Mātauranga Māori

The ancestors of the Māori first settled in New Zealand (Aotearoa) from other Polynesian islands in the late 13th century CE and developed a distinctive culture and knowledge-system.

Due to European colonisation, beginning in the early 19th century, much mātauranga has been lost or highly influenced by Christianity and by other aspects of foreign culture.

The term became useful in part due to the Treaty of Waitangi claims process, which included requests for the protection of traditional knowledge.

[11] It was common practice to try to synthesis the geographic variation in mātauranga, leading to the creation of a single Māori oral history (e.g. the Great Fleet) and culture.

[13] The New Zealand Government's intent was to inhibit traditional practices, yet some Māori people remained faithful to tohunga.

[23] By the time that European settlers arrived, Māori had large plantations of kūmara growing in many parts of New Zealand.

According to Māori oral history, kūmara were not on board the original canoes that settled New Zealand, but were introduced following multiple return voyages into the Pacific.

A wide range of techniques were developed to ensure reliable production, including careful choice of growing locations, drainage, the application of mulch and other materials to increase soil temperatures, the construction of walls to shelter the crop from the wind, and the lifting and careful storage of tubers during winter.

Following her husband's death and her own illness, she journeyed across King Country and studied the medicinal uses of native plants such as harakeke, koromiko, kawakawa, and rangiora.

[2]Most traditional Māori science is now focused on a particular practical problem with science-based organisations partnering with iwi, typically with government funding.

[4] Archeology and quaternary geology show that New Zealand's natural environment changed significantly during the period of precolonial Māori occupation.

[34][35] The environmental changes are similar to those following human occupation in other parts of the world, including deforestation (approximately 50%), the loss of the megafauna, more general species extinctions and soil degradation due to agriculture.

Historically, academic models on precolonial environmental stewardship have been closely tied to the idea of the 'Noble Savage' and the now-debunked hypothesis of multiple ethnicities being responsible for different aspects of New Zealand's archeological record.

[27] The Royal Society Te Apārangi also identifies 150 women and their notable contributions to New Zealand in the field of science.

[40] In 2021, The Listener published a letter titled "In Defence of Science", co-signed by several New Zealander scientists including Douglas Elliffe, Kendall Clements, Garth Cooper, Michael Corballis, Elizabeth Rata, Robert Nola, and John Werry.

[42] The authors were later supported by Richard Dawkins, who argued "New Zealand children will be taught the true wonder of DNA, while being simultaneously confused by the doctrine that all life throbs with a vital force conferred by the Earth Mother and the Sky Father".

[43][44] Inclusion of traditional knowledge, such as mātauranga Māori, in education was the subject of several 2024 articles in the journal Science.

[45][46] Efforts to include it in education were criticized on the grounds that it is inseparable from spiritual and religious beliefs, leading to their introduction into science classes; that it is not possible to reconcile contradictions between the two; that it comes at the cost of delivering curricula that meets international standards; that policies granting science and indigenous knowledge equal status are based on relativism and inhibit science from questioning claims made by indigenous knowledge systems; and that many proponents of indigenous knowledge engage in ideological antiscience rhetoric.

[47] The vitalist Māori concept of mauri was inserted into the New Zealand national chemistry curriculum, and the government ignored the objections of science teachers citing the 'equal status' (mana ōrite) policy.