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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

John Raine: Let's have some realism about Mātauranga Maori


Traditional Knowledge in Education and Research


The role in the New Zealand education system of Māori traditional knowledge, encompassed in mātauranga Māori (MM), has triggered heated debate around the current Education and Training Act Amendment Bill (No.2) [1]. We are currently at risk of further enshrining in education policy Treaty of Waitangi obligations that have no place in a secular education system. Māori traditional knowledge has a rightful place but must not have a politically driven, sanctified position in school or university curricula.

Two related items caught my attention recently. The first was a webinar, “Māori knowledge in science education: He mana ōrite, he awa whiria” [2] delivered on 12th June 2025 by Professor Georgina Stewart (School of Education, AUT) and Associate Professor Sally Birdsall (Faculty of Arts & Education, University of Auckland).

The second was a 30th June 2025 Marsden Fund Research update [3] from the Royal Society Te Aparangi (RSTA), titled, “Low carbon concrete blends Roman engineering with mātauranga Māori”, on the University of Auckland research of Dr Enrique del Rey Castillo. First, a recap on traditional knowledge versus modern science.

Traditional Knowledge Versus Science

Earlier societies worldwide were characterised by knowledge which came from observation of the natural world, trial and error, and belief in the presence and influence of spirits and/or gods associated with such things as ancestors, the sun, forests, the mountains, water, or particular places or objects.

All modern technological societies evolved from these earlier communities, who had yet to benefit from the scientific discoveries of the liberal enlightenment of the 17th and 18th century, through the industrial revolution and subsequently up to the present day. This period delivered huge benefits in health, nutrition, domestic comfort, quality of life, life expectancy, education, and a codified legal system that were not available from traditional and indigenous belief systems.

Māori, living in isolation until the arrival of European settlers, held traditional knowledge and beliefs that were unique in some respects, but similar to those of other much earlier societies. MM involves much knowledge from observation of nature, including knowledge of flora and fauna, a phenomenological understanding of ecosystems and crop planting, local geology and geography, the weather, and celestial navigation. However, without written language, earthenware pottery, metal smelting, the wheel, mathematics, all of the physics, chemistry and biology, and advances of modern science, when European settlers arrived MM corresponded in technological terms to knowledge in other societies predating 3000 BC.

Modern science involves the systematic organisation of knowledge and the rational explanation of natural phenomena based on reason and evidence. It is underpinned by method: hypothesis, test, verification or falsification, and the possibility of new evidence or knowledge reshaping our understanding of a particular phenomenon. Traditional knowledge is not subjected to the validation or testing that is expected of science and cannot be applied reliably in the sense of modern science.

The relationship of traditional knowledge with science has been complicated by the mandate of the Labour Government in 2020 that MM should have “mana ōrite” or equal standing with modern science. Stewart and Birdsall contend that the main aim of mana ōrite is "rebalancing the weight of history,” which is at the outset an overtly political aim that should not be imposed on the education system. Further, the sacralisation of Māori traditional knowledge parallels the sacralisation of the Treaty of Waitangi itself (in fact a secular document) in areas of New Zealand society - for example, in the Salvation Army and some Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Baptist churches.

Particularly in the sciences, the introduction of mythical or spiritual concepts from MM or any other traditional knowledge leads to muddled thinking and a dilution of hard science content. Indoctrination, or the mandated teaching of unchallengeable traditional knowledge and beliefs which is now occurring, has no place, nor does the overlay of a particular culture that must be treated as sacrosanct. Nor is it right that all students, irrespective of social background, country of origin, ethnicity or religion, should have to accept one particular form of indigenous knowledge as truth.

Mātauranga Māori in Education

The third slide in the Stewart and Birdsall PowerPoint webinar made the following assertions, that mātaurangaMaori is:

· Māori knowledge in the widest sense

· Not divided into disciplines

· Māori concepts, values and perspectives

· All aspects of Māori culture and identity

· Includes the knowledge lost since colonisation

· Also the Western knowledge that Māori people have borrowed

· The knowledge that Māori students bring into the classroom.

Stewart’s description of MM is problematic for any structured inclusion in taught curricula because:

· It is holistic, undivided into disciplines, includes the material and spiritual, with all things interconnected, and with whakapapa back to the origins of being.

· Its inclusion of values, culture, myth, and spiritual ideas with observational knowledge from the natural world makes it incompatible with the evidence-based knowledge of science. Moreover, we are told that only Māori can interpret and challenge MM (i.e. it is sanctified), and it must be accepted without question.

· Knowledge lost since colonisation is largely undefinable, which further complicates defining the scope of MM.

