Traditional knowledge

Traditional knowledge

It is very rare in the lifetime of a research scientist that you see tangible outcomes from your research. We see that in these families – there is such a big difference in how they are doing – how they think and how they feel.

Parry Guilford, at the University of Otago Cancer Genetics Laboratory, has discovered a gene that is causing high rates of gastric cancer in a Bay of Plenty whānau, Health Research Council newsletter

When Suzanne Aubert (1835-1926) arrived in Auckland in 1860, she was a 25-year-old with a sustained desire to enter a religious life, despite strong family opposition. She had left France and sailed to New Zealand on the General Teste with Bishop Pompallier and a number of other Catholic missionaries.

With the exception of a period spent in Rome between 1913 and 1919, Suzanne Aubert remained in New Zealand until the end of her life, which she spent engaged in missionary and social work.

By 1871, Aubert had become Sister Mary Joseph – simply known as Meri to local Māori – and had joined the Hawke’s Bay mission. Some years later she began manufacturing and selling a range of remedies made from New Zealand native plants, based on the knowledge of the local hapū. The remedies had significant impact on colonial New Zealand, with 4000 bottles sold per month and, in 1892, the Evening Post called them the ‘chief proprietary medicine of New Zealand’. Arguably, Aubert was one of the first people to combine Western science and traditional knowledge to produce a commercial product.

After she moved to Wellington, Aubert established the St Joseph’s Home for Incurables in 1890, and became the founder of a new indigenous order, the Sisters of Compassion.

Healing herbs

Meto Leach, the Leader for Māori research at Crop and Food Research, continues the investigations of traditional medicinal uses of native New Zealand flora. From the University of Waikato, the chemist has joined forces with respected Tūhoe tohunga rongoā (Māori medicine expert), Hohepa Kereopa, to document the selection, preparation and medicinal uses of rongoā by Tūhoe and to identify the bioactive compounds responsible for the medicinal properties. The project integrates mainstream science and traditional Māori knowledge with the aim of improving socio-economic and health outcomes for Māori. Of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakāta and Ngāti Konohi descent, Leach is a strong advocate of Māori participation in research, from conception to realisation.

Whānau genetics

University of Otago cancer geneticist Parry Guilford spent a decade trying to pinpoint a gene that was causing high rates of gastric cancer in a Bay of Plenty whānau. Systematic research led to the identification of mutations in the E-cadherin gene among family members who were highly susceptible to developing the condition. The whānau’s local health clinic identified the extended whakapapa and found everybody who could have inherited the gene, while Guilford’s team developed a simple blood test to screen for the mutation. The screening programme has allowed the researchers to identify those at risk and to diagnose the cancer at a stage when the tumours are still very small and can be removed.

Back in colonial times, the Spanish whaler Jose Manuel jumped ship in New Zealand and, as was the custom of the time, took several wives. Today, he has hundreds of descendants scattered throughout the country, but the members of one particular branch of the family tree share more than common ancestry. Their inheritance is more pernicious and affects so many in the family that the old people believed the whānau was cursed.

In one family line, more than 40 members are either blind or have extremely poor vision, with some barely able to distinguish between dark and light. Some of the boys of the recent generation affected by the vision problems also have intellectual disabilities and autism. But now, by extensively examining and testing as many members of the extended family as possible and with the help of molecular genetics, the family also has a diagnosis. Marion Maw, a geneticist at the University of Otago, and her team uncovered an extremely rare genetic condition, caused by subtle alteration of a single gene on the X-chromosome, which probably began with one of the whaler’s granddaughters five generations ago.

Forecasting

Climate and weather have always been important for Māori because they influence decisions about when and where to plant, harvest and fish, and about navigation. Over the centuries, Māori have built up extensive knowledge about local weather conditions, which has been incorporated into traditional and modern practices of agriculture, fishing, medicine, education and conservation. Te Kūwaha o Taihoro Nukurangi, NIWA’s Māori Research and Development Unit, is examining and documenting Māori environmental knowledge, and how it has been passed on through the generations.

Magnetic navigation

Many migratory birds and other animals are able to detect magnetism and use it as a navigation aid, but how they do this is not certain. Michael Walker, a biologist at the University of Auckland, focuses his research on this very question, investigating deposits of the iron-rich mineral magnetite in the brains of pigeons, bees, trout, tuna, stingrays and other animals. Walker is also the director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (National Institute of Research Excellence for Māori Development and Advancement) which aims to encourage Māori to take up tertiary study.  

By Veronika Meduna 

Further reading and websites

Jessie Munro, The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Auckland University Press, 1996

Elsdon Best, Fishing Methods and Devices of the Māori, Te Papa Press, 2005

Elsdon Best, Forest Lore of the Māori, Te Papa Press, 2005

Murdoch Riley, Māori Healing and Herbal: New Zealand ethnobotanical sourcebook, Viking Sevenseas NZ, 1994

Image courtesy of Crop and Food Research

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