Taxacom: =?utf-8?q?PUTTING_COLLECTIONS_BACK_ON_THE_GROUND=3A_MANA?= =?utf-8?q?_TAONGA=2C_M=C4=80TAURANGA_M=C4=80ORI_AND_NATHIST_MUSEUM?= =?utf-8?q?_COLLECTION?=

Tue Jun 3 21:53:51 CDT 2025

here's a link

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fopenaccess.wgtn.ac.nz%2Farticles%2Fthesis%2FPutting_collections_back_on_the_ground_mana_taonga_m_tauranga_M_ori_and_NATHIST_museum_collections%2F29191922&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9184afce14ed4f77a26f08dda3131105%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638846024481636885%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=klocjLdNBRopk%2BmJvD9RQFAWE3pVk2LnT9cLpR5vjc4%3D&reserved=0

On Wed, Jun 4, 2025 at 2:11?PM John Grehan via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
wrote:

> For those interested in the theory and practice of collection management,
> curation etc. the following title concerns aspects of collection management
> in New Zealand with respect to scientific and cultural issues. Anyone
> interested in a copy can contact the author at kmahlfeld at gmail.com
>
>   PUTTING COLLECTIONS BACK ON THE GROUND: MANA TAONGA, M?TAURANGA M?ORI AND
> NATHIST MUSEUM COLLECTIONS BY KARIN MAHLFELD MA Thesis Museum and Heritage
> Studies Te Herenga Waka ? Victoria University of Wellington 2025
>
>  ABSTRACT Technological, cultural and climatic changes are shifting natural
> history collection management (NATHIST CM) more and more into a post-normal
> science environment, in which the pressures are more diverse, solutions
> less clear and straightforward, outcomes less predictable and impacts
> potentially greater than anticipated. This thesis explores how Te Papa?s
> core philosophy mana taonga, m?tauranga M?ori and the new biology as
> studied, for example, in Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES), Third Way
> of Evolution and panbiogeography, have created new contexts for the
> management of biological specimen collections that can help NATHIST CM to
> adjust better to the dynamic and complex post normal science environment.
>
>  In the 1980s Te Papa?s collection management (CM) of cultural collections
> began transforming from using traditional museum practices of curation to
> co-management with source communities under mana taonga. CM of biological
> specimen collections has remained more or less unchanged in this respect.
> The beneficial impact mana taonga had on CM of cultural heritage
> collections, on source and user communities and other aspects of CM are
> hardly ever discussed among NATHIST CM professionals, who have mainly
> science but no museological backgrounds. Consequently, a dearth of
> publications exists that cover mana taonga and m?tauranga M?ori from a
> natural history museum viewpoint. My thesis is closing this gap by
> examining the space where mana taonga, m?tauranga M?ori and CM of
> biological collections meet.
>
>  As a researcher of New Zealand (NZ) land snails and biogeography, I
> explore from my perspective and experience starting points for future
> efforts to revitalise collections by enhancing their ties with communities,
> but also through management of biological collections in a manner that
> advances epistemic justice, overcomes miscommunication and a lack of shared
> concepts, counterbalances CM operated purely with instrumental rationality
> and provides room for interaction with m?tauranga M?ori. To achieve this, I
> gauge the understanding of and commitment to mana taonga and m?tauranga
> M?ori in the NATHIST sector and investigate how both can enrich NATHIST CM
> and how standard CM practice could interact in meaningful ways with mana
> taonga and m?tauranga M?ori to put collections back on the ground and help
> advance testimonial and hermeneutical justice.
>
> In this thesis I am employing a combination of literature review,
> autoethnography and action research. The literature review covers aspects
> of museological literature, evolution, conservation and philosophy of
> science that are relevant to CM but cannot obviously be exhaustive. Through
> the literature review I connect my own experiences and observations of CM
> to broader cultural, political, and social concepts and debates. I use my
> experiences with collection management of NZ micro land snails at Te Papa
> and as a former member of the panel of the Department of Conservation?s New
> Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS), NZ?s equivalent to the IUCN
> Red List of endangered species, to make recommendations. I use my insider
> knowledge to test theoretical claims in ways outsider knowledge is unable
> to do. The cases (exhibits) used in this thesis were selected for their
> suitability to describe the problems with interweaving two knowledge
> systems in Te Papa?s permanent Te Taiao?Nature exhibition, potential
> conflicts arising for NATHIST CM while juggling local and global interests,
> trends in conservation and data networks with regard to mana taonga,
> tikanga, m?tauranga M?ori and issues of epistemic injustice arising through
> operating CM from a purely technical perspective and adherence to concepts
> rooted in Neo Darwinism.
>
>  My thesis establishes that the application of mana taonga varies highly
> between the cultural and taxonomic collections at Te Papa. Cross-cultural
> and cross-disciplinary openings appear sparse and professional development
> opportunities for NATHIST staff are limited and underdeveloped. I
> demonstrate how mana taonga, m?tauranga M?ori, EES, Third Way,
> panbiogeography and the Anthropocene provide the necessary tensions and
> contradictions for NATHIST professionals as means to step outside the
> knowledge and wisdom bubbles of their usual ?peer? groups to reassess
> concepts, opinions, arguments, means and ends of actions in order to stay
> and become more relevant to communities and society. As a result of my
> examinations, I propose strategies for putting collections back on the
> ground and better alignment with mana taonga in a post-normal science
> environment and for NATHIST CM to usher in postcolonial and post-Modern
> Synthesis NATHIST CM. Putting collections back on the ground involves a
> range of actions that contribute to the process: adopt rational pluralism,
> have an understanding for different ways of knowledge production, foster
> diverse documentation and complex system thinking, facilitate data
> repatriation and reinterpretation, employ thematic collecting, use local
> tikanga to inform CM, develop a nuanced understanding of differences.
>
>  Keywords: mana taonga, m?tauranga M?ori, natural history, collection
> management, epistemic justice, resonance, mediopassivity, STATS NZ data
> assessment tool kit, panbiogeography, Third Way of Evolution, ancestor,
> ancestry
>
> --
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> link, then the 'Ghost Moth Research page' link.
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-- 
Dunedin, New Zealand.

My books:

*Biogeography and evolution in New Zealand. *Taylor and Francis/CRC, Boca
Raton FL. 2017.
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.routledge.com%2FBiogeography-and-Evolution-in-New-Zealand%2FHeads%2Fp%2Fbook%2F9781498751872&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9184afce14ed4f77a26f08dda3131105%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638846024481658743%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wcvdERAdS2iOfFKg3PjnDNfm7H2aD%2F9qJ%2FM1xeM7uQc%3D&reserved=0

*Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge. 2014. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cambridge.org%2F9781107041028&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9184afce14ed4f77a26f08dda3131105%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638846024481668067%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=jCNB%2FeOc80hgGzH9eHNNv8gw4MbBJhI%2BkFGJdRVxkQg%3D&reserved=0

*Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University of California Press,
Berkeley. 2012. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ucpress.edu%2Fbook.php%3Fisbn%3D9780520271968&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9184afce14ed4f77a26f08dda3131105%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638846024481677050%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=PTpSIBPgzXoKiA2%2FgY5vtHYmJgFR%2FHprNKjnjwHYq6E%3D&reserved=0

*Panbiogeography: Tracking the history of life*. Oxford University Press,
New York. 1999. (With R. Craw and J. Grehan).
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.co.nz%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DBm0_QQ3Z6GUC&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C9184afce14ed4f77a26f08dda3131105%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638846024481686066%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=w6UqQkAoJTFCWmsacXIJkN7DOi3tjueLEXDRVAGVpnQ%3D&reserved=0
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