Australia TV host Rowan Dean, panel slam mātauranga Māori

Rowan Dean said if people questioned Māori science, they were termed racists. Photo / Supplied

By Stefan Dimitrof of Whakaata Māori

Sky News Australia host Rowan Dean has just come rather late to the party over the controversy about mātauranga Māori being included in academic science.

Earlier this year some academics objected to the inclusion of mātauranga Māori while others including several universities and the respected Royal Society of New Zealand defended its use.

But Dean hit out at mātauranga Māori science on his show this week, saying the Royal Society of New Zealand is pushing its "woke agenda on to students".

On the show The World According to Rowan Dean, Dean said if people questioned Māori science, they were termed racists.

Author James Macpherson, a guest on Dean's panel, said science has been "kissing up to every 'wokey' fad; science has become completely politicised".

Later in the show Macpherson said there was a difference between someone looking at the stars and the invention of GPS.

'Dumbing down people'

Sophie York, an author and lawyer, said: "That leading Māori scientist Cooper [Dr Garth Cooper], if he wants to have a certain standard of integrity in science and observe scientific method, then why would the Māori people want high standards?"

Dean later suggested there was a risk of cultural science being added in Australia where cultural practices by native peoples were elevated to scientific principles creating two learning paths of enlightenment science and indigenous science having equal cultural and scientific merit.

Ian Plimer, a geologist, said that this was all because the past 50 years had been spent dumbing down people and taking away people's ability to think critically or analytically.

Plimer said there was no Māori science and science was "married to evidence".

"It's not married to emotions, it's not married to race, it's not married to the political calling of the day."