Students at DiscoveryCamp at Otago University in 2019. Photo: Supplied.

ScienceJuly 26, 2019

The camp where young Māori and Pasifika explore the wonders of science

Contributing writer

Students at DiscoveryCamp at Otago University in 2019. Photo: Supplied.

DiscoveryCamp gives Māori and Pacific high school students the chance to experience science at a tertiary level. Alice Webb-Liddall finds out why it’s important to get these young people interested.

Māori and Pacific people have been experts in science for thousands of years. They navigated the earth using astronomy, grown food with biology and created medicines with botany. “This is and always has been science,” says Dr Ocean Mercier (Ngāti Porou). The Victoria University of Wellington lecturer has a PhD in condensed matter physics, and studies how mātauranga Māori and science connect.

“It’s an old fable that Māori and Pacific people aren’t suited to do science – that we’re more capable of arts or dance – but what people don’t seem to understand is that we have been scientists forever.”

But the representation of Māori and Pacific people in science is far below where it should be. While nearly a quarter of New Zealand’s population identify as Māori or Pasifika, a science review from 2010 found Māori and Pacific Islanders only make up around 2% of the scientific workforce.

To help increase this dismal statistic, the MacDiarmid Institute intervenes early: high school students. Their annual DiscoveryCamp programme gives young Māori and Pacific senior students the opportunity to learn from some of the best scientists at some of New Zealand’s top universities on an all-expenses-paid five-day science trip.

Mariah McDonald (Ngāi Tahu) attended DiscoveryCamp in 2013/14, and now she’s studying for her PhD in biomechanical engineering. For her, the experience at DiscoveryCamp cemented the idea that science was a viable post-high school route.

“During our tours of the university, we got to see people doing real hands-on work. Some of them were developing a better contraceptive pill and others were doing work for breast cancer… I got to see how what I was learning in school applied to the real world.”

In the time since McDonald left high school, she’s come to understand the extent of the representation problem. She believes programmes encouraging young people into science are extremely important to remedy this.

“Māori and Pasifika students are definitely underrepresented in STEM. The MacDiarmid Institute is creating an opportunity for this group that is underrepresented, to expose them to what’s out there, because for whatever reason we’re not being exposed to it.”

Students from DiscoveryCamp at Otago University, 2019. Photo: Supplied.

There’s no one thing to blame for this under-representation. But, the deep systemic disconnection of Māori from the sciences has had a real impact on students perception of the possibilities for their future. Growing up, Mercier didn’t feel as though science was connected to her identity as a Māori woman.

“It’s an endemic issue due to low representation of Māori and Pacific teachers in schools, which leads to low levels of uptake for the sciences. They don’t see other people doing science that look like them.”

This has seen big changes at the highest levels in an attempt to address the issue. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment have created a ‘diversity statement’ to ensure New Zealand’s science workforce is more reflective of the country’s population. This statement includes objectives like showcasing a more diverse range of researchers, ensuring greater diversity in decision-making bodies and raising awareness of unconscious bias in the sector.

DiscoveryCamp 2013/14 alumnus Lizzie Tafili loved high school science. But it was DiscoveryCamp that affirmed her potential to study science at a tertiary level was actually possible. She went on to complete a science degree at Victoria University. While she loved the high school science curriculum, it was the DiscoveryCamp that affirmed her goal to study science at a tertiary level was a reasonable one. She says the way science is taught in schools doesn’t cover the possibilities of what a science degree can be.

“At school, I only knew about science leading you into being a doctor or a pharmacist or something, but going to DiscoveryCamp I saw that that was not properly advertised. I loved learning about how you can use research and science to help with issues that we’re facing now like climate change.”

Tafili is now working towards a certificate in social work in Whanganui, but she’s not done with science yet. She hopes one day she can marry her two passions.

“I am currently focused on community and youth work but at some point. I want to transition into making science accessible in an innovative and entrepreneurial way.”

Mercier wants to see more Māori and Pacific students endorsed to bring their world view to the laboratory. “It’s not that we don’t have an affinity for science, it’s that our science looks a bit different.”

She wants young Māori and Pacific students to acknowledge that their unique perspectives can help to shift the landscape towards a less European-centric dialogue.

“Science needs to be represented by the people it serves.”

If you or someone you know is in year 12 or 13 and has a passion for science, they can apply for the 2020 DiscoveryCamp here, and see how they can help to change the world. Applications open today 26 July and close 26 August.

This content was created in paid partnership with the MacDiarmid Institute. Learn more about our partnerships here

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ScienceJuly 26, 2019

Family First rebuked for ‘non-fact based activity’ over cannabis psychosis claims

Don Rowe

Contributing writer

Otago scientists say the lobby group has misrepresented the research.

