Last year the New Zealand Government’s announcement of a “Predator Free NZ 2050” was accompanied by a target for a significant scientific breakthrough capable of eradicating at least one small mammalian predator by 2025. Strong responses and consolidation and repositioning activity ensued. A commonly agreed gap in our understanding is whether we, as a society, would allow the use of such a control, if it existed. Does a “social licence to operate” exist for the NZ scientific establishment? For the New Zealand Government, for that matter?

This paper explores the interface between mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and a model used to describe knowledge systems known as the Data- Information- Knowledge- Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy. By considering how DIKW describes a non- Western knowledge system, we reveal ways that the DIKW pyramid concept may be expanded. We fi rst explore the practices that mātauranga Māori draws upon to establish relationships between data, information and knowledge, considering particularly how the concept of whakapapa interfaces with the DIKW pyramid model.