News release

From: Dr Tara McAllister, author

"Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and traditions) is a taonga protected by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It is used among other things to preserve whakapapa, and understand and record complex environmental patterns, and navigate using Te Kāhui Whetū.

"In recent years there have been increasing numbers of Māori scholars carrying out scientific research from their own unique positionalities, and utilising mātauranga Māori alongside Western research methods. This has led to an increase in published research as well as growth in public interest in how mātauranga Māori can advance our understandings and restore our taiao.

"We used both the Web of Science and Google Scholar to identify 81 peer-reviewed articles that incorporated both Mātauranga Māori and science. Themes across papers included understanding species, place-based research, monitoring and management, kōrero tuku iho and connecting Indigenous knowledge systems.

"The breadth and depth of Māori knowledge was not sufficiently captured in the literature we reviewed, and this review is a means to begin to address this. Our review highlights that mahi at the interface of mātauranga Māori and science has evolved, and research has focused on addressing real-world environmental issues.

"The best research on this space has been Māori-led, localised, and supported genuine, ongoing relationships with mana whenua outside of one specific research topic. We note that this is a narrow review focused specifically on how the scientific literature relates to and supports mātauranga Māori and is not an information source on mātauranga itself."