connect us all
I failed fifth form science because I hated it. I couldn’t see a connection between me and the periodic table — until I got my head around the fact that, actually, the periodic table is genealogy. It is whakapapa connecting each element to the next.
From a Māori point of view, there’s no use understanding something in science unless you go on to understand how it’s connected to everything else. A piece of knowledge can be taken out and explored on its own, but, for us, it only has real purpose and meaning when it’s all stitched together in one fabric.
Western science is wonderfully objective and driven by evidence, and it will test and test to come up with rigorous findings, but quite often that happens in isolation, and then it moves on to the next thing. Whereas for me as a Māori scientist, the key thing is the practice of knowledge in everyday life.
Link to article: How Matariki will connect us all - E-Tangata
