Indigenous Pacific academics discuss embedding indigenous knowledge in education at the Uni of Canterbury
Maramataka is the Maori Lunar Calendar that governed how the first people of Aotearoa New Zealand lived their lives. The system follows local signs in nature and the phases of the moon and has its roots in earlier lunar calendars established by Polynesian ancestors in the northern Pacific before they ventured south to NZ. The University of Canterbury gathered experts on Maramataka from Aotearoa, Hawai’i, Nukutere (the Cook Islands) and Samoa to discuss the value of indigenous knowledge, environmental effects on climate change, food security and indigenous sovereignty across the Pacific. A Public Diplomacy grant enabled organizers to bring academics from Hawai’i to attend the event and share about their indigenous research and practices. The program highlighted the United States as a Pacific nation and explored the challenges of embedding indigenous knowledge in education.