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Acknowledgement that Indigenous Knowledge cannot be assimilated and readily generalised within reductionist scientific paradigms is emerging. The reluctance of Indigenous Peoples to adopt reductionist science-based interpretations is justified. Science that stops at the point where reality is universal excludes consideration of how outcomes are understood and experienced by more holistic epistemologies including those of Indigenous Peoples. Culturally derived ways of knowing are beyond the realm of reductionist science and require approaches to decision-making frameworks that are capable of including culturally specific knowledge. Cultural indicators are a geographically specific means of enabling measurement of a particular culture’s attributes; however, to be appropriately recognised, the method of inclusion is at least as important. Therefore, cultural indicators, their definition and their measurement are the sole prerogative of Indigenous Peoples, and how Indigenous epistemologies are effectively empowered in frameworks is critical, as decisions are no longer being made in purely Indigenous contexts.

The New Zealand pastoral industry has many simultaneous drivers, including market and policy compliance, that operate from the local to the global scale. The ability to adapt to these multiple drivers against a background of constrained natural resources and climate change is vital to the continued success of New Zealand's pastoral industry. Here we describe a case study based in the Horizons Region where we worked with pastoral sector stakeholders to apply a process in which an integrated systems perspective was used to identify and explore the impact of drivers on dairy and sheep/beef systems. Drawing from this process we have designed a generic framework, including tools and processes, to enable policy, farmers, and agribusiness to collectively explore the influence of multiple drivers on the future behaviour of farm systems and associated value chains. Keywords: Rural futures, collective learning, socioecological systems, strategic planning

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