A week ago, the Taxpayers Union was being bombarded with emails on its exposé of the $156,132 “science challenge” which resulted in the establishment of a kūmara patch, funded through Massey University.
Not a big kumara patch – just 3 by 3 metres, the union reported.
Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive followed up on the story, enabling her listeners to learn of former Green MP Gareth Hughes’ thinking on the funding of mystical studies and science.
He said taxpayers should be “celebrating this Māori science” and complained that not enough money was going to these sorts of projects.
He cited OECD data which suggests New Zealand is under-investing in research and development.
So far, so good.
But when scientists in need of R&D funding are on short rations, should the government be investing in growing kūmara to offer to the “sky gods”?
PoO readers can judge here how Hughes fared when he discussed his ideas with the Taxpayers’ Union’s Jordan Williams.
Williams would have been warmed up for the chat after writing the article headed How much does a kumara patch cost?
In that article, he recalled how re-interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi adopted by the Chris Hipkins/Jacinda Ardern Government had resulted in officials being instructed to put “matauranga Māori” (traditional Māori knowledge) on the same footing as “colonial science” (their description, not Williams’ or PoO’s).
This ideology was spread to the National Science Challenges, which were intended to bring together “the country’s top scientists” and use “the best science to address the Challenge[s]” –
Funding allocated for the challenges was tapped to provide $4 million to cure Kauri dieback by playing music to trees.
The hypothesis being tested was whether the whales have a “calming” effect on the trees, and therefore help the trees resist disease. (“We’re not making this up,” the Taxpayers Union said when reporting on this project. “It’s literally on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website!”)
MBIE’s justification for providing the funds was that according to Māori legend, sperm whales and kauri trees are brothers.
After Taxpayers’ Union researchers had exposed the $4 million whale song spending, Williams instructed them to keep digging.
Now he is highlighting the spending of $156,132 on a scientific research project titled “Māra Tautāne”.
Māra Tautāne translates to “garden for men”, Williams says, but the project’s purpose was, in fact, “Revitalisation of traditional hapū practices”.
The Research Brief states:
The purpose of this project is to observe and record the deep cultural and spiritual significance that cultural practices connected with the natural world hold for tāngata Māori. Specifically, the project involves recording the revitalisation of the Māra Tautāne in a hapū of Tūhoe, located in Ruātoki, in the northern Te Urewera. […]
The project also elevates the importance of the role of wāhine [woman] in the preservation and maintenance of cultural practices associated with māra [the garden]. […]
The Māra Tautāne acts as a symbolic icon to enable a connection between the spiritual world and the physical world. It is a symbol of Māori connectedness and inseparability from the natural world.
He said taxpayers should be “celebrating this Māori science” and complained that not enough money was going to these sorts of projects.
He cited OECD data which suggests New Zealand is under-investing in research and development.
So far, so good.
But when scientists in need of R&D funding are on short rations, should the government be investing in growing kūmara to offer to the “sky gods”?
PoO readers can judge here how Hughes fared when he discussed his ideas with the Taxpayers’ Union’s Jordan Williams.
Williams would have been warmed up for the chat after writing the article headed How much does a kumara patch cost?
In that article, he recalled how re-interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi adopted by the Chris Hipkins/Jacinda Ardern Government had resulted in officials being instructed to put “matauranga Māori” (traditional Māori knowledge) on the same footing as “colonial science” (their description, not Williams’ or PoO’s).
This ideology was spread to the National Science Challenges, which were intended to bring together “the country’s top scientists” and use “the best science to address the Challenge[s]” –
Funding allocated for the challenges was tapped to provide $4 million to cure Kauri dieback by playing music to trees.
The hypothesis being tested was whether the whales have a “calming” effect on the trees, and therefore help the trees resist disease. (“We’re not making this up,” the Taxpayers Union said when reporting on this project. “It’s literally on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website!”)
MBIE’s justification for providing the funds was that according to Māori legend, sperm whales and kauri trees are brothers.
After Taxpayers’ Union researchers had exposed the $4 million whale song spending, Williams instructed them to keep digging.
Now he is highlighting the spending of $156,132 on a scientific research project titled “Māra Tautāne”.
Māra Tautāne translates to “garden for men”, Williams says, but the project’s purpose was, in fact, “Revitalisation of traditional hapū practices”.
The Research Brief states:
The purpose of this project is to observe and record the deep cultural and spiritual significance that cultural practices connected with the natural world hold for tāngata Māori. Specifically, the project involves recording the revitalisation of the Māra Tautāne in a hapū of Tūhoe, located in Ruātoki, in the northern Te Urewera. […]
The project also elevates the importance of the role of wāhine [woman] in the preservation and maintenance of cultural practices associated with māra [the garden]. […]
The Māra Tautāne acts as a symbolic icon to enable a connection between the spiritual world and the physical world. It is a symbol of Māori connectedness and inseparability from the natural world.
According to one of the researchers, kūmara were chosen for the garden because it is the “garden of the gods” and only kūmara can be given to the gods.
The Taxpayers’ Union provides a breakdown of the $156,132 spending and a picture of the kūmara patch.
Personnel costs amounted to $111,132. It’s an important research project involving “the country’s top scientists” (apparently), so I guess we can’t complain, right?
Participant koha: $5,000. At the Taxpayers’ Union we think taxpayer money should never be used for koha gifts. But that’s not the view of Massey University.
Additional equipment: $10,000. Gardens are expensive. $10,000 at Mitre 10 doesn’t go far nowadays…
Team travel costs: $25,000. A Marae 20km south of Whakatāne was chosen to locate the kūmara garden. Presumably a lot of trips from Massey University were required?
Story map development: $5,000
Grand total = $156,132.
Williams says $156,132 is equivalent to nine years of the income tax paid by the average Kiwi worker.
Point of Order emailed a copy of Williams’ article to Massey University and asked for comment.
If there were errors in his report (we reasoned) they would be anxious to put the record straight.
And if they reckoned this is money well spent, they would want to explain their perspective.
A week later we have had no response.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
The Taxpayers’ Union provides a breakdown of the $156,132 spending and a picture of the kūmara patch.
Personnel costs amounted to $111,132. It’s an important research project involving “the country’s top scientists” (apparently), so I guess we can’t complain, right?
Participant koha: $5,000. At the Taxpayers’ Union we think taxpayer money should never be used for koha gifts. But that’s not the view of Massey University.
Additional equipment: $10,000. Gardens are expensive. $10,000 at Mitre 10 doesn’t go far nowadays…
Team travel costs: $25,000. A Marae 20km south of Whakatāne was chosen to locate the kūmara garden. Presumably a lot of trips from Massey University were required?
Story map development: $5,000
Grand total = $156,132.
Williams says $156,132 is equivalent to nine years of the income tax paid by the average Kiwi worker.
Point of Order emailed a copy of Williams’ article to Massey University and asked for comment.
If there were errors in his report (we reasoned) they would be anxious to put the record straight.
And if they reckoned this is money well spent, they would want to explain their perspective.
A week later we have had no response.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
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