· Māori have of course adopted huge amounts of knowledge that came from scientific discoveries since the 17th century, wrongly called “Western Knowledge” by those with a decolonisation agenda. Such knowledge is universal and cannot become MM by being appropriated as “Western knowledge borrowed by Māori”. Indeed, if “Western knowledge” is subsumed into MM, does it become unchallengeable by non-Māori? And, if MM can include “Western Knowledge”, is it logical for only knowledge brought into the classroom by Māori students to be deemed MM?

· Over time, with further intermingling of ancestries in New Zealand how do we define who can speak as Māori with cultural authority on MM, or teach it?

· If MM is an ever-expanding cloud encompassing all non-Māori knowledge as asserted by Stewart and Birdsall, then increasingly whatever is taught in our schools and universities could be MM and indistinguishable from other taught material. It then becomes rationally unteachable as an identifiable subject.

The path proposed by Stewart and Birdsall appears to be out of touch with reality. We can draw on traditional knowledge in MM and respect it where it contributes to academic discourse, complements science, or helps solve a current problem. To carve out ever more race-based MM territory is a political distraction that adds nothing to the quality of the education of our young.

The mandatory inclusion of mātauranga Māori in taught curricula has led to instances of repression of academic freedom where university academics have disagreed with such mandates [4]. Some have been vilified by colleagues simply for presenting a reasonable and valid viewpoint, as happened to the seven University of Auckland professors following their July 2021 letter to the Listener [5]. These professors emphasised the value and importance of Māori traditional knowledge in our society, that it can contribute to advancing science, but that it cannot be equated with modern science. Moreover, since it rests on cultural authority, MM is epistemologically incompatible with science. Abbot et al. [6] explore this issue in the wider critical social justice context.

Mātauranga Māori in Science Research

MBIE supported the last Labour Government's push to achieve equal standing between MM and modern science. This has fostered mission creep in the requirement to address Vision Mātauranga (VM) in the publicly funded research system. VM significantly relates to having Māori research team members, and engagement with Māori stakeholders and end users. It has led to researchers tying themselves in knots to incorporate MM and address VM in numerous science and engineering subject areas where they often have no relevance, such as in nuclear physics, computer science, and much of engineering. Publicly funded, magical-thinking pseudo-science projects such as the use of whale song to treat Kauri dieback [7] have easily met the VM requirement. It was in the end unsurprising when Minister Judith Collins called a pause on significant public research funding while objectives and funding criteria were reassessed.

In this context, the recent RSTA Research Update on “Low carbon concrete blends Roman engineering with mātauranga Māori”, presents an interesting revival of ancient Roman technology. The research is justified as helping combat climate change by using pumice and ground seashells as a less energy-intensive bonding agent in concrete than cement.

This looks like a useful project but is typical of many Marsden and Endeavour Fund projects that have been shaped to present an MM connection which is in fact extremely tenuous. Apart from natural links to Māori industrial end users, which help meet VM requirements for a successful research grant application, involvement of MM in this project appears to relate simply to environmental sustainability. The latter primarily concerns values rather than science per se and is something of equal importance to non-Māori. If MM is to be cited as a significant part of a project, it must make a real contribution, or its inclusion is just compliance box-ticking.

Closing Remark

Advocates for mātauranga Māori do it and themselves a disservice by over-claiming its potential scope and relevance to wide areas of education and research. We can respect its value and contribution without our education and research system being driven by ideological objectives around cultural transformation of our society. To do otherwise only creates resentment and cynicism.

John Raine is an Emeritus Professor of Engineering and has formerly held positions as Pro Vice Chancellor or Deputy Vice Chancellor (Albany and International) in three New Zealand universities. He is a grant assessor in the publicly funded research system.

References:

1. Draft Education and Training Amendment Bill (No.2), New Zealand Parliament, 11th April 2025. https://bills.parliament.nz/v/6/8826c9d4-8f6e-4018-cdf7-08dd758b2660?Tab=history

2. Georgina Tuari Stewart and Sally Birdsall, “Māori knowledge in science education: He Mana Ōrite, He Awa Whiria”, Webinar 12 June 2025, hosted by Science Learning Hub

3. Royal Society Te Aparangi, Marsden Fund Research Updates, “Low carbon concrete blends Roman engineering with mātauranga Māori”, 30th June 2025

https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/research/low-carbon-concrete-blends-roman-engineering-with-matauranga-maori/?

4. James Kierstead, “Unpopular Opinions – academic Freedom in New Zealand”, a report from the New Zealand Initiative, August 2024. https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/reports/unpopular-opinions-academic-freedom-in-new-zealand/

5. Kendall Clements, Garth Cooper, Michael Corballis, Douglas Elliffe, Robert Nola, Elizabeth Rata, John Werry, “In Defence of Science”, The Listener, 31st July 2021, p.4.

