Te Korenga

‘Te Korenga’ is a concept within maramataka Māori that references an infertile cultivation space. The Māori and Tagata o le Moana ECR forum of the Te Apārangi were confronted with the reality that the environment of the current Research Science and Innovation (RSI) system in Aotearoa is unsatisfactory and unhealthy. Māori and Tagata o le Moana ECR’s do not feel adequately encouraged, supported and developed.

The quote that follows speaks to increasingly expressed desires by Māori and Tagata o le Moana to leave the New Zealand research and innovation sector. If we fail to radically intervene, the entire sector will be ”left proclaiming its own singular claim to universal truths on a scorched and barren earth”. Whilst this is metaphorical it also holds some very physical truths; after all what is climate science without the centuries of longitudinal observational studies of Indigenous peoples on their whenua/vanua/fanua? This title aims to remind MBIE what is at stake in the system redesign and calls for MBIE to make the radical interventions necessary to ensure all our futures.