Traditional Ecological Knowledge has an as yet unrealised contribution to make towards more fully understanding Ecosystem Complexity. By definition Indigenous Peoples are an inseparable part of their ecosystems of origin. As communities, Indigenous Peoples hold knowledge directly relevant to their continued survival as an integrated and contributing part of their ecosystem of origin and that is only entirely relevant in that place. But, accessing Indigenous knowledge is fraught with complications as it is held and managed in quite different ways to scientific data. Further, the Indigenous knowledge that continues to be held does not often conform to scientific expectations in terms of its form and function..
A claimed characteristic of Indigenous Knowledge is that it is holistic and complete in tis understanding of the interconnectedness of all things, as opposed to the compartmentalised approach adopted by Science. Can Indigenous knowledge systems provide a unifying epistemology that communicates the inter-connectedness of all things within an ecosystem? Can Indigenous knowledge systems provide a unifying epistemology that accommodates worldview differences of stakeholders? Is it even possible to seamlessly combine indigenous and scientific data in a way that can accurately reflect or predict ecosystem behaviour?
Assuming that such an approach does exist, how well could that approach address aspects of ecosystem complexity such as; uncertainty and incomplete data; stakeholder bias and adversarial world-views; economic imperatives within value chains; meaningful scalability that increases collaboration; and the effective communication of results. These challenges are relevant regardless of what ecological research a practitioner is involved in.
Cultural considerations are an inescapable reality in New Zealand. Decision making that impacts ecosystem resilience, adaptability and sustainability, inevitably requires the consideration of the cultural context within which the decisions are to be made.
Results/Conclusions
The first generation land use visualisation tool developed in the Pohewa Pae Tawhiti research project is shared and the results of the first case study assessments of a Te Arawa (tribal) farming operation. Insights gained in terms of bio-cultural indicator development and the effectiveness of communicating and understanding different worldview perceptions of the land use assessment are discussed.