GE consultation with Maori only 'tokenism'

By SIMON COLLINS

A Maori researcher has rebelled against "tokenism" in consultation with Maori over the ethics of putting human genes into other animals and plants.

Dr Paul Reynolds, a postdoctoral fellow at the Auckland University-based institute Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, said the Government-appointed Bioethics Council heard more than 220 people at hui, but then ignored their concerns when it gave a green light last month to injecting human genes into other species.

"Their consultations and dialogue sessions with the public and with Maori are just ways of managing dissent," he said.

"It's, 'We'll listen to you, we'll tick the box and say we have listened to the public, then we'll marginalise your view and we won't listen to you at all in the report which we write."'

Dr Reynolds, born in Taumarunui of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Ngapuhi descent, wrote his doctoral thesis at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University on Maori views of genetic modification (GM).

"It's part of a larger international struggle about knowledge - traditional knowledge and intellectual property ownership," he said.

"This is one of several reports that consults Maori, but then ignores what they have to say, which I think is wrong. It's dishonest."

Notes from the 13 hui showed overwhelming opposition to putting human genes into other organisms.

Participants at the first hui, in Whangarei, said transferring genes interfered with the whakapapa (ancestry) that linked people - not people and animals.

The notes record some voices in support of GM technology at four hui - on Auckland's North Shore and in New Plymouth, Otaki and Christchurch.

Dr Reynolds noted that three Maori members of the Bioethics Council - Dr Gary Hook, Dr Cherryl Smith and founding chairman Sir Paul Reeves - resigned just before the human genes report came out.

"It appears that Maori concerns have now become tokenism," he said.

But all three former council members told the Herald they resigned because of work pressures, not because they disagreed with the human genes report.

Sir Paul said he endorsed the report, Dr Hook "had no disagreements" with it, and Dr Smith did not want to comment on the report.

The sole remaining Maori member of the working party that drafted the report, Auckland University doctoral student Waiora Port, said she "did not have time to get on to it".

"We as Maori are all overcommitted in all sorts of fields. I have my own research," she said.

The council's kaumatua, Dr Hirini Moko Mead, said he had been preoccupied by his Ngati Awa tribe's Treaty of Waitangi settlement and had not yet read the final report, but said: "We had a very good process".

Council executive officer John Pennington said there was a real need "to engage Maori in what these technologies mean for tikanga [Maori ways of doing things] and whakapapa".

"Like it or not, these technologies are coming. Somehow or other Maoridom has to get a grip on them, just as they have with other technologies," he said.

The Government has appointed two new Maori members of the council, Massey University health researcher Dr Chris Cunningham and Victoria University pro-vice-chancellor Piri Sciascia.

Mr Pennington said it was looking for another Maori woman to replace Dr Smith.