Listening to the Land

Listening to the Land

by Laura Goodall

Pauline Harris is a scientist of Rongomaiwahine and Ngāti Kahungunu descent. Like many scientists, she’s been listening to communities from around the world report on the effects of climate change. “Indigenous people who live in really cold places like Alaska have already talked about unusual changes in their environment. Lakes are thawing out earlier than they used to. Mosquitoes are hatching earlier and growing faster.” These reports made Pauline wonder whether Māori communities might be aware of similar changes in Aotearoa. Could climate change be affecting how our wildlife behaves?

To answer this question, Pauline is working with a team of researchers to visit iwi and hapū throughout the country. The mātauranga held by these communities extends back hundreds of years. It could reveal insights into how our plants and animals acted in the past – and how these activities are changing now.

Often when we read, we come across words which we do not understand or have never seen before. With each word in red from the text above. Write down the sentence they were used in and what you understand the meaning to be from the sentence. 

Word	Sentence	What I think it means
climate change	Like many scientists, she’s been listening to communities from around the world report on the effects of climate change.	I think that climate change means things are changing around the world
Indigenous people	“Indigenous people who live in really cold places like Alaska have already talked about unusual changes in their environment.	I think Indigenous people means people that were here first.
hatching	Mosquitoes are hatching earlier and growing faster	I think that hatching means things that hatch in a egg
mātauranga	he mātauranga held by these communities extends back hundreds of years.	I think it means education in Maori.

There are a lot of words in Te Reo Maori in the text. Find the meaning of the Te Reo Maori words in this table.

Here is the link to a Maori dictionary to help you. 

Word	Meaning
Matauranga	education - an extension of the original meaning and commonly used in modern Māori with this meaning.
Maramataka	Maori lunar calendar a planting and fishing monthly almanac
Pipiri	First lunar month of the Maori year
Hongonui	Second lunar month of the Maori  year
Rongomaiwahine	Rongomaiwahine is a Māori iwi traditionally centred in the Mahia Peninsula
Kahungunu	tribal group of the southern North Island east of the ranges from the area of Nūhaka and Wairoa to southern Wairarapa.
Here-turi-koka	August is the eight month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendar.
takurua	Sirius , the dog star.
koanga	Be spring and planting time in spring
raumati	To be summer
ngahuru	Used in a similar way to tekau but less frequently with other words to form the numbers to 11-19.

From our discussions

What do you understand about these words from our discussions?

Word	Meaning
Phenology	Timing of animals and plants
Pollinate	Bees collecting nectar and flying to other flowers and leaving pollinate for the flowers to grow
Gregorian calendar	the calendar introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregor
Ecosystems	a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Indigenous people	Indigenous peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures

Question for discussion

Do we really need these academic words? Yes we do cause it can help people with these words. It can also be used in science.

What is your response? People can use these academic words and learn from the past on what the meaning of these words mean.