Academics from the University of Otago have torn apart claims made by Family First about the links between cannabis, psychosis and violence in a paper published this morning. Prompted by a Family First petition calling for a government inquiry, the paper critiques a “tendentious” argument drawing on cherry-picked science which perpetuates the stigmatisation of people with serious mental illness.

Joseph Boden, co-author of the paper and an associate professor of psychological medicine at the University of Otago, said he believed Family First were deliberately misrepresenting the science on cannabis and contributing to a climate of misinformation ahead of next year’s referendum.

“It’s the old fake news problem. If someone doesn’t take the time to actually vet things, which most people don’t, then what you’re doing is you are creating a citizenry who are going to exercise their vote without all the facts, or with false facts, or with an alternative narrative that doesn’t do justice to the subject at hand,” he said.

A press release accompanying the petition claimed international studies have found THC is strongly linked to schizophrenia, psychosis and violence, but Boden said there were a number of issues with Family First’s conclusions.

“They want to draw a straight line between cannabis and violence, and there’s really no credible evidence of a straight link between the two. They want to say it’s going to cause psychosis and psychotic people are violent. Well, the first part is it’s not probably not a strong cause of a psychotic illness. There’s very little evidence for that.

“The other thing is that they’re trying to link psychosis to violence. There are psychotic people who are violent, but they’re drawing from studies of hospitalised psychosis patients who have been sectioned against their will.”

Family First were also misrepresenting the findings of the studies they reference, Boden said.

“It’s very sloppy but I think intentionally so because they already have an anti position and they’re looking for stuff that they think can support it.

“As scientists, one of the things that we actually have to do apart from maintaining our objectivity about these things is to actually call out when people are misusing research.”

Boden, a substance abuse specialist, is a member of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, which has followed a cohort of more than 1,200 subjects for 40 years, tracking their health, education and life. He said the study has provided researchers with world class data on the effects of cannabis use, and provides a strong platform to have an informed discussion in New Zealand.

“Our research on the psychosocial harms related to cannabis has been some of the best in the world, particularly the contributions of the Dunedin Study and the CHDS. I think we have a terrific basis to start this discussion in New Zealand.

“But I think that people who are engaging in a lot of non-fact based activity – and I’m also thinking of people like Mike Hosking – the spotlight that they take up is far too great.”

Ahead of the referendum, the prime minister’s chief science advisor will release a short, unbiased summary of the evidence for the harms and benefits of legalised cannabis, her office announced last month.

Professor Juliet Gerrard, with assistance from a panel of New Zealand researchers and academics, will draw from longitudinal studies like the CHDS and a wealth of international data from areas where cannabis has been legalised and decriminalised. The report will be audited by international researchers and released to the public in January next year. Boden said it was an important resource to provide ahead of a vote.

“I think it’s a great step and a necessary step to have all that expertise and building a fact-based document that will serve as a resource for citizens and for the government itself. It’s not going to take a position for or against, but rather provide the best current evidence that we have around this.”

“What’s really important to note in that is that there hasn’t been huge increases in use. Places like Portugal that decriminalised all drugs, use of drugs went down.”

Last year, Family First accused an American academic of cherry picking data when he pushed back on their claim that legalisation had led to a huge increase in cannabis use in Colorado.

“Since legalisation in our state, cannabis isn’t used at higher rates than it was already before,” he wrote. “But now, it’s non-criminalised, regulated, and brings in tax revenue to our school districts, while not attracting drug cartels. You’re welcome.”

Family First called it fake news, but the state of Colorado said in a report there had been no increase in youth usage, and rates were the lowest in a decade. But the accusation could be a sign of something more sinister than a few local advocates getting trigger-happy, Boden said.

“What worries me is that it looks to me like opposition is very well funded and coordinated, and why I say it that way is because I think most of us in the field probably agree that a legalised and highly regulated scheme is better than prohibition. It’s a bad law and it’s failed and it’s generally applied in a racist manner.”

“But if you look at the anti-cannabis lobby groups in the United States, as I have, it’s a matter of public record who their funders are, and their funders are pharmaceutical companies. I think if the New Zealand public were to find out for example that major overseas international corporations were trying to influence their vote by infecting us with fake news, I think Kiwis would be pretty unhappy.

“Do I think it’s likely that is happening? I don’t doubt it for a second.”

Update: In a statement to The Spinoff, Family First maintain there is a link between cannabis, psychosis and violence. “In the same way that there is some real evidence that components of marijuana can be made into medicine, there is building scientific evidence suggesting that components of the plant can lead to mental illness, at times severe, that can lead to violence,” they said. “We are simply asking for research and scientific consensus before moving forward as a country with a change this massive.”