Increasing numbers of Māori entering the RSI sector as researchers
This snippet comes from the submission of the Indigenous Genomics Institute. Ko wai mātou? The Indigenous Genomics Institute (IGI) (currently an LLC in the process of transferring to a charitable trust) began coalescing in 2020 in recognition that a gap existed in the RSI ecosystem in “for Māori, by Māori” guidance and leadership around genomics. We aim to be a resource and a voice for Māori communities, hapū, and iwi when it comes to educating whānau about genomics, empowering them to utilise genomics for their own kaupapa, and engaging with genomics researchers.
We must grow the researchers we want in our RSI ecosystem. This means equitably investing in education and infrastructure (e.g. internet, chrome books for pupils) in all areas of the country to support our youth with interests that they may have in RSI, including ensuring training in RSI-relevant curricula in Māori-medium kura. Issues of representation of Māori within the RSI workforce cannot be viewed in isolation of underfunding of educational resources/infrastructure, particularly in areas where Māori make up a larger proportion of the population (i.e. Te Tai Tokerau, Te Tairāwhiti).
The development of regional hubs of research proposed in the green paper would be a powerful way to uplift local mātauranga, ensure research is both relevant to local communities and led/co-led by them, and to ensure that Māori researchers do not have to make a choice between remaining close to their whānau and engaging in the RSI system. A potential model for this could be the “extension office” system associated with universities in the USA. Interchange between such hubs and other RSI institutions could be facilitated through dedicated sabbaticals to ensure the development of relationships across the RSI sector and with Māori communities, ensuring researchers within the RSI sector have an understanding of aspirations and concerns of Māori communities.
However, having Māori distributed throughout the ‘big RSI players’ (i.e. universities, CRIs) in a re-imagined RSI system is also a powerful check in ensuring decisions are not made about us, without us, and that the RSI workforce reflects the demographics of society at large. One effective mechanism for ensuring the health workforce reflects the faces of those in Aotearoa has been the ‘Mirror on Society’ pipeline at the University of Otago (https://www.otago.ac.nz/healthsciences/students/professional/otago686979.html). We propose a ‘Mirror on Society’ type policy, but for the RSI sector, with funding to support young Māori researchers. Acknowledging the collective nature of Māori society, there would be an explicit role for Māori communities to identify young folks from their community who would thrive in an RSI setting. They would go to university, and potentially to graduate school depending on their interests, supported on a scholarship. They would then be “bonded back” to their community with associated funding, bringing the knowledge and connections they have formed back with them, potentially helping to support the regional hubs of research described above. A similar approach (https://teachfirstnz.org/) has been used to reduce educational inequity in New Zealand, and the ‘home residency requirement’ has been recognised by international programs such as Fulbright as important for information and cultural exchange. In the process of increasing Māori participation in the RSI sector, the RSI sector is also enriched by experiencing the perspectives of these young researchers and the Māori communities they represent.
There is no trouble getting scholars into mātauranga-centering institutes within higher education. Therefore, our lack of Māori scholars in other RSI fields represents a failure from harakeke roots level to weave these careers with Te Ao Māori. Education and integration between the NZ education system, downstream careers, and local communities is key.
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