Kimiora Hēnare (Ngāti Hauā, Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa) is a cancer researcher who studies the complex biology of tumours in efforts to harness the immune system to fight cancer.
This scientist profile is one of six featured in this group of resources that explore animal ethics with a kaupapa Māori approach. A downloadable PDF of the combined scientist profiles is available in both a bilingual and a te reo Māori version.
He mihi
Ko Whakakoro te maunga moana
Ko Rangiputa te maunga whenua
Ko Whangapē te moana
Ko Awaroa te awa
Ko Ngāti Haua te hapū
Ko Te Kotahitanga te wharenui
Ko Te Aupōuri, ko Te Rarawa ngā iwi
Ko Manuka Hēnare tōku pāpā
Ko Kimiora Hēnare tōku ingoa
Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.
Kimiora’s experimental work with mice
Kimiora works as a Research Fellow in the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre located at the Grafton Campus of the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau.
Traditionally, cancer research has been done on cells (monocultures), but in order to study how cancer manages to circumvent the immune system and grow measurable tumours, it is necessary to use an animal model with all the biological complexity of a tumour. For this reason, mice are used as animal models for researching the treatment of cancer in humans.
To do this, the mice are bred and raised in a sterile colony. The minimum number of animals that are required for the planned experiments are used. Cancer cells from the same mouse species are injected just under the skin above the hip, a position that will have the least possible impact on the quality of life of the animal, which causes a tumour to grow. When the mice are treated with experimental medicines, the researchers can see whether or not the medicines are effective in treating the tumour.
In addition, the animals that are being used for experimental cancer therapies are also a useful source of cells for other purposes, which enables the researchers to maximise their use of the animal and the contribution they are making to scientific research. Mouse spleens and bone marrow can be collected as outstanding sources of immune cells for postgraduate research students to use appropriately in their experimental work.
Kimiora’s pathway to cancer research
Kimiora attended both Māori-medium and English-medium schools. When he was in year 13, he realised that he loved studying biology, so after finishing school, he enrolled in a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biomedical Science. He then continued with a Master of Health Science in Pathology, followed by a PhD in Biomedical Science. Since becoming Dr Hēnare in 2014, Kimiora has worked as a biomedical laboratory scientist in cancer research in Auckland apart from 2 years working in a similar research laboratory in Canada.
Influence of te ao Māori on Kimiora’s work
Kimiora supports a number of initiatives that encourage more Māori participation in science, including MAPAS, the Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme, a well-established equity programme for Māori and Pacific students at the Auckland Medical School. He is motivated by wanting to help ensure that, in the future, there are more Māori colleagues working in biomedical research laboratories and other scientific roles, while accepting that many Māori move through the university system and out the other side to go on and do “much cooler things”.
We want Māori insights and world views and ideas and brilliance – especially as it pertains to Māori health. For Māori by Māori, in all areas, has a demonstratively positive impact. It’s also a fundamental right for Māori to be able to self-determine what pathway that they want. The fact is we know the statistics, we hear about them daily. We're tired of labouring those statistics and talking about how sick we are.
Dr Kimiora Hēnare
Kimiora recalls there was nothing related to Māori knowledge in his own science training. Mātauranga Māori was not a topic that was spoken about with the supervisor. Kimiora looks forward to supervising Māori postgraduate or doctoral research students in cancer research and the opportunity he would have to be able to open space for conversations about mātauranga Māori, Māori values and concepts. A supervisor is a kind of kaitiaki (guardian) to their student, and in a broad sense, this includes encouraging a Māori student to bring their mātauranga into the lab and supporting the student to be able to look after that mātauranga in whatever way makes sense. Only when other Māori are working in the same corridor does a Māori scientist have the chance to introduce te reo Māori and tikanga Māori naturally into the science workplace. Kimiora has thought about Māori names for some of the items in the laboratory – as seen by the label on the fume hood in the image below.
Mauri and tapu
Two Māori concepts that Kimiora relates to his work with animals are mauri and tapu. His knowledge and understanding is that mauri is the life force – mauri is what keeps the wairua and tinana working together so a healthy person will work to eliminate whatever diminishes their mauri. A tumour has the purpose of breaking the connection between the tinana and the wairua, so therefore the growth of a tumour is a mauri-damaging biological process. Chemotherapy is a toxic treatment in the sense that it is treatment with toxic substances, but its purpose is still to look after and restore the patient’s mauri by killing the tumour.
In cancer research, the experimental animal is being given a tumour to carry as a burden to bear, then receiving treatment to try and fight that cancer, which hopefully works. Sometimes it does, sometimes there are side effects, all within the appropriate limits allowed by the ethics approval granted. The inevitable outcome, however, is that the research involves euthanising the animals to study their tissues and find out what has actually happened with that treatment in order to understand its effects. Kimiora describes euthanasia days as “heavy” days when he feels the full extent of the burden of the work he does.
Quite sad days because you’ve had a group of animals that you’ve been looking after for a couple of weeks or for 3 weeks or however long they’ve been involved, and then all of a sudden, it’s coming to an end, and for them it’s a permanent end.
Dr Kimiora Hēnare
Kimiora is also mindful of his responsibility in this aspect of his work to the workings of tapu. Animal euthanasia involves tapu because the animals are crossing the ora-mate boundary between life and death. Kimiora is exploring more Māori ways of managing tapu in animal euthanasia and guidelines for conducting biomedical research that not only fulfils standard expectations of humane, ethical practice but also involves tikanga Māori and ritenga. Tikanga in this context can be thought of as being based on three kawa or pillars – integrity, control and comfort. Here, comfort includes taking care of the comfort of a student, which might involve using karakia as part of animal euthanasia procedures for example. Perhaps the most important aspect is starting off with a welcoming attitude to these discussions and expectations with students and colleagues.
Reducing the risk of cancer
Related content and activity ideas
This article is part of a larger group of resources that explore animal ethics with a kaupapa Māori approach.
Articles
- Māori concepts for animal ethics – introduction
- Theories of animal ethics
- The Three Rs of animal ethics
- Māori ethical ideas
- How do Māori ideas relate to animal ethics?
- Dr Kimiora Hēnare
- Dr Leilani Walker
- Professor Eloise Jillings
- Hilton Collier
- Te Winiwini Kingi
- Rauhina Scott-Fyfe
Activities
Useful links
Dr Kimiora Hēnare is a research fellow at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Molecular Medicine and Pathology. Find out more:
Acknowledgement
This content has been developed with Dr Kimiora Hēnare (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa) and Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart (Ngāti Kura, Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Pare Hauraki), Auckland University of Technology, with funding and support from the Ministry for Primary Industries – Manatū Ahu Matua and the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART).
Animals of Aotearoa and animal ethics
Animals of Aotearoa: Kaupapa Māori Summaries and Exploring the Three Rs of Animal Ethics with Māori Ideas were developed with funding from the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) and the Ministry for Primary Industries. The silhouette design was created for this project and is the copyright of Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart and Dr Sally Birdsall.
