Research to support improved kaitiakitanga
Knowledge systems in partnership
Strength comes from a diversity of approaches and experience. Mātauranga and lots of other knowledge systems will combine - all testing and helping one another - to support improved kaitiakitanga in this project. We reckon there is great value for the kaitiaki from combining (but not blending) mātauranga with study of:
- Science
- Geography and planning
- Surveying
- Law
- Anthropology
- Management
- Business studies
- Communication studies
- Te Reo
- Environmental history
- Community health
- Nutrition
- … and heaps else that we don’t even know we need yet.
Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai will hold mātauranga in the centre because that is the way most of the mātaitai , taiāpure and temporary closure management will be guided, understood and tested. After all, the reserves are created for people, for feeding the people and run by the people in a Māori way. All ways of learning will enhance and extend mātauranga, and in turn be helped by mātauranga.
Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai is more than just a research project!
Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai is not a research organization. Indeed research will eventually become a small part of its overall operation, especially if the researchers succeed in their own goal – to teach, support, and extend locally-driven assessment and research.
Both researchers and the kaitiaki seek to empower Māori to provide more plentiful and healthy mahinga kai for their own people and their manuhiri by applying kaitiakitanga. Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s flaxroots directors are not into creating a research industry or turning mātaitai or taiāpure into scientific zoos. They will use research only where it helps them get on with managing the environment in a Māori way, mixing traditional and new tools in a way that reflects Māori values and aspirations. The first outcome we are looking for is getting more kai onto our tables, from which improved environmental and cultural help will flow. Most of this success will come from better management of reserves, not from research alone.
FRST’s Te Tipu o Te Wānanga grant: Establishing the platform for Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai
The first major grant for Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai research came from Te Tipu o te Wānanga (TTW), the Foundation for Research Science and Technology's main Māori research investment. This puts into practice the Ministry of Research Science and Technology's Vision Mātauranga: an effort to “unlock the innovation potential of Māori knowledge, resources and people for the benefit of all New Zealanders”.
The first objective of the programme is to establish the Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai group itself, its governance structure to ensure direction from the flaxroots, and communication tools to network the kaitiaki together from all round Aotearoa. The second objective uses ecological science and mātauranga together to trigger improved mahinga kai and environmental wellbeing. Initially the research concentrates on creating and testing tools to enable improved reserve management, but traditional teachings for sustainable harvest and restoration also feature. The third objective researches the cultural wellbeing outcomes from having mātaitai and taiāpure , compares the relative worth of each, and examines the experiences and attitudes of kaitiaki and other community and government stakeholders towards kaitiakitanga, mātauranga and the area management tools themselves (taiāpure , mātaitai and temporary closures). The research will generate recommendations to all stakeholders for how to reduce barriers and build enablers for improved environmental and cultural outcomes.
The grant from FRST’s Te Tipu o te Wānanga is for $250,000 per year for four years.
A fuller explanation of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s work programme for TTW is attached … read more.
Development of a marine Cultural Health Index: a Ngāi Tahu contribution
Toitū Te Whenua of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu have cofunded Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai to create a marine 'Cultural Health Index' for long-term 'State of the Takiwā' montoring. This is a protocol where the Tangata Tiaki/kaitiaki can rapidly assess the health of their mātaitai, taiāpure or area where a temporary closure has been imposed. A very successful Cultural Health Index has already been developed by Dr Gail Tipa, Dr Lauriel Tierney and Prof. Colin Townsend for monitoring the health of rain-fed freshwater streams. It is being applied in the Mataura Mātaitai, and more widely within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā. Our new research will develop and then test a similar Cultural Health Index for coastal and estuarine habitats by July 2008 so that Ngāi Tahu can apply culturally meaningful indicators Ki Uta ki Tai (‘from the mountains to the sea'). Researchers will then compare its indications of environmental health with scientific survey data gathered in several of the participating Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai case studies in the coming years.
The grant from Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu is for $100,000. The design and first tests of the CHI are to be completed by 1 July 2008.
