Posts Tagged ‘Mandy Home’

Written in the stars

The stars have aligned for Dark Sky Project, a bold new astro-tourism venture in Takapō. It’s the longstanding vision of the founders of Dark Sky Project’s predecessor Earth & Sky, Graeme Murray and Hide Ozawa, whose passion is to preserve and showcase the region’s famously dark skies. This purpose has new fulfilment through a joint venture with Ngāi Tahu Tourism.
The new building, named Rehua, boasts a multi-media indoor astronomy experience that combines science and tātai aroraki (Māori astronomy). A mana whenua working party ensured they were able to contribute to the project in a way that celebrated their time-honoured connection to Te Manahuna (the Mackenzie Basin).

Ka taki mai te māuru
When the nor’wester howls

At the inaugural Māori Climate Forum in Wellington in 2003, formal recognition of traditional Māori understandings of weather and climate variability and change was made, with several Māori elders highlighting the importance of giving a greater account of this knowledge of the environment.

Building on these initial efforts, in January 2016 Te Kūwaha-o-Taihoro-Nukurangi was awarded research funding from the Vision Mātauranga government science programme, as part of the Deep South National Science Challenge. This funding enables the team to work closely with knowledge holders from Ngāi Tahu whānui to identify, revitalise, and promote the use of environmental indicators to forecast weather and climate extremes.