He moana pukepuke e ekengia e te waka: Navigating a changing climate: A waka voyaging perspective
type: CreativeWork
description: Human-induced climate change is threatening the ocean, natural ecosystems, and the global human population. Some groups, including Māori in Aotearoa, and Indigenous communities globally, will be disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of climate change. The current national and international governmental climate change responses underrepresent Indigenous peoples, issues, and knowledge. This thesis aims to contribute to the body of literature that documents Māori understandings, perspectives, and worldviews in relation to climate change. This work was guided by two inter-related questions. Firstly, what are the impacts of climate change on waka voyaging? Secondly, how can we draw on mātauranga (Māori knowledge) to respond to human-induced climate change? Specifically, the research addresses gaps in the scholarly literature that has yet to consider the unique contributions of waka voyaging practitioners to the climate change conversation. This work seeks to better understand the wide-ranging effects of human-induced climate change on Māori communities, knowledge, and culture, through an investigation of the impacts on waka voyaging. Furthermore, it considers how mātauranga whakatere waka (Māori understandings of Pacific voyaging knowledge) can contribute to climate change responses today and into the future. Guided by a Pūrākau and Kaupapa Māori research approach, I undertook a large-scale literature review and conducted seven in-depth semi-structured one-to-one interviews with Māori voyagers trained in traditional Pacific non-instrument ocean navigation. I analysed the data using a theoretical thematic analysis. Key findings suggest that waka voyaging is highly sensitive to changes in weather and climate. Historical climatic and environmental change, as well as human-induced ecological change, have both promoted and discouraged Pacific voyaging in the past. In Aotearoa, the decline of voyaging after Polynesian settlement led to the dormancy of a sign…
abstract: Human-induced climate change is threatening the ocean, natural ecosystems, and the global human population. Some groups, including Māori in Aotearoa, and Indigenous communities globally, will be disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of climate change. The current national and international governmental climate change responses underrepresent Indigenous peoples, issues, and knowledge. This thesis aims to contribute to the body of literature that documents Māori understandings, perspectives, and worldviews in relation to climate change. This work was guided by two inter-related questions. Firstly, what are the impacts of climate change on waka voyaging? Secondly, how can we draw on mātauranga (Māori knowledge) to respond to human-induced climate change? Specifically, the research addresses gaps in the scholarly literature that has yet to consider the unique contributions of waka voyaging practitioners to the climate change conversation. This work seeks to better understand the wide-ranging effects of human-induced climate change on Māori communities, knowledge, and culture, through an investigation of the impacts on waka voyaging. Furthermore, it considers how mātauranga whakatere waka (Māori understandings of Pacific voyaging knowledge) can contribute to climate change responses today and into the future. Guided by a Pūrākau and Kaupapa Māori research approach, I undertook a large-scale literature review and conducted seven in-depth semi-structured one-to-one interviews with Māori voyagers trained in traditional Pacific non-instrument ocean navigation. I analysed the data using a theoretical thematic analysis. Key findings suggest that waka voyaging is highly sensitive to changes in weather and climate. Historical climatic and environmental change, as well as human-induced ecological change, have both promoted and discouraged Pacific voyaging in the past. In Aotearoa, the decline of voyaging after Polynesian settlement led to the dormancy of a sign…
author: McDonald, Rangihurihia Ann
keywords: Pacific voyaging, Climate change, Mātauranga, Waka hourua, Mātauranga Māori, Mātauranga whakatere waka, Oceania, Polynesia, Voyaging canoe, Non-instrument navigation, Navigator, Tohunga whakatere waka, Kaiwhakatere waka, Wayfinding, Aotearoa, Moana, Mātauranga taiao, Traditional knowledge, Pūrākau, Traditional ecological knowledge, Kaitiakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Whakapapa, Mātauranga moana, Voyaging knowledge, Kaupapa Māori
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/ab9fd97d-017e-41fc-89d6-1d6bc0a188af/download
date published: 2022
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:24Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato