I te putanga o ngā hua i te tau 2019, i kino kē ake i tā mātou i whakaaro tuatahi ai: e 5 ōrau noa iho o ngā tauira i ngā whare wānanga o Aotearoa, he Māori. Ahakoa rā te piki haeretanga o te nui o ngā ākonga Māori e whai ana i ō rātou tohu paetahi mai i te tau 1990 me te nui o te iwi Māori, kei te 16 ōrau ināianei, e tipu haere tonu nei me te wawe hoki o taua tipuranga rā.

Ko au tētahi o te 5 ōrau pakupaku nei o ngā Māori i te ao mātauranga; kua kotahi tau mai i te wā i tīmata ai ahau, i mutu ai hoki te whāia o taku Tohu Kairangi. Ko te hua o te tokoiti o ngā pūkenga Māori, ko te iti o te rangona o tā te Māori i kite ai, i warea ai, i mahi ai hoki e ngā tauira katoa. Nā konā i iti ai tā te tauira Māori kite i te Māori anō i ngā tūranga mana nui o ngā whare wānanga, me te aha, ka riro mā konā e whakatau mēnā rānei rātou ka whai atu hoki i taua huarahi rā. Inā te whakahirahira o te iho pūmanawa – me kite rawa, e whakapono ai te tangata ka taea e ia.

Nā te tokoiti o ngā Māori i pāpaku ai hoki te puna whakaako i ngā tauira me ngā hoa mahi ki te hua o te mātauranga Māori, arā, ā te Māori kōrero, i roto i te rangahau, te akomanga me ngā huarahi whakamahea i ngā raru nui kei mua i ō tātou aroaro. 

Koinā hoki i nui ai te pōhiritia o tēnei pukapuka ātaahua. Ka whakatenatenatia tātou e ngā kōrero matawhaiaro, nā ngā ngutu o ngā pūkenga Māori e 24 kei Aotearoa e mahi ana. He mea whakamārama ko wai rātou, ka pēhea hoki tā rātou tuitui i ēnei ariā whakatōpū, torowhānui hoki o te mātauranga Māori ki roto i ā rātou rangahau mō ngā tini kaupapa, me te ngahau hoki i te nuinga o te wā, pēnei i te mātai tatauranga (Tahu Kukutai), ngā mahi whakahaere (Chellie Spiller), te mātai hauropi (Shaun Ogilvie), te mātai aronuku (Dan Hukuroa), te ture (Māmari Stephens), te tātai arorangi (Rangi Matamua), te ao whakaata (Jani Wilson), te mātai ahupūngao (Ocean Ripeka Mercier van Berkel) me te Pākehā (Alice Te Punga Somerville). 

Kāore au i te tino mōhio ki te nuinga o rātou, engari i te pānuitanga o ā rātou kōrero, ka mahara ahau, ehara ahau i te kākaho takitahi, ā, kua oti kē i a rātou te huarahi te para e whai hua ai hoki ahau. Anei a mihi ka rere, rangatira mā. Ka kōrero hoki rātou mō tā rātou whakamāori i te ao mātauranga – arā, te whakawātea i tētahi wāhi mō ngā huarahi rangahau o tua o ērā nā te Pākehā, i te huakore pea o aua huarahi rā ki ngā iwi taketake.

Kei te āhua kauhau te puka nei ki ērā e mārama ana mā te tuitui ngā kōrero whakatairanga i ngā Māori kua tō atu i te ao Māori ki te ao mātauranga, ā, i tōna tikanga e mārama ana ki ngā nekenekehanga o te whare wānanga. Engari ka whaihua ngā tāngata katoa e mahi ana i te ao rangahau, i te nui o ngā tauira o te haere ngātahitanga o ngā kōrero Māori me ētahi mahi rangahau kua roa e mahia ana.

Hei tauira, e kī nei a Naomi Simmonds, nā te mātai matawhenua Māori i mārama ai te kitea o ‘ngā raweketanga a te karauna ki runga ki te whenua’. Ko te ‘tino o ngā wheako rangahau’ o Dan Hikuroa, ko te kitenga ake o te pūtake e tāmatemate nei te mauri o Ō-Kahumatamomoe, arā, ko ngā ūnga waka – e kikino nei te papa moana i te konutea.

Ka matapakina e Meihana Durie ngā kura e noho huna ana i ngā pūrākau. Kei tua kē noa atu te kōrero mō Māui-Tinihanga i tango atu rā i te ahi i ngā maikuku o tōna kuia, o Mahuika, i te pakiwaitara kau noa mā te tamaiti, mō te ōrokohanga o te ahi – kei roto kē ko ētahi kōrero whakahirahira mō te toitūtanga o te taiao me te tauutuutu.

