perspectives had always been included we might not be in the mess we are now.