Spotlight

A Meeting of Cultures

Mark Wright

Comparing Maori traditional environmental knowledge with ecological science has become a personal and cultural journey for Otago University zoologist Jane Kitson.

The doctoral student, who has just finished her Masters, is looking at whether the traditional approach of Maori to their kaitiakitanga can be married to the European approach.

Kitson's work focusses particularly on titi (also known as the sooty shearwater and muttonbird), a species which the Maori harvest once a year in a restricted season on islands near New Zealand's southern coast. The project is part of the Kia Mau Te Titi Mo Ake Tonu Atu (Keep Titi Forever) Research Programme.

"European style management usually revolves around preservation, an approach which means you stay back from the environment," explains Kitson. "But Maori live as part of the environment and use natural resources in a sustainable harvest."

The Maori approach allows for steps such as a rahui, a ban on harvesting, or harvesting for restricted periods if the animal population is seen to fall.

For Kitson it is exciting and challenging work.

"I am not exclusively staying in the realms of ecological science. I am using sociology as well as oral history to get an understanding of traditional ways. In a way I am also delving into my own whakapapa -- so it's a journey for myself."

The journey began with a developing interest in science while at high school. Plans for medical school gave way to an interest in zoology. A trip to help set up a university hut on Putauhinu Island sparked an interest in studying titi or muttonbirds. While there Kitson discovered a family connection through her father's cousins, her grandfather and great uncles. Kitsons had been involved in titi harvesting and had quite a reputation for their knowledge.

"The ancestral connections on the island were amazing -- and I felt this was work that needed to be done."

The work involves monitoring the duration and extent of the harvest, how many birds are taken, and whether the use of more modern technology is increasing the numbers taken. The research also relates the speed of the harvest to the burrow density and chick occupancy. Kitson is also recording harvest methodologies, as well as interviewing the birders to find out about their traditional environmental knowledge and concepts of kaitiakitanga.

"This will lay the foundation for evaluation of differences and congruences between a traditional Maori-styled conservation approach, and ecological science and resource management practices."

There is also the opportunity to test traditional theories, for example, whether certain phases of the moon or particular weather patterns are better or worse for harvesting. The research is being done at the invitation of the Rakiura titi committee which co-manages the research programme.

"They realise it is important to monitor numbers so the resource survives and their mokopuna can enjoy it as well."

Kitson points out that Maori have accumulated 800 years of environmental knowledge and, despite hundreds of years of titi harvest, the population remains strong.

Since pre-European times Maori have been travelling south for the titi harvest from places as far away as Kaikoura, she says. It still happens today, with Rakiura Maori from all around New Zealand heading south for the harvest.

"It is obviously an important resource for them to travel that far," says Kitson. "Today there is still a lot of mana attached to the islands and they are still an important part of Kai Tahu culture."

Other factors, such as food failure and fishing, can affect titi numbers.

"The population is getting hammered in gill nets and long lines."

Overall, however, Kitson believes the harvest can be managed sustainably.

"That will be hotly debated," she says. "Some groups are against the idea of harvesting, but I would like my work to help them see a broader view."

Kitson points to overseas experience, particularly in the US and Canada, where native people are able to be involved in co-management and harvest of various species such as whales, walrus, seals, caribou, geese, deer and some plants.

She argues that to be able to understand traditional environmental knowledge, science needs to relax its empirical approach.

"Science always needs everything to be counted or noted," she says. "Science is quantitative, whereas traditional environmental knowledge is qualitative.

"They are two different philosophies. It would be nice to test traditional environmental knowledge with environmental science and say they will be able to be used together in resource management."

Mark Wright is a freelance journalist based in Dunedin.