Connectivity / Reciprocity
Dung beetles connect history, myth, science and economy. They symbolise regeneration and restoration of life. They keep vital ecological cycles churning, build soil, disperse nutrients, and play a role in protecting our streams. They improve soils to help feed people.
Te toto o te tangata he kai, te oranga o te tangata, he whenua, he oneone.
While food provides the blood in our veins, our health is drawn from the land and soils.
This concept, offered by te ao Māori, advocates for a strategic reciprocity between humans and those elements and organisms with which we coexist. We depend on each other in myriad, often microscopic, sometimes macroscopic, ways that are woven and entrenched in each other's wellbeing.
This connectivity is explored by scientists Emma Curtin and Henrik Moller and in this work, albeit in varying ways. Our energies and interests reveal a shared love and kaitiakitanga of our astounding biosphere, but also a concerted effort to work towards regeneration and restoration. This first acknowledges past and present mishaps, but then embraces an optimist vision of future synergies.