Of the increasing suite of genomic technologies, environmental DNA (eDNA) has become the most widely used and rapidly adopted by indigenous Māori groups in Aotearoa New Zealand, particularly for enhancing kaitiakitanga (= sustainable environmental management). Despite this rapid adoption, some challenging issues remain, especially as the technology is moving into areas such as data sovereignty, utilisation of place-based mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori environmental knowledge) and revelation of local genetic variation in taonga (= culturally important/valued) species. Moreover, this digital sequence information(DSI) itself is considered a taonga thus is tapu (sacred) and subject to protocols derived from tikanga Māori (= Māori ethical frameworks) to ensure applications are appropriate. In addition, past experiences of Māori and other indigenous communities of genomic technologies/ists have often been either negative and/or resulted in little or no benefit to Māori communities. This parallels a multitude of other negative colonisation experiences, including experiences of the very same regional and/or national government agencies that use or promote eDNA. My talk will cover these points, as well as perspectives and concerns regarding the construction of a national database of DSI from endemic Aotearoa New Zealand species, considerations regarding revelation of local genetic variation and appropriate use of mātauranga Māori in eDNA-based research. It will also describe guidelines and tools to assist with navigating these issues, as well as expanding education initiatives in both University and Māori learning environments that seek to enable appropriate use of gene technologies.
Dr Phillip Wilcox Māori tribal affiliations are Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, and Rongomaiwahine. He is an Associate Professor in the University of Otago’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, with experience in applied genomics and statistical genetics. He is also an Affiliate of the University of Otago’s Bioethic Centre, and is the current convenor of MapNet, a NZ-wide collective of gene mapping scientists, and led the Virtual Institute for Statistical Genetics from 2008 to 2013. He is also a Principal Investigator for the Maurice Wilkins Centre For almost 20 years he has worked in the interface of genetic sciences and Te Ao Māori, and co-leads two genomics-based projects focussing on Māori health (Aotearoa Variome and Rakeiora) which have utilised culturally informed guidelines to inform study design. He spent almost 10 years as technical advisor to Ngāti Rakaipaaka, regarding the Rakaipaaka Health and Ancestry Study. Dr Wilcox has also worked on genetics of plant species (particularly forest trees) and human diseases. He teaches tikanga-based frameworks in science courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as statistics and quantitative genetics, and teaches genetics-related content to pre-NCEA high school students in marae-based learning environments in the University of Otago’s Science Wānanga initiative. Along with Maui Hudson and Katharina Ruckstahl, he initiated SING-Aotearoa, and is currently a member of the Health Research Council of New Zealand’s Ethics Committee which oversees institutional and regional ethics committees, and has advised various researchers in engaging with Māori communities regarding eDNA since 2015.