Whiti o Rehua School of Art <\/p>\n\n\n\n
M\u0101ori knowledge systems are deeply ingrained with ecological wisdoms and human relationships between whenua (land) water, animals, insects and birds. Professor Huhana Smith, Head of Whiti o Rehua School of Art, is using this unique knowledge to carry out transdisciplinary environmental research, particularly involving freshwater and climate change vulnerabilities for M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Our research is grounded in kaupapa M\u0101ori and m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori [M\u0101ori practices and knowledge] and we acknowledge first and foremost the knowledge systems of our iwi [tribe] and hap\u016b [subtribe] who have generated this knowledge via close association to place over many generations,\u2019 she said. \u2018Our projects are about determining beneficial futures for iwi and hap\u016b, and the action, presence and leadership come from M\u0101ori. However, our research is mutually beneficial for all communities.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Smith points out that although M\u0101ori knowledge systems are ingrained with custom, they are not fixed. \u2018They are constantly moving and changing, but there are some deep-seated elements that you can\u2019t mistreat or misuse.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For over two decades, she has been involved in projects around the impacts of ecological decline in freshwater and effects on iwi and hap\u016b, with an aim to protect significant cultural waterway systems within ancestral landscapes that increase associated community wellbeing. \u2018This is where everyone gets their food from, but by us engaging in agriculture and farming in our coastal and ancestral regions our own people had been complicit in the decline of our waterways. With support from kaum\u0101tua and the farm board, we began working to protect significant wetlands, and going through the shifts and changes that our hap\u016b and shareholders required to understand that we needed to be protecting these places, not destroying them via our farming.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An important method in planning for this work has been oral narrative research, to find out what people recalled about the way their region looked when they were young, the customs and sustainable practices observed. \u2018M\u0101ori is a visual knowledge system, and poetic in language,\u2019 says Professor Smith. \u2018We were harnessing all of that with local knowledge of place, and deepening our concepts of whakapapa [genealogical relationships], by h\u012bkoi or walking\/talking the whenua.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, Professor Smith is leading the third phase of climate change projects funded by The Deep South Te K\u014dmata o Te Tonga Vision M\u0101tauranga National Science Challenge, and her team has developed strategies for M\u0101ori coastal land-holdings between \u014chau and Waikawa Rivers. \u2018These are whole-of-system approaches to things that would work on M\u0101ori land,\u2019 she says, \u2018but there are changes that need to happen within M\u0101ori governance as well.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
From 2010 to 2015 she led the Horowhenua Manaaki Taha Moana project, alongside another case study led by Tauranga Moana iwi researchers. This large project utilised Western science and m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori to assist iwi and hap\u016b in actively restoring and enhancing coastal ecosystems. She and her team focused on key valued areas within the Horowhenua coastline between H\u014dkio (near Levin) and Waitohu streams, just north of \u014ctaki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Smith is also a practising artist, albeit limiting her personal commercial focus in recent years. \u2018I still paint, but I\u2019ve started channelling that creative potential by embedding myself into whenua\/awa [river] based projects,\u2019 she said. Currently, she is involved with Te Waituhi \u0101 Nuku Drawing Ecologies group, a collaboration of artists who intend to inspire environmental and climate change awareness and action. Te Waituhi \u0101 Nuku is working towards a large site-based exhibition in Kuku with proposed national and international reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018It\u2019s literally like whakapapa, laying down layers of effort and energy, generated by a group of us who are passionate about this for our relations, our tribal whenua and future generations,\u2019 she said. \u2018We are coming together in innovative ways to map out a new future by returning natural integrity and knowledge about place, by activating kaitiakitanga [environmental care] projects for our ancestral land.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, she points out, although the ecological natural knowledge systems contained within m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori need to be re-emphasised in a contemporary context, this must be done with due respect to tradition and in care of the spiritual aspects of M\u0101ori knowledge. \u2018I don\u2019t want to see damage done to indigenous knowledge systems, because enough damage has been done already,\u2019 she says. A large part of this transformation is respecting tikanga M\u0101ori (protocols). \u2018All of our research is grounded by our marae, where all of our researchers have to come through the marae first, and only then can they get out on the whenua. We have been able to hold a series of w\u0101nanga [intensive learning on marae] about how we engage and conduct ourselves within these modes of research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Contemporary conditions are really tough. Everything we engage with today in a capitalist system has to change, and I\u2019m trying in so many ways to harness artistic and design potential within a M\u0101ori cultural context to help transform.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PROFESSOR HUHANA SMITH Ng\u0101ti Tukorehe, Ng\u0101ti Raukawa ki te Tonga Whiti o Rehua School of Art M\u0101ori knowledge systems are deeply ingrained with ecological wisdoms and human relationships between whenua (land) water, animals, insects and birds. Professor Huhana Smith, Head of Whiti o Rehua School of Art, is using this unique knowledge to carry out … Continue reading Using M\u0101ori knowledge systems to protect the environment<\/span>