Science and knowledge
I would like to add to the debate (“The meaning of science”, August 7) by pointing out that although mātauranga Māori can well stand on its own, there is strong evidence of its value in addressing issues where the dominant discourse of science has failed.
In the early 1990s, I used Māori concepts such as whanaungatanga (extended family-like contexts) metaphorically to illustrate how qualitative research interviewing could be significantly improved. This study identified how interacting within relational contexts could benefit all research participants and not just often-universitybased interviewers.
These understandings were extrapolated in the early 2000s to secondary-school settings, suggesting that where teachers established classroom relationships and interactions as if they were an extended family – with all the rights, commitments and obligations that such contexts generate – they were able to do their job much more effectively than those educated under the status quo that remains dominated by Western modes of thinking.
This hypothesis then suggested that as a result of these changes in pedagogy, Māori student achievement would improve. The implementation of these ideas in a Ministry of Education-funded research and development project, Te Kotahitanga, demonstrated, for example (among a wide range of outcome measures evaluated using standardised empirical quantitative and qualitative measures), that by the fifth phase of the project, Māori students in project schools were achieving at three times the rate in NCEA as were their peers in nonproject schools.
These ideas of the fundamental importance of establishing caring and learning pedagogic relationships have since been further developed into a Relationships First programme being implemented in New Zealand, Australia and Canada with similar outcomes.
The main point of my letter, however, is not to talk about the projects themselves but rather to identify that these processes of co-creation and collaboration have been developed over many years and demonstrate the value of bringing mātauranga Māori into mainstream public-school education in ways that not only address the seemingly immutable issue of Māori student educational achievement, but also benefit many others who have been marginalised from successfully participating in education.
Russell Bishop, PhD, ONZM Emeritus Professor of Māori Education, University of Waikato
Various academics and a University of Otago paper seem to hold the view that Māori were the first people to explore Antarctica as far back as the 7th century, but that “Māori don’t need Western science to endorse or authenticate our knowledge systems”.
Compare these claims against the written accounts of renowned Antarctica explorers Shackleton and Scott, who had equipment, clothing and supplies suitable for that frozen environment. Sailor Sir Peter Blake talked about how hostile, treacherous and dangerous the Southern Ocean is to navigate on the way to Antarctica.
How did Māori manage in their outriggers/canoes and what clothing and footwear did they wear to cope with the freezing conditions?
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean from South America on the balsawood raft Kon-Tiki. He was convinced the first humans to reach Easter Island came from South America. To prove it was possible, he decided to build a raft and make the journey himself.
Passage of time erodes accuracy. As a former detective, I learnt well that a week’s delay in recording evidence, let alone a year or 1200 years, makes a big difference. Oral transfer of past events gets distorted and exaggerated and, invariably, barely resembles what actually happened.
As one with Māori heritage, I say to those who claim Māori went to Antarctica as far back as 700AD or even as recently as 1700AD: show how it is possible, in a canoe with a paddle, no ice breakers or thermal underwear, no sextant and no speargun to travel to Antarctic waters.
Ross Meurant
(Red Beach)
That Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, born to a virgin, performed miracles in his lifetime and rose from the dead after crucifixion is believed by some people, disbelieved by others. That one who breaks tapu, or on whom a mākutu (curse) is placed by a tohunga, will suffer illness or even death is likewise believed by some and not by others. These are matters of faith and neither is susceptible to scientific proof or disproof.
That my university should have an official position on the Divinity of Jesus would be as surprising and shocking as it is to discover, from ViceChancellor Dawn Freshwater’s recent statement, that it has an official position on the efficacy of matauranga Māori in the study of science in our schools. We won’t correct our colonialist mistakes by making new ones.
CK Stead, ONZ, CBE, FRSL Professor Emeritus, University of Auckland
Allen Heath ( Letters, August 14) proffers an uninformed representation of “traditional knowledge” as “neither more nor less than humans
recognising and naming animals and plants in their immediate environment and deriving some understanding of food and health benefits or harmful aspects”.
A forum published in 2009 by the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand (pp 139242) presents case studies of its application in several fields, including: harvest management; toxicology; landscape management; planning; biodiversity protection and species recovery; ecological monitoring; modelling; energy management; greenhouse gas emission management; environmental law; environmental philosophy; and business development.
Traditional knowledge is not only applicable at a local level. It can guide ethical and effective ways to mitigate universal and global challenges to social, economic and ecological resilience.
I agree with Heath that
we must encourage “free expression of opinion without facile dismissal and misrepresentation of facts”, so I, too, thank the seven academics for raising their concerns ( Letters,
July 31). However, his dismissal and misrepresentation of traditional knowledge will not help forge stronger partnerships between mātauranga and science.
Henrik Moller
Professor Emeritus, Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago
I am responding to the NCEA working group’s proposal that Māori science has equivalence to that colossal, international body of knowledge that has given us mRNA vaccines, the computer and jet-propulsion engines. Wishing that it were so will not make it so, and to persist with such a view is dangerous to what happens in classrooms and in schools.
The teaching of any
proposition with the intention that it is believed regardless of the evidence is indoctrination and not education. Obviously, initiation into cultural heritage is important, but the development of rationality and the capacity to weigh evidence are the central competencies for personal autonomy and responsibility, and for an advanced and democratic society.
Peter Stanley, PhD
(Tauranga)
Terry Locke ( Letters, August 7) asks how Māori knew tōtara was a good wood for making waka. Presumably by the same
process the first blackbirds released here in an unfamiliar environment after a long sea voyage must have learnt what to eat: by trial and error.
