There is so much crap on Quora I have been seriously thinking about dumping it, but just occasionally there is something rather good, like this:
“Does New Zealand really think that Maori science is as great as western science?
There’s a long story behind this question. Let me try to give you a condensed version—but this isn’t a small issue.
The Polynesian people first landed on the islands that we call New Zealand about 700 or so years ago. The Polynesians were accomplished maritime explorers, and were able to make extremely long ocean voyages, although they had no form of writing, and metal was unknown to them. Once they had settled, a distinctively Māori culture developed.
In common with other human groups in other places, they hunted all the megafauna to extinction quite quickly (such as the moa) and thereafter learned to “live in harmony with nature” (the alternative was starvation).
Captain James Cook reached New Zealand in October 1769, and literally put the country on the map. Thereafter there was frequent contact with European sailors. At this point the Māori people were a disparate group of tribes who scuffled with one another frequently.
The Brits made a reasonably determined effort to exterminate the Māori, but found them too resourceful and tenacious. So they offered them a treaty, which promised them full membership as subjects of the British Empire (i.e. nothing) in exchange for land and natural resources (i.e. whatever they wanted). Later the Brits made efforts to “civilise” the Māori, bringing them Christianity, Westernised education, V8 SUV’s, American fast food, and smartphones. There were systematic efforts to eradicate Māori culture; for example, punishing children for speaking Māori in schools.
Over the last few decades, many Māori have made concerted efforts to re-establish their identity and culture, with considerable success. Now Māori culture and language is everywhere: taught in schools; bilingual signs all over the place; Māori cultural observances in every public gathering, and so on. Māori iconography is ubiquitous.
In February 2020, the New Zealand Cabinet proposed several changes to the country’s secondary school curriculum National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) including according equal status to mātauranga Māori (indigenous knowledge). (My emphasis). That meant that indigenous Māori knowledge is now officially as important as other classroom subjects, and the plan was that it should be taught alongside science in the classroom.
In 2021 a group of senior academics at the University of Auckland wrote a letter to The Listener magazine, in which they said that Māori indigenous knowledge is undoubtedly valuable from a cultural and historical perspective, but it doesn’t qualify as science. Also, science isn’t a European invention, or an evil tool for indigenous oppression, but has contributions from all of humanity for the benefit of all of humanity. It’s worth reading the full letter.
But there was a huge backlash against it, with people falling over themselves to distance themselves from the contents of the letter. The Royal Society Te Apārangi of New Zealand (which is trying to be on the same footing as the Royal Society), launched an investigation into the authors of the letter, some of whom were Fellows. It said:
The Society strongly upholds the value of mātauranga Māori and rejects the narrow and outmoded definition of science outlined in .
Oh, you poor, virtue-signalling idiots.
Meanwhile the vice-chancellor of Auckland University (where several of the authors worked) wrote that the Listener letter:
caused considerable hurt and dismay among our staff, students and alumni
although, when challenged, she couldn’t actually point to any communication of hurt or dismay she had received from anyone.
There was, thereafter, a bit of an academic scuffle, with scientists and bloggers around the world weighing in. Lots of people wrote to the NZ Royal Society Te Apārangi, including me (they did not reply to me) to protest. Richard Dawkins inevitably stuck his oar in. Many prominent members of the Royal Society Te Apārangi threatened (rightly) to resign if the situation didn’t change. At the end of March 2022, 73 Royal Society fellows (out of about 400) signed a motion of no confidence in the Society over its treatment of the signatories of the letter. Oops.
Since then, things have quietly gone away. The vice chancellor of Auckland University promised a symposium to address the question of Māori indigenous knowledge vs science. That was pushed back and then quietly cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Royal Society Te Apārangi has decided not to pursue the authors of the Listener letter any further. Good plan, folks, well done.
So, this brings me back to my answer to the original question. There isn’t “Māori science” and “Western science”. There’s only “science”.
Through whatever means, the Māori people made meaningful discoveries about the world and how to survive in it. They had—and have—a rich tradition of myth, storytelling and spirituality to make sense of their place in the universe. I celebrate and value that knowledge and tradition, and I would not wish to take away the smallest part of it.
But it’s not science! You can’t pretend it’s science. You can’t teach it as if it’s science. You can’t insist that it’s an “equal but different” point of view. It doesn’t belong in the science curriculum.
And when people stand up to point this out, as the Listener authors did, you can’t start slinging mud at them just because their viewpoint is unpalatable to a particular political agenda.
The Royal Society Te Apārangi has (rightly) lost a considerable amount of reputation internationally for how it has handled this situation, and I don’t think the University of Auckland has fared all that much better.”