Māori traditional harvest, knowledge and management of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand

Abstract

Auheke: Kei roto tonu i te mātauranga taiao te oranga o nga mea katoa o te ao, ahakoa he kararehe, ahakoa he rākau, ahakoa he aha. Mo tēnei mahi rangahau i kōrero mātou ki ngā kaumātua e waru, no Te Atiawa me Ngāti Kuia, mo ngā tītī o tā rātou rohe o Te Tau Ihu o te Waka o Māui. Ko te nuinga o ngā kōrero he titiro ki te maha o te tītī ki taua takiwā, mehemea kei te mau pai tonu ngā kōhanga o te tītī, ki a rātou ake mahi hopu tītī, ā, ki a rātou tikanga mo te tiaki i te tītī. Te āhua nei kua iti haere te nuinga o te tītī, na te mea kua ngaro haere ngā tikanga tiaki tītī o ngā rā o mua. Ki ētahi, na ngā rāhui o te Kāwanatanga te hē, na te mea kua kore e āro ake ki te mātauranga o te Māori. Tuarua, kua iti haere te nuinga o te tītī mai te ao whānui, ina rā, kua tata mate katoa, e ai ki ētahi kōrero pēnei i te IUCN. Ko te mea kē, ka ngaro te rangatiratanga o te mātauranga taiao ka iti haere hoki te nuinga o te tītī. Nā kona e kī ai tēnei mahi rangahau, me kaha tonu te titiro ki nga mahi hopu tītī a te Māori. Me mau pono tonu ki ngā tikanga o te mātauranga taiao kia kore ai e iti haere te nuinga o ngā mea katoa o te taiao -koiana te kōrero.Abstract: Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) can provide valuable insights into historical abundance, ecology and conservation of species. In this study, we interviewed eight Maori kaumatua of Te Atiawa and Ngāti Kuia to document Maori traditional knowledge, or matauranga Maori, of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) of the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. Interview questions focused on shearwater abundance, breeding habitat, customary harvest, and traditional management. Matauranga Maori suggests high shearwater abundance historically, as well as traditional harvest protocols and traditional population management techniques no longer in use. Government imposed harvest bans reduced interaction with, and thus matauranga Maori of, sooty shearwaters followed by the species experiencing a worldwide decline in abundance and being classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Our study serves as an important reminder that TEK and species abundance often decline in tandem and that cultural harvest must be considered when designing conservation management strategies for species.

The reconnection between mana whenua and urban freshwaters to restore the mouri/ life force of the Kaiwharawhara

“…This was a key reason for Tāranaki Whanui participation and leadership in the Sanctuary to Sea project. It is consistent with other work through which elders and ecosystem users have considered how the diminished mouri within an environment affects the ability of mana whenua to source traditional foods and/or materials (Lyver et al 2017a;Geary et al 2019). Today, opportunities for traditional harvesting can be limited, particularly in urban environments where many mahinga kai species are absent or high levels of pollutants in waterways make harvesting unsafe ).…”

A cultural framework for Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems in ecology and natural resource management

“…However, it must be acknowledged that Indigenous scholarship has been historically marginalized within publication databases and that most scholarly venues do not provide a transparent mechanism to either acknowledge or self‐identify one’s work as that from within a particular knowledge system (but see Ataria et al 2018 as a powerful exception, one in which the Māori authors' iwi affiliations are explicitly and prominently featured; n.b. to avoid “othering” Indigenous languages, we follow Geary et al (2019) by italicizing Indigenous words and concepts on first use only). This general lack of context reflects in part how these databases are embedded within Eurocentric‐dominated scholarship, whereby an author’s identity and possible intersections with other scholars are largely obscured under the guise of an “objective epistemology” (Charnley et al 2017).…”

Kua takoto te mānuka: mātauranga Māori in New Zealand ecology

“…In their paper on traditional harvest, knowledge and management of tītī (sooty shearwaters, Puffinus griseus), Geary et al (2019) illustrate that mātauranga Māori can provide valuable insights into historic abundance, contemporary ecology and conservation of species. The work of Geary et al (2019) presents an important reminder that when Government imposes a ban on the traditional harvest of a species, there is a subsequent decline in human interaction with that species.…”