Developing a Community Health Index

Touch, feel and smell are as legitimate as scientific numbers when it comes to creating an effective tool for mataitai management, says Associate Professor Henrik Moller from the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE) at the University of Otago.

Moller has been working on the development of a marine cultural health index as part of Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu's State of the Takiwa Programme, which aims to have a Ngai Tahu values-based monitoring scheme in place for lakes, streams, estuaries and coastal environments.

"Our aim is to make sure traditional knowledge and matauranga are included in that index," says Moller, "and to date we've interviewed over 80 Ngai Tahu people about how they recognise the health of their area, what their values and tikanga are and what they gather from the area.

"From that we're trying to develop a rapid inventory system so kaitiaki can go to a place and within 20 minutes come up with a score that indicates its health.

"We'll follow up with scientific trials to see how the two methods meet. Our aim is a combination of science and culturally-embedded Ngai Tahu values – something tangata

whenua can use quickly, independently, inexpensively, in their own way as a base for debate and the management of mataitai and taiapure."

The general tenor of research indicates most mahinga kai sites are degrading compared to the past, says Moller. He believes kaitiaki have a big job to bring these areas back to good health.

"The value of local management is going to be immense," he says.

"The inter-generational knowledge of matauranga and natural rhythms is extraordinarily valuable.

"Local people really care about their areas, so they are hugely impassioned and driven in looking after them. Local surveillance is critically important to that and we believe local eyes and ears are by far the best answer."

The Marine Cultural Health Index will be field tested this year. "From a scientific point of view it needs to be as accessible and as repeatable as possible so different people can use it the same way to build a pattern of comparable, reliable results that will indicate environmental changes," says Moller.

"In the long run, it will enable people to see whether they're gaining or losing ground in the health of an area. Ultimately it's about empowering locals with the tools to manage their own resources at a grass-roots level, and the resounding lesson in all our research is that we have a lot to learn from each other.

"We need to have a mutual respect for each other's knowledge. The more dialogue you have, the more you combine Western science and Maori knowledge, the better your ability to recognise and address environmental problems."

Keeping Watch

Community Health Index

...development of a marine cultural health index as part of Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu's State of the Takiwa Programme, which aims to have a Ngai Tahu values-based monitoring scheme in place for lakes, streams, estuaries and coastal environments. [More...]

Developing a Community Health Index

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