"Mātauranga Māori is not like an archive of information but rather is like a tool for thinking, organising information, considering the ethics of knowledge, the appropriateness of it all and informing us about our world and our place in it." (Mead 2003, p. 306)

Māori have become a pivotal force in New Zealand’s science system, with the torsion of tikanga Mäori inviting the system to open its doors to indigenous values. Increasingly mätauranga Māori – encompassing Māori knowledge, Māori methods of knowledge creation and Māori ways of knowing – is being consulted, aligned with or brought into conversation with science. As the guest editors for Mätauranga and Science in Practice, we wanted a space in which people who are engaged at these interfaces could share their experiences of working with mätauranga alongside New Zealand science, bound as it is by inherited norms, practices, institutional traditions, and various Crown poli-cies. The audience for this conversation includes tohunga, philosophers, scientists, kaumātua, researchers, academics, kaiako, communities, public servants, kaimahi, students and anyone else who is interested in science, more broadly, and the unique contribution that an Aotearoa New Zealand science could make to the world.