6. D. Abbot, A. Bikfalvi, A.L. Bleske-Rechek, W. Bodmer, P. Boghossian, C.M. Carvalho, J. Ciccolini, J.A. Coyne, J. Gauss, P.M.W. Gill, S. Jitomirskaya, L. Jussim, A.I. Krylov, G.C. Loury, L. Maroja, J.H. McWhorter,S. Moosavi, P. Nayna Schwerdtle, J. Pearl, M.A. Quintanilla-Tornel, H.F. Schaefer III, P.R. Schreiner, P. Schwerdtfeger, D. Shechtman, M. Shifman, J. Tanzman, B.L. Trout, A. Warshel, and J.D. West, “In Defense of Merit in Science”. Journal of Controversial Ideas 2023, 3(1), 1; 10.35995/jci03010001, pp1-26.

7. Jerry Coyne, “More Scientific Mishigass Based on Indigenous “Ways of Knowing” in New Zealand”, Why evolution is True, 3rd September 2024 https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2024/09/03/more-scientific-mishigass-based-on-indigenous-ways-of-knowing-in-new-zealand/

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

And we wonder why we struggle to attract people to a teaching career. No longer is the curriculum fit for purpose, or even believable!

Anonymous said...

“Moreover, we are told that only Māori can interpret and challenge MM (i.e. it is sanctified), and it must be accepted without question”.

Goodness me, if there are no true (pure blood - 100 percenters) Māori in existence, how can this statement be achieved.

Time to shut down these MM fairy tales, and stick to recognised - and accepted world wide - science, biology, mathematics, mechanics, et al.

Time for the spineless lot who run New Zealand (the coalition government, under egg-head Luxon) to deliver on their promises leading up to the elections.

John Porter said...

Thank you John. An excellent article.
Objectivity is totally lacking in so many articles penned on matauranga Maori. John has written a knowledgeable piece, unencumbered by personal views or a political agenda.
John’s synopsis of the interpretations and “evidences” put forward by the academics show exactly how our higher education sector has been captured by ideologues! Our university chancellors have a lot to answer for by allowing and promoting the distortion of the truth! Young minds have been adulterated by these bastions free thinking, free speech and open mindedness.
Are we ever going to turn around the “Maori Sovereignty” juggernaut?

Allen Heath said...

It's impossible to take seriously an ethnic group that less than 200 years ago was clinging to the stone-age, then readily (and greedily) took on all the advantages of the technology, language and philosophy of the colonists, but insists now in not just reviling said colonists, but wants to revert to the past and its primitive imaginings. Any who insist now on identifying as maori can go ahead and cling to their beliefs and atavistic knowledge, but they must not be allowed to pollute our advances and impede the progress of the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

These people demanding this crap must have Maori holding a gun to their heads.
Or are their families being threatened ?
To suddenly switch from being sensible intelligent people to sincerely believing in this goobly gook is not rational.
What is happening?
Are they getting a cut somewhere in this corruption of their values and payments to Maori ?

Anonymous said...

In debates on social justice it is very critical that we argue politely and objectively, and are prepared to concede a point here and there when the opposition really does have a valid perspective.

And so we recognize that, though colonisation brought many good things to New Zealand, some of the activism and reaction we see today was indeed fomented by oppression and marginalization, and that indeed we see remaining disparities.

It is now a question of how to shore up those disparities - but repairing disparities will not be achieved by inserting false ideas into education or creating false equalities in science or handing over large portions of the conservation estate or by handing over control over water. Nor will it be achieved by giving top jobs to people who do not merit those jobs either by qualification or skillset. David Lillis

Ray S said...

Anonymous @ 10:08
My thoughts exactly.
Otherwise why would people believed to have minds of their own gradually become converts and believers in a stone age culture not their own.
As for indocrinating our young people. I have two pre school great grandchildren who are able to recite short stories in MAORI, complete with actions. Probably learned by rote, but somebody has to teach it.
Unfortunately, one parent is front line in the education system and fails to see what is happening to her child.

anonymous said...

To avoid howls of racism, always couch the message in positive terms: " A free and equal NZ for NZers regardless of ancestry."

glan011 said...

Maybe younger folk are waking to indoctrination, brainwashing??

Gaynor said...

