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In a special event after the LandWISE Conference “Rebuilding Our Soils”, we hosted a wānanga/workshop led by Erina Wehi-Barton, Taonui Campbell and Clare Bradley. Clare introduced the Our Land and Water project “Revitalise Te Taiao” at the conference, and it attracted considerable interest. They have been integrating Matauranga Maori, farming, and scientific knowledge to promote soil health in the Rere Ki Uta Rere Ki Tai project.
We were delighted to join with regenerative agriculture and cropping research colleagues from Massey University’s “Whenua Haumanu – nurturing the land through exploring pastoral farming“, Leaderbrand’s “Farming for a Healthy Future“, On-Farm Research’s “Evaluating Regen Ag and developing farmer resilience on a dryland demonstration farm” and our own team from LandWISE and HB Future Farming Trust with “Carbon Positive – regenerative intensive process cropping“.
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Each of the projects has commitment to mātauranga Māori and as largely pakeha researchers trained in Western science, we can feel somewhat lost. Taonui and Erina provided a structure to explore the threads of mātauranga and the commonalities and differences between the Māori and Western knowledge systems. There are many parallels and overlaps.
Te Taiao is a Māori concept that refers to the natural world, including land, water, climate, and living beings, and their inter-relationships. These are all elements in farm and orchard management and in agricultural and horticultural research, so are familiar to those trained in agricultural or environmental science. Perhaps though, our tendency to focus in closer and closer when using reductionist methodologies puts us at risk of forgetting the context within which we work. A farm input decision is based partly on agronomic research but always includes economic oversight. Increasingly we are conscious that application takes place in a regulatory and social licence context, and within limits set or expected by markets and by importers’ regulations. At another level, we know but can lose sight of the fact, that adjusting one factor is very likely to affect how other factors respond.
Mātauranga can be held by different groupings so exists at Māori level, at iwi, hapū and whānau and even individual level. Just as there is knowledge held by me, shared by my immediate family and with my cousins, among my professional groups and with the population generally. That knowledge is built over time as a result of many observations and understandings and it is everchanging over time and space. Like Western science. Our understanding at one point in time may be revised as new observations are made, lessons learned, and our synthesised understanding evolves. And as agronomists, we understand that knowledge of good agricultural practice that applies in one area or to one crop may not transfer to another.
As farmers and growers and Western science people, we are familiar with bodies of knowledge about physics, biology, chemistry and agronomy, and can extend that to law and finance etc. We know these as subjects we study at school and university. In a 2012 essay, Sir Hirini Moko Mead suggested that tikanga Māori, āhuatanga Māori, kaupapa Māori, manaakitanga, te reo Māori, waiata, tā moko, kapa haka etc. are subjects within mātauranga Māori.
It seems to me that there are many parallels between these knowledge systems – the same, but different.
We are most grateful to Clare and Agrisea NZ Seaweed Ltd for their support, and especially to Taonui and Erina for leading the wānanga. And we also thank the other participants who travelled to be with us and shared their stories, confusions and questions openly in a safe environment. While we had a very informative day, many more lessons await us. We look forward to following this wānanga with others as we grow our knowledge.
Dan
mātauranga: knowledge, wisdom, understanding, skill – sometimes used in the plural. Education – an extension of the original meaning and commonly used in modern Māori with this meaning.
wānanga: to meet and discuss, deliberate, consider. A seminar, conference, forum, educational seminar.
Te Aka Māori Dictionary