Kia ora guys, this is part four of the Moana Project mini-series.

So, what is the moana project? Our oceans have been mapped; however, knowledge of the currents and dynamics of the oceans is sparse. There has been data on our ocean dynamics collected, but until now it has not been amalgamated together to form a big picture. This is what the moana project is doing, painting a detailed picture of the dynamics of our oceans, and getting that information into the hands of people who can use it. Knowledge of these dynamics is even more important now that we’re seeing sustained marine heatwaves – how is that going to impact our aquaculture and fisheries sectors? How can we help mitigate any damages that a warming ocean will bring to these sectors? How do we protect our taonga species in this changing environment?

This episode is with Prof. Maui Hudson from the University of Waikato. Maui is heading up the workstream He Papa Moana – the ocean foundation, which is a platform for cross cultural ocean knowledge. Maui and his team are building the understanding of tikanga, mātauranga and kaupapa within the project.

Maui is from Whakatōhea, the iwi partner in this research, who you will have heard mentioned throughout. Maui has this skill of bringing cultures together. And that’s why this project is so ground breaking – it’s weaving indigenous, mātauranga knowledge with ground-breaking scientific methods.

We speak about mātauranga, non-instrumental navigators, and how the mixture of cultures that have found themselves in the Moana Project are really taking the cross-cultural aspect very seriously. In my opinion, it is as it should always be.

Check out the Moana Project website https://www.moanaproject.org/

A zoom recording that Maui hosted explaining the collaboration between science and Maori culture https://www.moanaproject.org/unesco-ocean-lab

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