ABSTRACT
At the very heart of Māori and other Indigenous communities’ knowledge sets and worldviews is an understanding that we are inextricably connected to the physical environment. This chapter focuses on the implications of Indigenous knowledges using the case of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledges) for spatial design in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws upon commonly used whakataukī (proverbs) to elicit key principles important for building an ecological design rooted in Indigenous ways. Analysis of whakataukī suggest four key ideas of relevance: 1) the importance of a temporal approach, 2) the overarching importance of Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) and ecosystems, 3) the importance of a collaborative approach, and 4) the importance of site and context. The possibilities inherent in mātauranga Māori for responding to the ‘wicked’ problems of climate change and the depletion of environmental resources are also discussed. The chapter concludes that spatial designers need to heed Indigenous ecological thinking and look to the past to understand knowledge that has to be built up iteratively over time. Furthermore, they must be conscious of the whakapapa (genealogy) and the connections between humans and nature if spatial design is to meaningfully evolve.
