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RĪPOATA ME ATIKARA
REPORTS AND ARTICLES
Māori Perspectives on Synthetic Biology for Environmental Protection
Te Tira Whakamātaki - August 2024
Te Tira Whakamātaki was included in this project to engage with Māori across Aotearoa on their perspectives of synthetic biology, termed genetic technologies, for environmental protection. TTW’s aim was to examine the cultural, social, and emotional factors that made Māori participants either comfortable or uncomfortable with the use of genetic technology. Our goal is to use this information to spread awareness amongst Māori communities of potential biosecurity tools; inform them of the factors driving attitudes to gene tech; and be a reliable source of information for decision makers to consider when approaching Māori communities with genetic technology proposals.
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Kura Reo Taiao Evaluation Report
Te Tira Whakamātaki - June 2024
From March 1st – 5th 2024, the first Kura Reo Taiao was hosted at Waikōhatu Marae. Sponsored by the Department of Conservation (DOC), the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and implemented by Te Tira Whakamātaki (TTW), its purpose was to help revitalising environmental and pest management te reo Māori and mātauranga. This report covers the outcomes facilitated by Kura Reo Taiao.
Perspectives on Genetic Technologies and Pest Management
Te Tira Whakamātaki - April 2024
Pest management remains one of the primary discussions within conservation and environmentalist circles in Aotearoa – New Zealand. Conversations about best practices in pest management, new tools necessary, and the potential for using genetic technologies to rid the country of pests have increased and we believe it is important to gauge the level of interest and comfortability of Māori and non-Māori to help inform our positions. Therefore, we (Te Tira Whakamātaki [TTW]) recently published a short online survey that built on the results of one done in 2018 by researchers at Lincoln University. The purpose of this survey was to explore the public’s attitudes and knowledge of biosecurity, environmental behaviours, and comfort with various genetic tools in pest management. Another purpose was to compare responses between Māori and Pākehā to assess whether differences existed between the groups that would affect how we talk about, think, and act in this space. The results from this report are an output of other work that TTW is involved in, funded by the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
Standing upright here: critical disaster studies viewed from the Antipodes
Steve Matthewman & Simon J. Lambert (Tūhoe, Ngāti Ruapani)
This article seeks to reinvigorate disaster scholarship, given the disastrous times we find ourselves in. In order to do so, we extend the spatial and temporal horizons of disasters, and consider them as normal processes as well as aberrant events. Knowledge need not exclusively emanate from the metropolitan centres of the Global North. We begin by examining the field’s ‘threshold concepts’, subjecting them to an urgent Indigenous evaluation. Second, as cities are the Anthropocene’s primary terrain, we illustrate the numerous ways in which the recovery from the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence offers global lessons. Third, leveraging understandings from the preceding sections, we orient towards a more hopeful intellectual frontier – a decolonised disaster studies as seen from the perspective of Aotearoa New Zealand. Since much disaster scholarship emphasises failure and loss, here we consider what gained through a fuller appreciation of mātauranga Māori.
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A Statement on Artificial Intelligence
Te Tira Whakamātaki - December 2023
At Te Tira Whakamātaki, we recognise the value of new technologies, from AI to GMOs, in planning and operationalising our biosecurity and other environmental activities. Yet we hear from our network and collaborators that so much research is fraught with logistical, ethical, financial and governance demands that always seem to fall on individuals who spend their Tuesday nights in draughty church halls with six other people trying to respond to the latest emergency that has hit their community. Read our statement on Artificial Intelligence here.