RA1.3 PAPER: Art-science-indigenous Māori ...

Artistic practice, public awareness, and the ngahere: art–science–Indigenous Māori collaborations for raising awareness of threats to native forests

November 2023

Mullen M, Jerram S, Harvey M, Waipara N, Athena C. 2023. Artistic practice, public awareness, and the ngahere: art–science–Indigenous Māori collaborations for raising awareness of threats to native forests. Ecology and Society 28(4).

ABSTRACT

We build a rationale for a nuanced approach to raising public awareness of ecological threats through interweaving art, science, and Mātauranga Māori (Indigenous Māori knowledge). The thinking we present emerges from the first phase of a transdisciplinary project, Toi Taiao Whakatairanga, which explores the ways the arts can raise public awareness of two pathogens that are ravaging native trees in Aotearoa New Zealand: Phytophthora agathidicida (kauri dieback) and Austropuccinia psidii (myrtle rust).

KEYWORDS

Aotearoa New Zealand; arts practice; colonial science; ecological threats; Indigenous knowledge; public awareness