February 03, 2023
Matauranga adds depth to volcano histories
A Māori volcanologist says it may take a while for his international colleagues to accept that indigenous peoples have valuable knowledge to add to their observations and data.
More than 900 scientists are in Rotorua for the annual Scientific Assembly of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior.
It will include field trips to the central Taupo Volcanic Zone and to the site of the globally famous Pink and White Terraces, which were buried by the massive eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886.
Professor Jonathan Procter of Muaūpoko, Ngāi Tahu, and Ngāti Apa has spent years researching mātauranga Māori and natural hazards, and says it’s a way to flesh out the scientific data.
“There are pockets of mātauranga existing around the country that observed changes in the land, changes in our waterways, changes in our lakes, changes in cloud patterns above our volcanoes. So it’s recognising that some of our traditional narratives, our waiata, all contain information about those observations,” he says.
Professor Procter says Māori have centuries of knowledge scientists can draw on.