Disembodied brains, culture and science: Indigenous lives under gaze [Part 2 of 2]Disembodied brains, culture and science: Indigenous lives under gaze [Part 2 of 2]
All In The Mind
Maori people believe the body is derived from the earth, and returns to the ancestral earth at death—complete. The flesh, and all its bits, are sacred. The new Human Tissue Bill in New Zealand has provoked debate over who owns your body at death—you or your family? The Maori Party argues the legislation is Western-centric and racist. And, a young Maori scientist working with post-mortem brain tissue is breaking new ground, to keep her lab life 'culturally safe', in consultation with her tribe.
30:14•3 May 2008
Sacred Bodies and Brain Science: Māori Culture Under the Scientific Gaze
Episode Overview
- Māori beliefs hold the body, especially the head, as tapu and closely tied to ancestry, making post-mortem organ and tissue use highly sensitive.
- The Human Tissue Bill is criticised by Tariana Turia as Western-centric and racist because it prioritises individual consent over family and cultural frameworks.
- Māori perspectives emphasise that the family, not the individual, holds responsibility for the body after death, since no person stands apart from their genealogy.
- Scientist Melanie Shung incorporates karakia, song and tangi-inspired rituals in the lab to treat donated brain tissue as spiritually significant, not just as specimens.
- Both guests highlight ongoing tensions between Western medical systems and Indigenous values, including experiences of racism and the legacy of scientific colonialism.
“"No person in our culture stands alone. They have a genealogy that links them to their immediate family and also to a wider family."”
How do people find hope in the clash between cultural beliefs and medical science? This episode of *All In The Mind* heads to Aotearoa/New Zealand, where māori concepts of tapu, ancestry and whānau meet organ donation law and brain research. Host Natasha Mitchell talks with māori scientist Melanie Shung, who's doing rare research on post-mortem brain tissue from people with Huntington's disease at the University of Auckland. Her work is technically cutting-edge, but that's only half the story.
As a māori woman, she's had to ask a much deeper question: "If I'm taking part of someone's body, their brain, do we have the blessing of the family?" Melanie describes how she consulted elders, involved her tribe, and created lab protocols that blend karakia (prayer), song and tangi-style farewells for the deceased.
She jokes that some colleagues might think she's "quite fruity", yet makes it clear these practices keep her culturally safe and respectful of grieving families whose loved one's brain is now "growing in a dish, helping me to do my PhD." The conversation widens out with MP Tariana Turia, co-leader of the Māori Party, who strongly opposed New Zealand's Human Tissue Bill.
She argues the law is "Western-centric and racist" because it prioritises the individual's written consent over the family's wishes and māori beliefs that "no person in our culture stands alone" and that the body at death becomes tūpuna – ancestral. Together, their stories raise big questions about who "owns" the body after death, why being buried whole matters to many māori, and how scientific research can still carry the shadow of colonialism.
If you're interested in ethics, identity and respect in health and science, this conversation might leave you asking whose values shape the systems you rely on.
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