Week 4

Task 1:

Read proposition 1, the chapter talks about the chaos and flow of nature, vs the decided purposeful power of humans. All other forces before us have been just from nature, irrelevant from living organism on the planet, uncontrollable and random. Whereas humans have decidedly affected the earth, we have consciousness and power to choose.

Task 2:

Te Uru Taumatua: Tuhoe’s Whare and Huhana’s Harakeke project are both ways of improving the community, using Maori worldviews and knowledge, and enriching the people that are there, giving mana back to an area and helping the environment and people within the community.

Week 3

Task 1:

Me and Jenn adventured to the National Library and Archives to see what we could find for resources on affordable and clean energy. Obviously the library is extensive and there’s a lot to look through, and both of us had never used the facilities before, so we tried filtering our options via the computer search engine. As we had not been there before we also discovered that most of the archives are in the Reading room, and you need to be fully registered before being able to access that material. This was a little disheartening as I didn’t have all of my information needed to sign up for the reading room (it was also very intense looking, with the security, old resources and gloves). Furthermore I believe finding relevant resources for affordable, clean energy at the library may be hard due to it mainly being older material, and of cultural significance, family heritage etc, whereas the concept of really focusing on clean and affordable energy seems to me to be a newer concept here in New Zealand and would generally require newer resources to cite. Jenn and I found a few online resources that the library references which still might be useful for us!

Our narratives for our topic, seem to be people that want clean, affordable energy to live, but don’t know how to get it, scientists and engineers working on ways to potentially solve the problem, people that don’t believe it’s possible, people that already know of older ways to live affordably and cleanly but not from a western perspective.

Week 2: Tōku reo tōku ohooho

Task 1:

There are a number of difficulties to overcome when talking about and exploring different world views. You want to give every world view the same respect, the same acknowledgement as you would another. However when looking at another world view it is hard not to compare it or to keep referring to your own world view in the process. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing though, to compare world views is beneficial to see how it impacts on situations and how people respond. When talking about a world view that might not be as popular, sometimes it is beneficial to portray that world view from a different point of view so it can be understood easily. For example in Artefact, although it is looking at Maori worldviews and culture, and was made by Maori people and Maori Channel, the shooting and presentation of the show comes across very Western. This is most likely intentional, in order for other people that will be watching to understand the Maori world view, they must make it digestible for people that are not already familiar with it, and in order to undestand and accept it, in a way in order to be legitimate, to make it respected and intellectual as a show it must come across to the viewer as European/ Western in style.

Week One: Knowledge Systems

Task 1:

Watched Artifact Season 1 Episode 1.

Brief Notes from watching:

-Proctect culture, Europeans see that as them taking it away to preserve, whereas with Pacifika cultures it generally needs to stay with the ancestors and families, it belongs to them, and they are capable of taking care of it.

-To take away ancestors, their bodies, their belongings is wrong, Europeans the world over have stolen and disturbed graves of people and do not respect or think of the feelings of the descendents of the people and objects they dig up.

-It is a beautiful thing to reunite people with items, people, and rituals of their culture, it is healing and attempts to right the wrongs already carried out. Of course there is always more to do, but as long as something is being done, then that is still good.

-Europeans really like romanticising, fetishising and lying about what other cultures have been through. It is a relief to find out about how Maori people really came to New Zealand, and with solid evidence and experts backing this. Even though descendents had already been telling ‘stories’, accounts, legends etc of what they already knew.

-It is important for communities to work together, to attempt to work with institutions so that the institutions can also give something back of what is taken, and to educate and develop younger generations for a better outcome.

Task 2:

My own understanding of science is that it is to try and understand something, whether it’s a material, an action, a disease, a force etc. Of course depending on the people carrying out the practice of science, the thing in question can be misunderstood, or the information twisted or misread. Science in theory and in practice should be fair, it should state what is and is not, making clear any facts. From whatever information is gathered about something, the information and actions following should benefit not just one group but everyone, it should be used for good otherwise what is the point? 

Science today should be used to help people, since people made it, and further more help our environment and the flora and fauna living in it, since this still counts as helping us in an altruistic way. 

Examples that come to mind is of climate change specific scientists warning for many years now of the results of polution and damage to our ecosystems, and while we live in an age of fast paced wide information, it has not been linked as deeply with the state, many people in power and the wider public denying climate change, pollution, not wanting to make changes to the waste of resources and damage to environments. 

This reading also made me think of the injustices against groups of people in the name of science, or what science/ those performing science have overlooked in the past due to their own bias. For example not researching into diseases and medical issues that affect women either specifically or as well as men, only testing for the symptoms in males and how to cure these symptoms and its causes. I also think of scientists that are part of colonisation and globalisation, not considering or respecting people of colour, using their data for political means to spread falseness about how European bodies vs African American bodies work for example. Many of the falsehoods were used in society by the wider public to form their own bias and opinions which they then stated as facts and caused continual hateful actions. The science of the brain also comes to mind, of how patients of varying mental states, diseases, illnesses and variations were treated in the past due to bias information and prejudices already in place about mentally ill people. Of course with these thoughts comes of how it has changed, and hopefully will continue to progress for the better, how much more we understand now and what else might be discovered, and with this the change in attitudes towards mental health in our society, how much better is has gotten thankfully.

Task 3:

Here is my harakeke drawing:

I drew the plant with it’s inner most frond, the child, and then the parents and wider community and family surrounding it. The roots below that lead up to the family absorb or remove the polution from the surrounding area.

Task 4: 

Of all of the UNDP, the most interesting at a glance are for me, no porverty, gender equality, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, life below water, and peace justice and strong institutions. All 17 of the UNDP goals are amazing and important, but these particular ones interest me the most, either because I’m emotionally invested in the topic or because learning more about the topics, how they can be carried out and what difficulties stand in the way of working towards them. 

The UNDP does use holistic thinking, it looks at the big picture of how the world can improve and be better and what is wanted for the future of the planet. By looking at everything, you can then delve deeper into each section, and then look to see what can be changed and how it will affect the overall outcome.