I question that the people responsible for this MM nonsense were originally from sensible , intelligent back grounds .
When is the day of reckoning going to come for the whole shebang of NZ miseducation skewed to persistent failure and stupid decision ? Just one blatant example is open classrooms which after a decade of being forced on schools are now exposed as thoroughly destructive and never having been based in any research or science.
This simple example illustrates how elite education academia and the Ministry function . They flop from one fad to another with no regard at all for whether it will be advantageous for the student.
This is and always has been the nature of Progressivism - constant change for its own sake.
The overarching 'discipline ' of education is mostly in the social sciences steeped in dubious theories and ideologies. The social sciences are soft sciences and grounded in ill founded notions, from my perspective in the physical sciences.
How does educational academia explain forcing a completely nonsensical method of teaching reading , Whole Language, on the whole of the English speaking world for at least five decades and consequently destroying the futures of multi millions of children through illiteracy?
These education academics should be viewed with extreme skepticism . Ideology dominates their thinking . They appear to Know little of the nature of genuine science and its methodologies.
The social sciences as well , are largely based in Darwinism which is itself a theory under considerable scrutiny and being challenged by the likes of David Gelernter of Yale University and other similar intellectual heavyweights who are not necessarily Christian . The pursuit of truth is their aim not peoples' preciously held world views .
I suggest this launch into MM is the natural consequence of just more ideology by intellectual light weights which has been going on in education departments for a multitude of decades.
They do more harm than good and could be better replaced by any Jo Citizen , with common sense who hasn't got his mind stuffed up with insane theories often from DEI Marxism.

mudbayripper said...

As well meaning and learnered as all who contribute to, and comment on this site, all are going round and round in a vain attempt to apply logic to the destructive nature of the insane insertion of all things Māori into every aspect of New Zealand life.
There is a logical explanation.
It most definitely is a conspiracy that has been in progress for at least 50years.
This Left wing Marxist project affecting all the western democracies has one aim.
A transfer of power and wealth to the few. There is much speculation as to who is actually in control of this.
One things for sure, there are no armies to fight back.
Individuality and free thought has always been our biggest strength, it is also our downfall.
The collectivism and determination of the left, will prevail over democracies both here and abroad.
We have all witnessed the total breakdown of representative democracy, personally I can't see any way back.

Robert arthur said...

On RNZ recently a maori doctorate (yet another) made the case for farming NZ wood pigeons (kereru). They used the argument that as eaten in 1840 a taonga and thus the right persists.This logic can be applied to infanticide, tohungaism, cannibalism and near all other maori excesses (and is).

Anonymous said...

So many get so angry when you ask for specific MM examples....

Sis said...

To mudbayripper, You’re giving them too much credit. They’re not as smart as you’re assuming. It’s more a house of cards. It lasts only because it offers second and third raters an easy way to secure lucrative jobs, prestigious titles, and a sense of power. Yes, there are a lot of them. If the government cut funding for social sciences (not just Marsden funding, but cut the general funding for social sciences) and if the government began to ‘tax’ universities on the proportion of management-administrative staff to teaching-researching staff, then there’d be huge changes. Further, I’d argue that there are armies waiting and ready to step up — they are all of the serious scholars in sciences and humanities who have been pushed aside under the decolonisation/indigenisation movement. Those scholars, who aren’t activists, just disciplinary experts, are not all gone. Many have been pushed out, but others remain. They’re there because of their expertise, love of their disciplines, and most want to give New Zealanders excellent educations. Of course, there are some fakes hiding among the sciences and humanities, but when the house of cards crumbles, the fakes won’t be able to compete. Don’t be too pessimistic. Not yet.

anonymous said...

Fairy tales - or Goebbles-inspired propaganda? But the real issue is how any thinking person could accept this invented rort?

anonymous said...

Our sympathies. She will pay for this.

Anonymous said...

John Raine - what a well written, patient article. It’s an excellent read. David Lillis, I hear the point you are trying to make. However wasn't the Waitangi Tribunal supposed to be our nation’s sincere attempt to at least mitigate, if not remedy, any genuine wrongs from the past? Like most NZers at the time I supported the idea of the Tribunal. I was proud of NZ for standing up for what seemed right. The only problem is I now feel the Tribunal and many Maori leaders are simply taking advantage. If matauranga is science then it comes with research funding. That’s why there’s no demand to include it in anthropology. Follow the money. Requirements for cultural reports, blessings, karakia - they all come at a price. Foreshore and seabed rights, conservation land with mining prospects - big potential money-makers. By laying the spiritual aspects on extra thick, everything becomes sacred and therefore harder to argue with. I’m sorry, but we’ve gone way beyond sincere attempts to repair disparities. This is now more like a great big con. I’ve definitely reached the “resentment and cynicism” stage.

Anonymous said...

I doubt there were ever te-reo words for 'negotiate', 'compromise' etc. These actions are seen as a weakness to be exploited to the full