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"The issue is how to predict when a now-dormant volcano, Mount Taranaki on New Zealand’s North Island, will erupt again. The ['Herald'] article summarises a five-year study of how to predict not just that but also how to assess the damage from an eruption. The researchers apparently used real science to get the dates of eruptions ... and research from Massey University to calculate possible damage. ...
"None of the references given in the 'Herald' piece ... even mention mātauranga Māori, but it’s still touted as helping ... 'to weave together' ... empirical observation ... [with] indigenous 'ways of knowing' stuff, heavily larded with Māori words. ...
"Bilingual resources, interactive StoryMaps, and wānanga [tribal or traditional knowledge; could also mean an 'indigenous sage'] created spaces for kōrero [conversations] about the mounga’s [mountain's] past and future."What is missing here is how mātauranga Māori really is woven together with Western science in a productive way. Conspicuously absent is any mention about how mātauranga Māori really does help us assess volcanic risk ... Nor does seeing how earlier inhabitants coped with the damage give us much help in figuring out how to cope with the damage now. In the end, it seems that straight empirical observation and empirical-based prediction is what is needed here, and I can’t for the life of me find out how mātauranga Māori can help with that."
" 'You can’t understand volcanic risk in Taranaki without understanding the whakapapa [genealogy or history] of the mountain, whenua [land] and awa [rivers], the kōrero tuku iho [oral tradition] and mātauranga [knowledge] held by whānau [family groups], hapū [kinship groups or tribes] and iwi [tribes] who hold ancestral connections to the mounga [mountain] and have done so for generations,' said Acushla Dee Sciascia of Mapuna Consultants.
"This research provided a platform for Māori researchers to contribute their voices, leading to richer outputs including monographs, visual exhibitions, and new ways of telling the mounga’s story.
" 'Taranaki mounga [tribal groups near the mountain] provides us with so many learnings [lessons] from its past and how our tūpuna [ancestors] navigated previous volcanic events, and it’s up to us now to prepare our whānau [land] for the future,' Sciascia said.
" 'This programme has laid a foundation. But the real mahi [effort] is in how we carry this forward, and how we embed mātauranga Māori into everyday planning, science, and response.'
~ Jerry Coyne from his post 'Mātauranga Māori strikes again'
