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CPD points: 1.0

Mātauranga = knowledge, wisdom, understanding, skill from a Māori perspective

As part of thier continuing education of all things Māori, Garden Design Society of New Zealand (GDSNZ) bring you a talk by Dion Pou, a restoration ecologist and environmental engagement independent contractor to Manaaki Whenua (Landcare Research). Dion is a trustee of Rivercare Group, and provides the group—headed up by Chris Ballantyne (Second Nature) Trust Chairperson/Group Co-Founder—with advice on the natural integration of a Māori worldview and understanding, namely Te Ao Marama and Mātauranga Māori. Dion has a BSc in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 

Western science and Mātauranga Māori have been contrasted as centripetal and centrifugal processes to knowledge generation. As a centripetal process, scientific knowledge becomes increasingly refined, but within areas of expertise that are inevitably narrower in scope. It tends to focus on individual processes or disciplines. By contrast, Māori knowledge also acknowledges individual elements of the world around us, but seeks out the connections amongst them; a fundamental principle of a Māori worldview being the interconnectedness of all things, encapsulated in whakapapa. Māori knowledge is also very much place focussed. A focus on place and connections naturally generates a systems level view of the world.  

Importantly though, Mātauranga Māori is not simply a philosophy of systems level thinking, but also a framework for applying it.

Engaging with these understandings is an opportunity not simply for increased equity and a more inclusive community, but for an enriched approach to everything we do. 

AN INTRO FROM DION HIMSELF

Dion Tena koutou. Ko Dion Pou toku ingoa. He uri no Ngapuhi ahau.

I am an ecologist with experience in both applied ecology and research. This work has involved a diversity of stakeholders always with a strong community focus, including a special interest in supporting Whānau Māori.

I am born and bred in the rural Far North, of Ngapuhi whakapapa. My love of taiao, the natural world, and particularly the ngahere (forest) was fostered by my Father, and by my Grandmother, who was raised traditionally in the forest itself. I believe that Māori philosophy and practice has a great deal to offer as we strive to improve the wellbeing of our environment and community together, and so I share this in everything I do.

Most of all, I have a particular interest in ensuring that place is always the focal point for our thinking, starting with environment, then placing people and communities central within this, and advocating for this in both planning and practice.

Nga manaakitanga ki a koutou katoa.