Forest vegetation of Tuhoe-Tuawhenua

Ecologically accurate artwork panels: Declines of iwi dialects and terms for localised fauna and flora risks losing associated Matauranga. A static visual educational resource, using the forest vegetation of Tuhoe-Tuawhenua, was developed as a proof-of-concept for restoring local knowledge. The visual tool accurately displays Tuhoe-Tuawhenua names for forest plant species alongside wider korero so that the true value of names, as seen by Tuhoe-Tuawhenua and other Maori, can be better understood by non-Maori. This was a very fruitful learning journey for all participants and a great example of work at the research-matauranga-arts nexus.

This work was part of the Biological Heritage Challenge project 1.1 'Matauranga Maori Characterisations of New Zealand's Biodiversity: Whakamanahia nga matauranga o nehe hai oranga tangata, oranga taiao'.

The work is discussed in the paper Aitken J., Shadbolt M., Doherty J., Mark-Shadbolt M., Marzano M., Ataria J. (2021) Empowering the Indigenous voice in a graphical representation of Aotearoa’s biocultural heritage (flora and fauna). Pacific Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC20027