Solving Sustainability Challenges with Te Ao Māori (Māori World View) (FutureLearn)

Explore the principles of a Māori world view and how indigenous perspectives can help enrich sustainability practices. Understand the value of Te Ao Māori. Learning from other cultures gives you the opportunity to question your own assumptions about how the world works. It’s also a chance to draw on knowledge and values that have been validated by generations of practice. On this four-week course, you’ll explore the Te Ao Māori (Māori world view) to understand how to approach sustainability issues through a different lens.

Enroll in course

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This course will help you discover how indigenous knowledge and values can help us go beyond reacting to environmental challenges and instead, adopt a mindset for resilience.

Explore the water cycle from a bicultural perspective

As you examine the complex issues of sustainability, you’ll delve into the challenges laid down in United Nations SDG #6 “How to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”.

To explore this further, you’ll be introduced to Mautauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) as a concept and a method for understanding sustainability from both a scientific and bicultural perspective.

You’ll also learn how to apply design thinking to a sustainability challenge using Māori knowledge.

Discover the importance of Matauranga Māori

Indigenous views in particular explore the symbiotic relationship with Mother Earth – recognising that safeguarding the health of nature is one of the most important ways to protect human health.

With your insight into Matauranga Māori, you’ll uncover how in the realm of climate action and sustainability, indigenous views of the world are of high value.

Learning from the experts at Wintec, you’ll finish the course with a firm understanding of how a bicultural view of sustainability can help us tackle the pressing climate issues we face today.

Syllabus

Week 1: Introductions/Whakataki

Week 2: Define our challenge and come up with some ideas

Week 3: User test and reflect

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Apply Design Thinking to a sustainability challenge using Matauranga Maori (Maori Knowledge).

- Discuss Matauranga Maori and link it to your own cultural experience.

- Examine sustainability from a bicultural and cross-cultural perspective.

- Apply Design Thinking to the sustainability challenge incorporating Matauranga Maori.
Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in and motivated to solve global sustainability challenges.

You could be an environmental engineer, a sustainability professional, or you’re simply interested in tackling sustainability in cooperation with indigenous cultures.