Maori medicine at risk: Iwi

JONATHAN DOW
The place of Maori in New Zealand law needs a comprehensive review, but pulling out of plans to establish a transtasman drug agency would be a start, Ngati Kahungunu told the Waitangi Tribunal in Hastings yesterday.
Traditional Maori medicine could fall under the control of the Australian New Zealand Therapeutic Products Authority, meaning it could be trademarked and controlled by drug companies, Ngati Kahungunu lawyer Grant Powell told the tribunal.
In 2003, New Zealand entered into a treaty with Australia to establish a joint authority without consulting Maori, Mr Powell said. He asked the tribunal to make an interim finding that for the Government to proceed with establishing the authority would be a breach of the Crown's obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.
The Crown lawyer opposed the application, because the iwi's application had been made with no prior warning. Chief Judge Joe Williams, the chairman of the four-person tribunal, said he would like to hear the Crown's submission this week.
Fundamental issues - the relationship between Maori and pakeha, between Maori and the Crown - were underlying the Wai 262 claim, Mr Powell said, before evidence of where the relationship has gone wrong was presented at the first day of the the Wai 262 "flora and fauna" claim at Waipatu Marae.
Mr Powell said Wai 262 was a unique claim and provided the best opportunity to move beyond the specific breaches that characterised other claims in order to address the underlying issues between the Crown and Maori and, in a wider context, between Maori and pakeha.
Mr Powell summarised Ngati Kahungunu's claim, which was first heard six years ago. The claim focuses on the tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of indigenous flora and fauna, the iwi's cultural knowledge, and rongoa Maori (medicine).
The iwi claims that while denying the iwi tino rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga, the Crown also failed to actively protect indigenous fauna and flora, undermined cultural knowledge, and failed to protect Maori medicine. Mr Powell said the Crown had taken a systematic approach to imposing control on Ngati Kahungunu and their taonga (treasures).
The hearing continues today and tomorrow at Waipatu Marae before moving to Nelson.