Professor Jerry Coyne: More unsubstantiated assertions of indigenous “science” in New Zealand

Predator Free NZ (“PFZ”, and “NZ” is New Zealand) is apparently a science-oriented trust whose goal—a worthy one—is to keep non-native predators, such as the common brushtail possum, out of New Zealand, as they destroy native wildlife and have other bad effects on the ecosystem. (The possum, for example, destroys native New Zealand birds and carries bovine tuberculosis, and it’s a constant battle to destroy them). But, like apparently all science in New Zealand, the organization is getting infiltrated with indigenous “ways of knowing” and “lived experience”, which in the case at hand appear, at they so often do, not to be based on real science at all. Real science means you use data to test a hypothesis, not simply adduce “lived experience”.

Dr David Lillis: Farming by the Stars?

Lunar Calendars for Farming?

The New Zealand Herald has just published another piece on farming according to astronomical phenomena (NZ Herald, 2025). We are told that as “Aotearoa” celebrates Matariki weekend, it is a good time to look at how Māori farmers used the Maramataka, the lunar year, to guide farming practices and that the Matariki hākari (feast) is the time to celebrate the kai that comes from the land of Kiwi farms.

Professor Jerry Coyne: Māori lunar calendar takes over New Zealand

This article from Skeptic Magazine notes how the calendar of the indigenous Māori people became a craze in New Zealand, taking over and regulating many human activities when there’s no evidence that the calendar is useful for those purposes. Click on the title to read; excerpts are indented: