NZ Academics under investigation for objecting to creationism being taught as science

[Metaphor]

Don't worry, North Americans, you are not alone. The unalloyed shit show of Woke madness is happening down under, too.

University academics' claim mātauranga Māori 'not science' sparks controversy

The University of Auckland and Royal Society are distancing themselves from a contentious letter by some top academics, dismissing mātauranga Māori.

www.rnz.co.nz

The University of Auckland and Royal Society are distancing themselves from a contentious letter dismissing mātauranga Māori by some top academics.

The letter, published in The Listener last week, was signed by seven professors from the University of Auckland: Kendall Clements, Garth Cooper, Michael Corballis, Douglas Elliffe, Elizabeth Rata, Emeritus Professor Robert Nola, and Emeritus Professor John Werry.

They raise their concerns about an NCEA working group's proposed changes to the school curriculum that will ensure parity for mātauranga Māori with other bodies of knowledge.

Their main objection is with a particular description as part of a new course - which "promotes discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge): and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples."

The academics say although indigenous knowledge may play some role in the preservation of local practices and in management and policy - it "falls far short of what can be defined as science itself".

They said mātauranga Māori should not be accepted as an equivalent to science, adding "it may help ... but it is not science".

...

In an email sent to staff yesterday, University of Auckland Vice Chancellor Dawn Freshwater said the letter "has caused considerable hurt and dismay among our staff, students and alumni."

"While the academics are free to express their views, I want to make it clear that they do not represent the views of the University of Auckland."

...

Several other academics have published an open response to the letter stating they categorically disagree with their views.

Signatories include Shaun Hendy, Siouxsie Wiles, Andrew Sporle and Tara McAllister and a numer of others.

In the response, they state the professors claim that "science itself does not colonise", ignores the fact that colonisation, racism, misogyny, and eugenics have each been championed by scientists wielding a self-declared monopoly on universal knowledge.

"While the Professors describe science as 'universal', they fail to acknowledge that science has long excluded indigenous peoples from participation, preferring them as subjects for study and exploitation.

"We believe that mistrust in science stems from science's ongoing role in perpetuating 'scientific' racism, justifying colonisation, and continuing support of systems that create injustice.

There can be no trust in science without robust self-reflection by the science community and an active commitment to change, the group said.

One of the signatories, Elizabeth Rata, said she was pleased the letter had prompted much discussion and she along with the other signatories stand by it.
...

Professor Garth Cooper, Emeritus Professor Michael Corballis, and Emeritus Professor Robert Nola are all fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Māori academics online have been encouraging people who do not agree with the letter to lodge a complaint to the Royal Society.

The scientific academy said it had received numerous emails about the letter.

In a joint statement, president Brent Clothier and academy executive committee chair Charlotte MacDonald said they deeply regret the harm such a "misguided view" could cause.

"The recent suggestion by a group of University of Auckland academics that mātauranga Māori is not a valid form of knowledge is utterly rejected by Royal Society - Te Apārangi.

"The Society strongly upholds the value of mātauranga Māori and rejects the narrow and outmoded definition of science outlined in The Listener - letter to the editor."

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) penned a letter to the academics, telling them their letter to the editor was damaging and ill-advised.

TEU said to some members it seemed designed to attack and offend, rather than present a reasoned academic argument.

It said members found the letter offensive, racist, reflective of patronising, and of neo-colonial mindset.

"Your letter neglected to engage with or mention the many highly accomplished scholars and scientists in Aotearoa who have sought to reconcile notions of science, mātauranga Māori, and Māori in science," the TEU letter stated.

"Our members worry that you have undermined the mana of many indigenous scientists and scholars who are working to understand the ways in which knowledge accumulates. Your letter will do little to encourage (and much to discourage) Māori to engage with science."

In response to the accusations of racism, signatory Elizabeth Rata said it was not worthy of a response.[/HEADING]

"I actually don't have a response. My response is what that deserves."

The Royal Society itself seems to have foregone its conclusion:


A different summary of events from an evolutionary biologist:

“Ways of knowing”: New Zealand pushes to have “indigenous knowledge” (mythology) taught on parity with modern science in science class

One of the most invidious and injurious side effects of wokeism is to validate “other ways of knowing” as being on par with modern scientific knowledge. Granted, one can respect the myt…

whyevolutionistrue.com

. . . the moment this letter was published all hell broke loose. The views of the authors, who were all professors at Auckland, were denounced by the Royal Society, the New Zealand Association of Scientists, and the Tertiary Education Union, as well as by their own vice-chancellor, Dawn Freshwater. In a hand-wringing, cry-bullying email to all staff at the university, she said the letter had ‘caused considerable hurt and dismay among our staff, students and alumni’ and said it pointed to ‘major problems with some of our colleagues’.

Two of Professor Cooper’s academic colleagues, Dr Siouxsie Wiles and Dr Shaun Hendy, issued an ‘open letter’ condemning the heretics for causing ‘untold harm and hurt’. They invited anyone who agreed with them to add their names to the ‘open letter’, and more than 2,000 academics duly obliged. Before long, five members of the Royal Society had complained and a panel was set up to investigate.

The witch-finders disregarded several principles of natural justice in their prosecutorial zeal. For instance, two members of the three-person panel turned out to be signatories of the ‘open letter’ denouncing Professor Cooper so had to be replaced. In addition, all five complainants were anonymous and when the Society asked them to identify themselves, three fell by the wayside. But two remain and the investigation is proceeding apace, with a newly constituted panel.

 

[Trausti]

Same vibes.

 

[TSwizzle]

Hilarious. I wonder how much in student loans these idiots have.

 

[Derec]

Kind of comforting to know that US does not have a monopoly on woke idiocy.

It is, however, quite scary that what made West great is increasingly being rejected by powerful bodies in the West. If this is not stopped and reversed, the West will inevitably decline and China will be the dominant society by mid-century.

 

[laughing dog]

I looked into this a bit. And it seems this
""promotes discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge): and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples."
is what started the ruckus. Initial critics misinterpreted this to mean that science itself colonises. It does not say that mātauranga Māori is science. On the otherhand, "science" is not a Western European innovation.

Seems to me there are a whole bunch of snowflakes on all sides in this kerfuffle.

 

[Metaphor]

I looked into this a bit. And it seems this
""promotes discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge): and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples."
is what started the ruckus. Initial critics misinterpreted this to mean that science itself colonises. It does not say that mātauranga Māori is science. On the otherhand, "science" is not a Western European innovation.

Seems to me there are a whole bunch of snowflakes on all sides in this kerfuffle.

Maori creation myths will be taught alongside science, in science classes, to Maori and non-Maori students.

If you replace the word 'Maori' above with 'Christian', I suspect you might more clearly see the problem.

 

[laughing dog]

I looked into this a bit. And it seems this
""promotes discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge): and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples."
is what started the ruckus. Initial critics misinterpreted this to mean that science itself colonises. It does not say that mātauranga Māori is science. On the otherhand, "science" is not a Western European innovation.

Seems to me there are a whole bunch of snowflakes on all sides in this kerfuffle.

Maori creation myths will be taught alongside science, in science classes, to Maori and non-Maori students.

I must have missed that in the linked article. Can you point to it?

 

[Metaphor]

I looked into this a bit. And it seems this
""promotes discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge): and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples."
is what started the ruckus. Initial critics misinterpreted this to mean that science itself colonises. It does not say that mātauranga Māori is science. On the otherhand, "science" is not a Western European innovation.

Seems to me there are a whole bunch of snowflakes on all sides in this kerfuffle.

Maori creation myths will be taught alongside science, in science classes, to Maori and non-Maori students.

I must have missed that in the linked article. Can you point to it?

It is made most clear in the second article I linked

One of the most invidious and injurious side effects of wokeism is to validate “other ways of knowing” as being on par with modern scientific knowledge. Granted, one can respect the mythology and scientific “claims” of indigenous cultures, some of which turned out to be scientifically valid (quinine is one), but their efficacy can be established only by conventional scientific testing.

New Zealand, however, is in the midst of a campaign to teach Maori “ways of knowing” alongside science in science classes as science, on par with modern science, which of course had roots in many places. The reason for this is to give Maori credibility not just as indigenous people with moral and legal rights, but to validate their pseudoscientific views. Scholars who object to this ridiculous parity are in the process of being cancelled.

Here’s an email I got the other day from a biology colleague in New Zealand:

Now in NZ the Government is trying to insert something called ‘Matauranga’ into science courses. Matauranga means the knowledge system of the Maori. It includes reference to various gods e.g., Tane the god of the forest is said to be the creator of humans, and of all plants and creatures of the forest. Rain happens when the goddess Papatuanuku sheds tears. Maori try to claim that they have always been scientists. Their political demand is that Matauranga must be acknowledged as the equal of western (pakeha) science; that without this, Maori children will continue to fail in science at school. One rationalisation for this is that they are the indigenous people of New Zealand and that their knowledge deserves respect (mana). it is a very messy situation and a group of science academics of various stripes are engaged in fighting a rearguard action against this. They wrote a letter to the Listener, a weekly publication of reasonable respectability, in which they made the claim that matauranga was not science and had no place in science courses. The kickback against this was astonishing, with some 2000 academics around NZ signing a petition condemning them. Further,the Royal Society of New Zealand is taking two of the academics involved to task, with the likely outcome their dismissal from the Society. They have been accused of racism! Wokism is well under way here.
In response to my question, the colleague told me that the two forms of “knowledge” will be taught to 16-18 years old, and not just to Maori. There will also be exam questions, but it’s not clear if those will require students to parrot the tenets of Mātauranga.

 

[laughing dog]

I looked into this a bit. And it seems this
""promotes discussion and analysis of the ways in which science has been used to support the dominance of Eurocentric views (among which, its use as a rationale for colonisation of Māori and the suppression of Māori knowledge): and the notion that science is a Western European invention and itself evidence of European dominance over Māori and other indigenous peoples."
is what started the ruckus. Initial critics misinterpreted this to mean that science itself colonises. It does not say that mātauranga Māori is science. On the otherhand, "science" is not a Western European innovation.

Seems to me there are a whole bunch of snowflakes on all sides in this kerfuffle.

Maori creation myths will be taught alongside science, in science classes, to Maori and non-Maori students.

I must have missed that in the linked article. Can you point to it?

It is made most clear in the second article I linked

One of the most invidious and injurious side effects of wokeism is to validate “other ways of knowing” as being on par with modern scientific knowledge. Granted, one can respect the mythology and scientific “claims” of indigenous cultures, some of which turned out to be scientifically valid (quinine is one), but their efficacy can be established only by conventional scientific testing.

New Zealand, however, is in the midst of a campaign to teach Maori “ways of knowing” alongside science in science classes as science, on par with modern science, which of course had roots in many places. The reason for this is to give Maori credibility not just as indigenous people with moral and legal rights, but to validate their pseudoscientific views. Scholars who object to this ridiculous parity are in the process of being cancelled.

Here’s an email I got the other day from a biology colleague in New Zealand:

Now in NZ the Government is trying to insert something called ‘Matauranga’ into science courses. Matauranga means the knowledge system of the Maori. It includes reference to various gods e.g., Tane the god of the forest is said to be the creator of humans, and of all plants and creatures of the forest. Rain happens when the goddess Papatuanuku sheds tears. Maori try to claim that they have always been scientists. Their political demand is that Matauranga must be acknowledged as the equal of western (pakeha) science; that without this, Maori children will continue to fail in science at school. One rationalisation for this is that they are the indigenous people of New Zealand and that their knowledge deserves respect (mana). it is a very messy situation and a group of science academics of various stripes are engaged in fighting a rearguard action against this. They wrote a letter to the Listener, a weekly publication of reasonable respectability, in which they made the claim that matauranga was not science and had no place in science courses. The kickback against this was astonishing, with some 2000 academics around NZ signing a petition condemning them. Further,the Royal Society of New Zealand is taking two of the academics involved to task, with the likely outcome their dismissal from the Society. They have been accused of racism! Wokism is well under way here.
In response to my question, the colleague told me that the two forms of “knowledge” will be taught to 16-18 years old, and not just to Maori. There will also be exam questions, but it’s not clear if those will require students to parrot the tenets of Mātauranga.

That does not necessarily mean that matauranga will be taught on par with science. It is possible that science will be used to explain the matauranga view. Of course, it may mean what you and that biologist fears.

Again, it seems to me that what is actually happening is not clear - that people on all sides are jumping to conclusions (some of the incredibly wrong or stupid) without actual information.

Do I think mythology is science? No. Do I think science can explain mythology? Yes. Do I think using science to explain mythology or other ways of thinking is a good idea? Yes.

So, until I get more actual information, not people's expectations/fears, I am unimpressed by all of this,