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National | Cancer

Weaving matauranga Māori into western science

The health and well-being of her people are the main drivers for Danielle Sword (Muaūpoko, Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai and Ngai Tahu).

As part of her PhD research with the University of Otago’s Malaghan Institute she’s looking at improvements to a form of cancer immunotherapy called CAR T-cell therapy and also investigating te ao Māori perspectives from patients and their whanau as it develops into a clinical service.

Sword hopes her research provides positive health outcomes for whānau.

She has just been awarded a $40,000 stipend a year for three years plus a $10,000 tikanga allowance from Te Kāhui Matepukupuku o Aotearoa and Hei Āhuru Mōwai.

Hei Āhuru Mōwai is a network of internationally and nationally renowned Māori cancer experts who deliver a Māori view of cancer control in New Zealand.

The researcher says it is right that matauranga Māori should be woven into western science.

“You can get very lost in the biomedical science and scientific world, so matauranga māori will help ground me again. This is for my whanau, this is for hapu, iwi, and nga iwi o te motu, not just a sample and not just a patient but this will be for whānau,” Sword says.

The main outcome of using mātauranga Māori for her is clearing anything bad that might come with testing for cancer.

“I think it's very new. I won't say there's nothing done but it's just very new, especially for Western science and being a laboratory space. So things like doing karakia in those spaces to whakanoa, make yourself safe, especially when you know you're handling some taonga that are supposed to tapu in a way because anything that comes from our tinana is tapu. What else? Really wanting to create a safer space for Maori who want to enter into this field but also for our whānau who will be patients who will be seeking treatment if they have cancer," Sword says.