Mātauranga Māori: a philosophy from Aotearoa

ABSTRACT

This paper responds to an earlier one about mātauranga Māori by Dan Hikuroa [2017. Mātauranga Māori—the ūkaipō of knowledge in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 47(1):5–10], in a spirit of koha (contribution) towards keeping alive this important discussion about the relationship between science and Māori knowledge. Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) has been discussed for many years in the fields of Education and Māori Studies, and more recently has been taken seriously as a policy issue by the science establishment in Aotearoa New Zealand. I argue against equating mātauranga Māori with science, since I think it is better conceived as a form of philosophy of science, rather than as a form of ‘science’ itself. This approach possibly allows ideas from mātauranga Māori to inform science at a values level, below the level of the empirical knowledge base, without needing to claim that mātauranga Māori is the same as science or uses scientific methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Māori philosophy
• Mātauranga Māori
• nature of science
• philosophy of science

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).