The story of Wai 262....as told by retired scientist Oliver Sutherhland and Deputy Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court Caren Fox

Oliver Sutherland is the kind of scientist I wish I had in third form science at Rotorua Boys High School in 1985 – maybe I would have paid more attention and become a scientist or something.

Oliver is a morehu, a survivor from another time, and in his 30 minute talk under the tuanui o te whare rangatira o Whakatū, we accompanied him on a bit of a time warp discovering the origins of the Wai 262 Native flora and fauna claim, a claim in which he was intimately invovled.

The time warp started in early 1960s Nelson from the friendship that grew between John Hippolite, then chair of the Māori Committee in the rohe and Oliver Sutherland, a budding biophysical scientist whom John made committee secretary. Together they embarked upon a challenge to improve Māori social and economic circumstances, justice and equity and aroha at the heart of their cause.

Then Oliver moved to work with DSIR – Department of Science and Industrial Research in Mt Albert, Auckland in the 1970s. In 1980, Oliver wrote a report entitled “The social responsibility of DSIR” in which he outlined the case for the organisation to give greater consideration and involvement of Māori people in its work. The report was a bit of revelation to his boss, but not much changed untill a 1985 hui with Māori leaders at Owairaka, Mt Albert.

Oliver worked with Sir Graham Lattimer chair of the New Zealand Māori Council who brought together a selection of mostly northern Māori leaders. While Oliver brought his bosses, Sir Graham assembled an impressive line up of distinguished Māori leaders and scholars, including Hon Matiu Rata, Rev Māori Marsden, Titewhai Harawira, Sir Norman Perry and Dr John Troughton. After the hui, the DSIR explicitly agreed to consult Māori, acknowledged the Treaty as the basis for ongoing Māori input into science and set out about trying to work with Māori on science that mattered to Māori.

Out of this auspicious 1985 hui at Owairaka came a five day workshop (now that’s a hui) on ethnobotany with 200 scientists and representatives from Māori and Pacific communities at Rehua Marae in Otautahi. It was an occasion that brought Western science and traditional Māori knowledge into vivid consciousness. Māori became aware of research into the commercialisation of native plants, and were horrified at the implications of this. This led to Māori demands for control over Māori things, in other words, the assertion of tino rangatiratanga o ngā taonga tuku iho under the Treaty of Waitangi.

Two outcomes Oliver spoke about from this hui were Dell Wihongi’s quest to Japan to retrieve kumara cultivars that had been sent there for safekeeping because DSIR could no longer care for them and the Wai 262 claim.

The Wai 262 claim was filed with the Waitangi Tribunal in October 1991 by Saana Murray (Ngāti Kuri), Del Wihongi (Te Rarawa), John Hippolite (Ngāti Kōata), Tama Poata (Te-Whanau-o-Ruataupare), and Witi McMath (Ngāti Wai). The statement of claim was crafted by their lawyer Moana Jackson of the Māori Legal Service.

Oliver read out a statement from the original claim with the date stamp on it, which held in his hand as he spoke: “A claim relating to the protection, conservation, management, treatment, propagation, sale, dispersal, utilisation and restriction on the use of and transmission of the knowledge of New Zealand indigenous flora and fauna and the genetic resource contained therein.” “That’s some sentence Moana” Oliver remarked.

On 11 July 2011, the Waitangi Tribunal released its report, written by Chief Māori Land Court Judge and tribunal chair Justice Joe Williams. Click here to view volume 1 of the report and volume 2 here. In that time Oliver said many associated with the claim, the original claimants, some of the lawyers, some of the tribunal members had passed on.

It is a claim and report with far-reaching implications for Māori and Aotearoa New Zealand. Interestingly, Oliver recalls, the claimants when they started out were largely without the support of their iwi who were focused on land claims. However, as things progressed, others became aware of its signficance and the scope of the claim was broadened to include Māori claims over native species and associated traditional knowledge, more generally.

At the end of his talk, Oliver, John Hippolites wife and sister sang a lament in Māori that had been composed at John’s tangi.

Then Deputy Chief Judge Caren Fox took up the story about what had been done since the tribunal report Ko Aotearoa Tēnei was published in 2011. In short, the Crown is still figuring that one out and in the meantime research and commercialisation thereof continues. That is precisely the kaupapa of the conference here in Whakatū – Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho, and relatedly the focus of a research project I am working on with Maui Hudson and colleagues under the auspices of Genomics Aotearoa entitled “Te nohonga kaitiaki: Guidelines for Māori engagement in genomics research.” He kōrero atu anō tērā hei te mutunga o te hui....me haere wawe ahau ki te hui, ka tīmata at waru karaka i te ata nei!

Mauri ora ki a tātau