PA Williams
(Nelson)
TACKLING THE P CRISIS
A lot of people are trying to get their head around the large Proceeds of Crime grant to Mongrel Mob affiliates to help combat “P” addiction ( Life, July 31). The addiction-treatment model the proponents favour – the Minnesota model – has fallen out of favour, with the national rehab unit at Queen Mary Hospital, Hanmer
Springs, having closed in 2003.
Repatriating sufferers back to iwi has some merit. Understanding the make-up of the support workers would engender some confidence. I am from the school that believes addiction of all kinds is a sickness rather than a crime. But it is extremely difficult with any drug of choice to separate some form of criminal activity from drug-taking activity.
Let them have a go, by all means. I’m sure a lot of people will be hoping this programme works out.
David George
(Cromwell)
OVERSTAYER RAIDS
The hunting down of overstayers did not only include dawn raids. I worked at an Auckland factory that made asbestoscement products, some of which were formed manually. This was heavy, laborious work, and we depended on Pacific Island labour for this function. A number of these people were overstayers, and we knew that.
We also knew when the police were coming to “visit”, and arranged for our overstayers to go to the lunchroom. This appeared to be an arrangement at a higher level than those of us on the factory floor and happened on a number of occasions.
Tony Goodwin
(Auckland)
THAT’S RICH
American Larry Page was granted residency by agreeing to invest $10 million here over three years. He is the sixth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $166 billion. So, his residency cost him 0.006% of his total worth. I hope all the other people waiting for residency will be treated similarly. This would mean someone worth, say, $100,000 would need to invest $6 over three years. Is this the case? I don’t think so. Liz Thomas (Onekaka)
FARMING PRACTICES
It is the peak of calving on our farm, so busy days. I still find time to read the Listener,
though. Thank you for your empathetic editorial, “Farm friends” ( July 31). You said it so well. Anyone who hasn’t read it must and then they need to share it with their friends and their friends’ friends until it reaches everyone.
Annabel Donovan
(Taupō)
The July 31 Editorial perpetuates the sustainability myth. Some farmers do farm sustainably, but most do not. It is not sustainable to import phosphate from Morocco or, in the dairy sector, to import and feed palm-kernel expeller. The introduction of palm kernel in the 1970s enabled farmers to increase stocking rates,
which is why we now have groundwater problems and nitrate leaching into waterways. So, it is wise of our Prime Minister not to champion farmers too loudly.
The slogan “Clean and green” was coined in Germany about 35 years ago and meant “chemical free”. Think how disillusioned our European visitors will be when they come here and see how we actually farm.
Vivienne Seiler
(Waimana)
KEEPING LEFT
With so much argy-bargy about cyclists and walkways, I have yet to hear any suggestions of keeping to the left. If we all perambulated exactly as we do on the road, it should solve any untoward collisions. Passing is easy and the cyclist simply passes the walker and continues back to the left side.
Kate Gore
(Tauranga)
ELECTRICITY SUPPLIES AND EVEHICLES
The Government’s electric vehicle (EV) decisions raise a number of issues. First, the ability of our infrastructure to support the huge increase in demand from EVs being plugged in overnight.
I attended a “green” architecture conference recently and one of the speakers, an electrical engineer, talked about this simultaneous recharging demand. He said if EV owners in a large neighbourhood all charged their vehicles at the same time, this would blow the local transformer (given its current capacity).
Second, there is the issue of electricity availability. I noted recently that the use of “dirty coal” at Huntly had increased by 15% over last year. If the demand for electricity increases due to a rise in the number of electric vehicles, all we are potentially doing is transferring CO2 emissions to “dirty coal” away from increasingly fuel-efficient vehicles.
I do not have a garage, so to charge an electric car, I would need to run a cable from the house. I am not the only one. Driving along Hillsborough Rd, Auckland, at 9pm recently, I noticed a section with a lot of cars parked on the road. How do they get charged securely?
With the tax on imported petrol cars, I asked a mechanic I know what he thought. His reaction was that it would be good for business in the mid-term because as the older, fuel-hungry fleet aged further, it would need more repairs. The cost of this would further age the fleet, furthering emissions.
The Treasury has raised concerns about equity issues with regard to the tax-subsidy solution, in that it would disadvantage low-income families. It seems Jacinda Ardern is acting like the Sheriff of Nottingham: taking off the poor to subsidise the rich. I fully support the move to non-petrol-fuelled vehicles, but the current initiative is a crude solution.
Phil Hill
(Huia)
LETTER OF THE WEEK
A WORRIED PARENT
To add concerned parents of trans-identifying kids under the age of 18 to those who may be criminalised because they want to protect their children is terrifying. I am a parent of a teenager who, after last year’s lockdown and clearly having been influenced online, came out as transgender. He has always been different, socially inept, feeling typical teenage angst as well as having Asperger’s ( but that doesn’t seem important to those who know best). He met trans people online and had a light-bulb moment.
When searching for help and information for my teen, I found the immediate affirmation of doctors, teachers and peers disturbing. There is no counselling. It’s enough to say that you identify as another gender and, voila!, the “correct” pronouns are adopted.
I love my child and will give support whatever gender is chosen, and I believe there are those who genuinely feel they have been born in the wrong body, but giving puberty blockers to underage kids, the long-term outcome of which is still unknown, is deeply disturbing.
My child will be 18 soon, so will be able to make choices without my agreement. But what of those parents of young children whose rights to parent in what they see as their children’s best interests are being taken from them?
Name withheld