Integrating Mātauranga into UNESCO’s Work

“Like many Indigenous peoples around the world, Māori have developed their understanding of their environment through close observation of the landscape and its behaviours over the course of many generations,” Vogue Business sustainability editor Rachel Cernansky writes in a New York Times-published opinion piece about the value of Indigenous knowledge.

“Now the New Zealand Environmental Protection Agency regularly looks for ways to integrate traditional Māori knowledge, or mātauranga, into its decision-making,” Cernansky writes.

Dan Hikuroa, a senior lecturer in Māori Studies at the University of Auckland and member of the Ngāti Maniapoto tribe, has been appointed the culture commissioner for UNESCO New Zealand, “a role he said is centred on integrating Māori knowledge into UNESCO’s work.”

“Embracing Indigenous knowledge, as New Zealand is trying to do, can improve how federal governments manage ecosystems and natural resources. This is ever more urgent, particularly as the climate crisis unfolds.”

Original article by Rachel Cernansky, The New York Times, July 10, 2021.

Photo by Meg Jerrard.