Keith Melville

Thanks to Mawera Karetai for her civil and informative response last Friday to my letter dated March 13, in which I questioned the value of a Government-sponsored investment in a small Rūātoki kumara patch.

I challenged the value of investing $156,000 in a two-year project to encourage Māori to reconnect with traditional gardening practices, which Dr Karetai said had not been practised for 300 years due to disruption by colonisation and land confiscation.

After reading Ms Karetai’s considered response, I agree that there would be great value in revitalising and restoring traditional garden practices among Māori, just as there would be value in encouraging all couch potato Kiwis to get off their backsides and reconnect with nature.

The health benefits alone would be huge.

I know, personally, the sense of achievement and pride you get when you plant something and watch it mature.

In my original letter I said from my own euro-centric Pākehā point of view (I was born that way) I could not help but think the project was really a scandalous waste of money.

Now, on reflection that was far too harsh.

Perhaps I should have directed my questions to Massey University, which funded the project under what I believe was a change of rules imposed by the Ardern Labour Government some years ago.

These relatively new rules require matauranga Māori cultural projects to be considered on a similar footing as projects involving hard science. I haven’t fully investigated that, so I stand to be corrected if wrong.

I don’t disagree that the Maori world view should be respected (it is an integral part of our culture), but, to me, it is really a question of value for money and priorities especially when you consider the state of the water supply in Rūātoki, where people are often told to boil their water to kill the bugs.

Dr Karetai’s reasoned argument stands in contrast to some of the comments I saw on social media after my letter appeared.

I was described as “stale, male and pale”, which I can live with, and also offensively as a “Māori basher”.

Those comments were made by those who clearly do not believe there is value in robust debate.