Ka kōrero a Nēpia Mahuika mō tā ngā hītōria taketake whakahē i ētahi whakaaro kua toka kē, e kī nei he mea tāmi a Aotearoa i runga i te rangimārie. Hei tauira whakamutunga, ka wānangatia e Chellie Spiller te kaha haeretanga o tā ētahi pakihi toro ki ngā uara Māori hei whakaū i te tukunga ihotanga o te toitūtanga.

Ka kapihia te pukapuka ki tētahi whakarāpopototanga o ngā kaupapa matua. Kia kī noa ake i konei, inā kē te nui o ngā hua o te mātauranga Māori ki Aotearoa. Heoi anō, e kaha tonu ana te kitea o te kaikiritanga, te noho taratahi me te takahitanga o ngā mātauranga taketake.

Ahakoa rā ngā wero, hei tā ngā kaiwhakatikatika, me ngākau rorotu, ka tika, ā, he mea whakarāpopoto e Rangi Matamua tētahi kōrero i auau te kitea. Hei tāna i tuhi ai, “I look forward to the day when we have a host of Māori astrophysicists, chemists, biologists and geologists, Māori in all scientific fields who have the ability to be comfortable with both the Western science and the cultural knowledge. This for me is the ultimate future for Māori within this space.”

Nā Atakohu Middleton tēnei arotakenga

Nā Parekura Pēwhairangi i whakamāori

When the news came out in 2019, it was worse than we had anticipated: just 5 per cent of scholars in the universities of Aotearoa are Māori. That’s despite the numbers of Māori undergraduate students rising steadily since the 1990s and the Māori population, now at 16 per cent, going in only one direction – up, and fast.

I am one of that measly 5 per cent of Māori in academia; I started my post-PhD academic career a year ago. The result of so few Māori academics is that all students’ exposure to Māori ways of seeing, being and doing is limited. It means that Māori students see very few of their own in positions of influence in tertiary education, which has an influence on whether they choose to become academics themselves. Role models are important – you need to see it to think you can be it.

The under-representation of Māori means that there are few people to teach both students and colleagues about the value of mātauranga Māori, or Māori knowledge, in research, in the classroom and in solving the pressing problems facing our country.

This attractively illustrated book, then, is very welcome. It inspires by presenting the first-person, personal stories of 24 Māori academics working in Aotearoa. They describe, generally in engaging style, who they are and how they weave the integrated and holistic frameworks of mātauranga Māori into their research in areas as diverse as demography (Tahu Kukutai), management (Chellie Spiller), ecology (Shaun Ogilvie), geology (Dan Hikuroa), law (Māmari Stephens), astronomy (Rangi Matamua), film studies (Jani Wilson), physics (Ocean Ripeka Mercier van Berkel) and English (Alice Te Punga Somerville).

I know very few of these academics personally, but their stories remind me that I am not alone and that they have laid a lot of groundwork from which I will benefit. Anei a mihi ka rere, rangatira mā. They also speak of how they contribute to decolonising the academy – that is, making space for frames of reference beyond the standard ‘western’ approaches that may not value indigenous knowledge.

The book, which assumes some understanding of how the tertiary sector works, is preaching to the converted to an extent in relating success stories of Māori who have brought mātauranga Māori to the academy. But it is valuable to all who work in research as it provides many examples of how Māori and long-established research disciplines can usefully synthesise.

For example, Naomi Simmonds discusses how Māori geography exposes “the layers of colonial inscription on the land.” Dan Hikuroa’s “best research experience” was finding that one of the reasons for Ōkahu Bay’s depleted mauri (life force) were its boat moorings – they were polluting the seabed with zinc.

Meihana Durie discusses how kōrero pūrākau (ancient iwi and hapū narratives) encode critical knowledge. The story about Māui the trickster extracting fire from the fingernails of his grandmother Mahuika is more than a children’s story about the origin of fire – it bears important messages about environmental sustainability and reciprocity.

Nēpia Mahuika talks about the ways in which indigenous histories contest entrenched ideas that Aotearoa was colonised peacefully. As a final example, Chellie Spiller discusses how businesses are, increasingly, taking a steer from Māori values in focusing on intergenerational sustainability.

The book ends with an afterword summing up the book’s themes. In short, mātauranga Māori has great value to Aotearoa. However, researchers often face racism, isolation and the denigration of indigenous knowledge.

Despite the challenges, note the editors, there is reason for optimism, and Rangi Matamua sums up a common sentiment. “I look forward to the day,” he writes, “when we have a host of Māori astrophysicists, chemists, biologists and geologists, Māori in all scientific fields who have the ability to be comfortable with both the Western science and the cultural knowledge. This for me is the ultimate future for Māori within this space.”

Reviewed by Atakohu Middleton