text: Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge recognizes that Indigenous people, as the original caretakers, hold unique relationships with the land and waters. These relationships make TEK difficult to define, as Traditional Knowledge means something different to each person, each community, and each caretaker. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples begins by reminding readers that “respect for Indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment”  Attempts to collect and store this knowledge have been made over the past twenty years. Conglomerates such as The Indigenous Knowledge Social Network (SIKU) https://siku.org/, the Igliniit project, and the Wales Inupiaq Sea Ice Directory have made strides in the inclusion and documentation of indigenous people's thoughts on global climate, oceanographic, and social trends.
  One example involves ancient Polynesians and how they discovered and then travelled throughout the Pacific Ocean from modern day Polynesia to Hawaii and New Zealand. Known as wayfinding, navigators would use the stars, winds, and ocean currents to know where they were on the ocean and where they were headed. These navigators were intimately familiar with Pacific currents that create the North Pacific gyre and this way of navigating continues today.
  Another example involves the Māori people who came from Polynesia and are an indigenous group in New Zealand. Their way of life and culture has strong connections to the ocean. The Māori believe that the sea is the source of all life and is an energy, called Tangaroa. This energy could manifest in many different ways, like strong ocean currents, calm seas, or turbulent storms. The Māori have a rich oral history of navigation within the Southern Ocean and Antarctic Ocean and a deep understanding their ice and ocean patterns. A current research project is aimed at consolidating these oral histories. Efforts are being made to integrate TEK with Western science in marine and ocean research in New Zealand. Additional research efforts aim to collate indigenous oral histories and incorporate indigenous knowledge into climate change adaptation practices in New Zealand that will directly affect the Māori and other indigenous communities.