Knowledge, Mātauranga and Science

In 2020, Caroline Saunders was made a Fellow of the Academy of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. As part of that award, Caroline was invited to submit for the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand a review article on her research. 

Caroline invited Paul Dalziel, Dr John Reid (University of Canterbury) and Andrew McCallum (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) to join her in preparing her review article, since all three had been closely involved in the leadership of her research programmes on agrifood value chains.

The article appeared in Volume 54, Issue 2 of the journal, with the following Abstract:

This essay offers reflective learning on how researchers in the Western science tradition connect to bodies of knowledge created and held outside that tradition. It begins with endogenous growth theory, which explains the unique role of knowledge as an input into economic production. The essay describes how Western science addresses the problem of validating and accessing knowledge, by hosting an expanding corpus of peer-reviewed publications. This academic knowledge does not contain all current knowledge. 

The essay therefore draws on the authors’ experience in four large research programmes to consider business knowledge and mātauranga Māori. It reflects on agency, tikanga [right behaviour], global conversations about Indigenous knowledge, and decolonising research. The essay finishes with models of knowledge engagement in the interface between western Science and mātauranga Māori that support the mana and integrity of diverse knowledge streams. 

The full article can be read here [external link].