A fuller explanation of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s work programme for the Cultural Health Index is attached … read more.
Pāua and Toheroa restoration research: two Ministry of Fisheries contributions
The Ministry of Fisheries has provided two grants from their 2007 Customary Fisheries Research putea that will support Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai projects.
“Toheroa mātauranga and management in Murihiku” is directed by Ōraka-Aparima Rūnaka. It will gather mātauranga about past abundance and distribution of toheroa and traditional methods of management and reseeding in Murihiku. There will also be a survey of current abundance in Te Waewae Bay and surrounds with a view to considering if and where a mātaitai could be placed to support traditional toheroa harvests.
“Comparing traditional reseeding methods of pāua with contemporary methods within the Akaroa Taiāpure” is jointly directed by the Ōnuku and Wairewa Rūnanga. The work will gather mātauranga on traditional restoration strategies for pāua populations, compare this with scientific predictions, set up reseeding trials and develop a pāua management plan for the newly formed taiāpure .
The toheroa and pāua grants were for $23,000 and $39,000 respectively.
A fuller explanation of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s work programme for toheroa and pāua restoration is attached … read more.
Give and take data for better national outcomes
Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai has a philosophy of sharing scientific data and knowledge for collective benefit of Tangata Whenua and Aotearoa’s environment. If you wish to use data from the Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai database please contact the Kaiwhakahaere of Rōpu Mahinga Kai – currently this is Gail Thompson from the Awarua Rūnaka gail@awarua.org.nz . Your request will be considered at the Rōpu’s next meeting. In return the collective expects data gathered by new partners to be contributed into the database for subsequent use of all other researchers.
Collaboration between researchers please
The more research providers for Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai the better. So far research is being provided by Manaaki Whenua, University of Canterbury and University of Otago. Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai would be delighted to provide support and leverage to other CRIs, Universities, the Wānanga, Polytechnics and private consultants that have value to offer kaitiakitanga of mahinga kai.
You can download the full and more detailed list of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s TTW contracted milestones and the Ministry of Fisheries grants for pāua reseeding and toheroa restoration. Please plan your own research in ways that will complement the work we have underway.
Building local capacity for future research
Part of the research grants will used to pay for the time and travel of the kaitiaki that are contributing mātauranga to the research and/or to hire rangitahi to train in survey techniques. Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai, whenever practicable, will train locals so that empowerment remains long after the specific research question this time round have been answered. We hope those same rangitahi will lead more research on different topics in future so that eventually Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s research is done almost entirely by the kaitiaki themselves.
Opportunities exist for students, interns and volunteers to assist with your ongoing management, stock assessment and research. Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai will look for these opportunities and share them with you when they become available.
Safeguarding kaitiaki knowledge and scientific ethics: the need for a 'Code of Practice'.
Association of researchers and contributing kaitiaki groups with Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai is conditional on them following a ‘Code of Practice’ for the research. A draft CoP and a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been prepared and will be tabled at Ōnuku marae in 12th and 13th of November for the consideration by the collective membership of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai.
It is proposed that any mātauranga contributed by the kaitiaki to Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai is wholly owned by those contributors, and that they have complete discretion about whether the material is published or not. Scientific data and information from other formal scholarship for Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai will be jointly owned by Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai and those iwi/hapū/rūnanga/whānau that are formally associated with the group via a Memorandum of Understanding and the associated Code of Practice.
The TTW, Ngāi Tahu and Ministry of Fisheries research grants for pāua and toheroa restoration are collectively authorized by the University of Otago’s Ethics Committee (Permit # 07/099).
Do you want help in preparing grant applications for your local research projects?
Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai’s research team would be delighted to help participating iwi/hapū/rūnanga/whānau prepare grants for research that supports the overall project’s kaupapa. Contact Henrik Moller henrik.moller@otago.ac.nz or (03) 479-9244 in the first instance for guidance on whom in the team would be best to peer review your application.
