Whaowhia te kete mātauranga - Fill your baskets of knowledge

The zeitgeist is a funny thing. There probably hasn't been a year where the passions of people aren't tied up in some cultural moment, and at every moment it is easy to believe that there wasn't a time more contentious and polarised on certain issues than the current time. It might be that recency bias, that is, that every moment is just as controversial and you only perceive the current and recent times to be moreso because of amnesia. But perhaps the world really is becoming more complicated with a tipping point of pluralism and technology has both been reached where sudden the once settled world is now lacking the blacks and the whites of an earlier age, and now we have a confusing grey.

I tend to subscribe to the latter idea and there are 101 examples of late, whether it be antivaxx movement(s), Critical Race Theory and, now, New Zealand's own indigenous culture war flare-up: the equal recognition of mātauranga Māori in our education system. Missed it? Here is a taster from the Herald. The letter that kicked off the kerfuffle is here. My own synopsis of it is that the Ministry of Education now insists on mātauranga Māori to be included in NCEA alongside "Western science" and with equal status. This triggered a lot of fire and heat, the misuse of the word "racist" prematurely, followed by a lot of views expressed by a whole range of people that verge on, and often go well into the deep dark valleys of racism.

The term mātauranga is broad as a dictionary reference should give you an overview. It comes from the word mātau which means wise, smart and knowledgeable. From my understanding, mātauranga should cover the knowledge and understandings gathered from the te ao, and shared down the generations. This you could translate as "science" but there is a separate word for that: pūtaiao. In the definition linked above it shows that it has also been used as the Māori word for "education" and "science". Some formal translations that involve it are force-fits for modern concepts as well as the evolution of the language for modern uses. 

So the battle-lines in this tussle? Well, there is what I would call "the white scientist in a white coat" (no, they're not just pākehā). Let's just call it the white-in-white view. Opposing them is a view that is more relativistic - let's call them "the woke". Both have their own beliefs and biases. White-in-white view has two oversimplifications - that there own craft is pristine and non-racial on the inside in how it works; and, in the way it is traditionally learned, objective world knowledge on the outside, and perceived in that way by students and society. The letter discusses quite rightly that what we see as modern science is not western and its goals are universal. This is an enlightened view but one that does not necessarily come from the education system, nor how it is seen. Let's have a look.

The history of science or development is often plotted with these points: Aristotle - Galileo - Newton - Einstein - modern science, or some such variation. It is not an isolated view that European cultures did all the heavy lifting to hoist us up the tree of knowledge, for where are the coloured people? The gaps are many -  the conceptualisation of zero in maths (Indian), gunpowder and paper (China), the gap between Aristotle and Galileo (about 1800 years) where European cultures burned the classic books as heretical, where Arabic libraries retained the language and pushed it forward. The fossil evidence for this is clear in language where al-cohol (which was isolated by al-Khwarizmi) and al-gebra (Jābir ibn Ḥayyān) which both were developed in this time. The modern body of knowledge we call science has been blessed with the contribution of all world's peoples, and it is often the acceptance of "foreign" ideas that things get a move-on. The vanguard of the white-in-white, the letter writers, know this implicitly if not explicitly.

Behind the white-on-white line, there is quite a faction of cultural conservatives that decry and moderation of the white secular mainstream that prevailed before. The Don Brashes of this world are in here who would rather let bygones-be-bygones with respect to Māori, insist that we are all equal under the law and things should just move on. There are many who see no purpose or need for progress, or see it as a threat. (Sidenote: I met an old friend yesterday who'd trained as a high school teacher but now is homeschools his son full-time due to his concerns. Though he didn't raise the topic of Māori, it was about the slide away from just teaching children knowledge, but the increasing priority of education on what to think. I'd include him in this camp.)

Louder behind the line though are people who vehemently do not like these changes, the kind who would say "Māori can have the foreshore but only if they go fishing in waka and with spears" (paraphrasing my father); or willfully throw around strawmen saying that Māori science would be teaching the pantheon of gods who were responsible for creation and natural forces, that biologists should know Tangaroa; botanists, Rongomātāne, and the meteorologists should consult Tāwhirimātea. I would say that these go into the realms of racism.

 

I have only had a brief review of how Ministry of Education recommends the teaching of mātauranga Māori. As this was specifically brought up by academics in the science faculty at the University of Auckland, it was interpreted solely in the context of science, and this has narrowed down what is meant to be a wider focus. It is intended that mātauranga Māori and te ao Māori (the Māori world) are included, where "possible and appropriate", into the curriculum, achievement standards and assessments, and treating these equally and not with Māori content being the add-on, the one that you need to leave the room for, etc. Art and architecture, for example, could easily have this component; right now, in my organisation none of the "creatives" have any idea about Māori design, which are now in huge demand. 

But its not just meant for an "ends" approach where having appropriate and equal treatment of content will result in a more complete graduate. I read into that part is to make it clear that other cultures' accumulated knowledge and wisdom are all valued and that your identity in turn has value. There will be a lot of people who pooh-pooh this idea. I do not know how much research "stock" is behind the more woke perspective that providing safety and dignity ends up with better outcomes overall. I just know people who do not feel they have a place in an institution opt out of it. The white-in-white view would be that provision of the best learning techniques with the best information, regardless of where it comes from, is the best way to develop the potential of our students. It probably served me well, and the co-signers probably did well too. I do not know whether there is any research "stock" in this, either, apart from the obvious result being that an elite do arise from it, a few Māori, but the overwhelming majority of them not.

With respect to science, there is still a lot more to be said than just recognising the fact that the Polynesian oceanic navigation techniques were top-notch and led to the location and migration to New Zealand, and to sail to Madagascar in the west and possibly to South America in the east as early as the 12th century; or the cultivation of kūmara in New Zealand conditions; or the development of medicine with New Zealand plants. It is to show that Māori and their ancestors were not merely war-like primitive stone-age people but developed through observation and experimentation, just as readily as those in other cultures. European science had the foot-up from their own cross-fertilisation of ideas through invasions, immigration, competition and communication, but both cultures had the same potential to achieve. They were just placed in different environments. 

New Zealand public schools are now a common environment for students of all cultural backgrounds and there needs to be an equitable approach, and the chance to know they can achieve. Māori students demographically speaking are out-competed by other Polynesians and other immigrant cultures for an array of reasons. 

I for one think the changes are a good start at least at addressing one of those reasons, and making the rest a bit broader minded and appreciate the achievements that sprung up from this place.