Science + mysticism = ?

"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.

" '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.'

"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."

~ Jerry Coyne from his post 'Mātauranga Māori strikes again'

"That’s not an end date. That’s a mystic shrug."

"New Zealanders need to wake up. A spiritual decree has just shut down hundreds of kilometres of public coastline, and almost no one dares question it. Why? Because it’s wrapped in the untouchable cloak of tikanga Māori.
    
"After a person tragically died while clearing floodwaters near Nelson, iwi leaders from Te Tauihu responded not with practical safety measures, but with a sweeping rāhui that now bans seafood gathering, swimming, and even stepping near water from the White Bluffs in the east to Kahurangi Point in the west. This covers every beach, river mouth and floodwater zone across the top of the South Island. All of it now spiritually off-limits.

"A death, as sad as it is, does not justify holding the general public hostage under spiritual rules they did not ask for and may not believe in. This rāhui is a cultural imposition masquerading as community safety. It’s not based on science. It’s not enforced through law. It’s a belief system being forced upon every resident, tourist, fisherman, swimmer and beachgoer in the region. Why aren’t the iwi leaders placing rāhuis on the streets where Māori kids are being murdered or where people die from drink driving?

"The Iwi Emergency Management Rōpū, working inside the official Nelson/Tasman Emergency Operations Centre, declared the rāhui would stay in place 'as long as te Taiao dictates.' That’s not an end date. That’s a mystic shrug."

~ Matua Kahurangi from his post 'No swimming, no fishing, no voice'