The chair of the post-settlement organisation Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa says it’s hard work convincing local and civil authorities of the value mātauranga Māori could bring to flood mitigations efforts.
The trust has just completed the restoration of 25 homes severely damaged in Cyclone Gabriel 18 months ago, and it’s also cleaning up after the last major flood in June.
Leon Symes says Wairoa District Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council find it hard to see beyond a technical scientific Western lens.
He says Māori have built up knowledge of the river system by living beside it for generations.
“When you’ve got western science where they’ve based a lot of their data on modelling rather than reading the weather patterns, reading the river, understanding what the river is doing – it’s that conflict between whose science is the better science. Our people should have differences of opinion about what should be done when it should be done, so how do you build all that knowledge into one framework that allows everyone to have confidence,” he says.
Mr Symes says it’s not good enough to bring in Māori for a cultural impact assessment once decisions have been made, rather than involve them upfront.
