More than one Maori view on genetic engineering

A Te Arawa elder has endorsed research aimed at producing a genetically modified pine tree - but Auckland's Ngati Whatua people are not so sure.

Ben Hona, a kaumatua of Rotorua's Ngati Whakaue people, led a Te Arawa group which formally handed over genetically modified pine seedlings from Forest Research in Rotorua to HortResearch in Auckland early this year.

Forest Research wants to produce genetically modified trees with less lignin, a substance that makes wood hard and has to be taken out - with huge energy costs - to make the wood into paper.

Hona, a member of Forest Research's Maori consultation group Te Aroturuki, is also a kaumatua at Rotorua's Maori Arts and Crafts Institute and says he can see the benefits of GM wood.

"I don't have any worries about it," he says. "You take our economic situation. I have to go with anything that will lead to a better utilisation of our forestry assets.

"If there is anything that would be of use to my people, well, I would go with it, mainly because there's not a hell of a lot of resources left to us."

He says Ngati Whakaue are negotiating a partnership so they can share in the benefits of Forest Research's work. "We are looking at being part of it, as it's going on our land under our consents."

But a kaumatua of Ngati Whatua o Orakei, the Auckland group which welcomed the GM pine seedlings to Mt Albert, said he did not feel comfortable about the ceremony.

"There is a cultural spirituality about GE that goes against the grain of Maori thinking and Maori philosophy,"said Grant Hawke.

A $400,000-a-year HortResearch-led programme to develop procedures for choosing insects and other species to test the effects of proposed new GM organisms includes a component "to determine the best ways for applicants wishing to release GM plants to approach Maori about non-target species of importance to them".

Programme leader Louise Malone and HortResearch Maori business development leader Teresa Tepania-Ashton have begun regular meetings with Hawke and other Ngati Whatua people.

"We'll be working out a process that others could use," Malone says. "We're trying it as a case study ourselves and then trying out what works and what doesn't."