Te Whakaruruhau, te Ukaipo. Mana Wahine and Genetic Modification

Abstract

The issues for Maori and other indigenous peoples with regard to genetic modification (GM) are rooted in long associations with the natural world. Pre-colonisation Maori were entirely dependent on the environment, which shaped and reaffirmed cultural ways of being, beliefs and cosmologies. Within the Maori GM debate some Maori women hold a unique mana wahine analysis with regard to GM that is struggling for visibility. Mana wahine is a way of being. It is also a theory and a tool of analysis that can be adopted by Maori women to enable them to have space to develop their own ideas about situations and events. The marginalisation of mana wahine views in the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification (RCGM) highlight the limited power Maori women have in influencing agencies that are Crown driven or support the maintenance of hegemonic colonial masculinist ideologies. It also highlights the dominance of 'western' science as the only legitimate body of knowledge to provide an assessment of GM and its impact within the wider environment. GM is creating new colonies through the use of patents and is viewed by indigenous peoples as another wave of colonisation. For Maori, GM is in direct violation of Maori cultural practices. GM disrupts the mauri (life force) of organisms, violates Maori rights to exercise kaitiakitanga (guardianship), alters the whakapapa (genealogy) of organisms and is therefore unacceptable to Maori cultural values. In particular mana wahine concerns with regard to GM pertain to ora (well being) specifically concerning children, health and food. Mana wahine concerns also include Nga Ritenga o Te Ao Maori (Maori cultural practices) including tikanga Maori (Maori culture), Papatuanuku (rites and relationships with the Earth Mother) kaitiakitanga, support the views of other indigenous women with regard to GM and raise issues regarding Maori participation in the GM debate. The overall research goal of this thesis is to contribute to the development of a mana wahine conceptual framework that can be used to provide an analysis of GM and the GM debate in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Through appliying the framework a mana wahine perspective with regard to GM is presented. This persepctive calls for science to have more appropriate relationships with the Earth, indigenous peoples and in particular indigenous women. This research is undertaken in Environmental Studies and as such, contributes to the current arguments within this field. This thesis recommends that mana wahine be incorporated into the Environmental Studies curriculum to allow for a fuller and wider analysis that is relevant to Maori women and an Aotearoa/ New Zealand situation. The conclusion of this research is that a mana wahine view strongly rejects GM. I also conclude that science is occurring at the expense of mana wahine views. A mana wahine perspective of science contends that knowledge must not be recreated by science through the theft of indigenous knowledge or the knowledge of others. For when the basic rights of indigenous peoples are not being upheld, science continues to be a tool that perpetuates colonisation. This research calls on scientists to consider the wider implications of their discoveries and inventions and ask whom GM and other potential new technologies empower and or disempower and whether this technology is destructive to nature? Indigenous peoples, particularly those voices on the margins within indigenous groups such as women, must be included in the development of science policy and involved in measuring the impact of science upon our Earth.