We build a rationale for a nuanced approach to raising public awareness of ecological threats through interweaving art, science, and Mātauranga Māori (Indigenous Māori knowledge). The thinking we present emerges from the first phase of a transdisciplinary project, Toi Taiao Whakatairanga, which explores the ways the arts can raise public awareness of two pathogens that are ravaging native trees in Aotearoa New Zealand: Phytopthora agathidicida (kauri dieback) and Austropuccinia psidii (myrtle rust). One of our first steps in the project was to explore understandings of "public” and “awareness” and their relevance to Aotearoa’s ecological, cultural, and political context. This collective task was about developing theory to guide the second phase of the project, in which we would commission nine Māori artists to create new works about kauri dieback and/or myrtle rust. One of the key outcomes of our collective inquiry was a realization of the limits of certain conceptions of public awareness in the settler–colonial contexts. For example, conceptions based on an unproblematized definition of “public” fail to respond adequately to the rights of Indigenous Māori tribes and subtribes to sovereignty over their lands and taonga species. We identify the need for alternatives to transactional conception of public awareness-raising. This includes alternatives that align with te ao Māori (Māori worldviews) and allow for a lack of consensus about the nature of an ecological threat or the required response. We propose that mātauranga Māori and arts practices can be combined with colonial science knowledge to promote different awarenesses in ways that are responsive to difference audiences, acknowledge different knowledge systems, hold space for contested/provisional knowledge, and support the mana motuhake of iwi/hāpū and the ngahere.

The post Artistic practice, public awareness, and the ngahere: art–science–Indigenous Māori collaborations for raising awareness of threats to native forests first appeared on Ecology & Society.

我们为通过艺术、科学和毛利土著知识（Mātauranga Māori）的交织来提高公众对生态威胁的细致入微的认识奠定了基础。我们提出的想法来自跨学科项目 Toi Taiao Whakatairanga 的第一阶段，该项目探索艺术如何提高公众对两种正在新西兰本土树木肆虐的病原体的认识：贝壳杉疫霉 (Phytopthora agathidicida) 和南方核菌 (Austropuccinia psidii ) 。（香桃木锈）。我们在该项目中的第一步是探索对“公共”和“意识”的理解及其与新西兰生态、文化和政治背景的相关性。这项集体任务是发展理论来指导该项目的第二阶段，我们将委托九位毛利艺术家创作有关贝壳杉枯死和/或香桃木锈病的新作品。我们集体调查的主要成果之一是认识到在定居者殖民背景下公众意识的某些概念的局限性。例如，基于毫无问题的“公共”定义的概念未能充分回应土著毛利部落和分部落对其土地和唐加物种的主权。我们认为需要替代公共意识提高的交易概念。这包括与 te ao Māori（毛利人世界观）一致的替代方案，并且允许对生态威胁的性质或所需的应对措施缺乏共识。我们建议，mātauranga 毛利人和艺术实践可以与殖民科学知识相结合，以响应不同受众的方式促进不同的意识，承认不同的知识体系，为有争议的/临时的知识留出空间，并支持 iwi/hāpū 的 mana motuhake和恩加雷。

后艺术实践、公众意识和 ngahere：艺术-科学-土著毛利人合作，旨在提高对原生森林威胁的认识，首先出现在《生态与社会》上。