Evolving ethics envy—New Zealand sociologists reading the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans

Abstract

This paper considers the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2) a visionary document when viewed in comparison with the ways ethics review is enacted in New Zealand. New Zealand has unequivocal guidelines for indigenous research. The indigenous guidelines in Chapter 9 of the Canadian document are particularly innovative, in that they prescribe indigenous consultation for some, but not all researchers. In New Zealand, according to the Health Research Council Te Ara Tika guidelines, all research in New Zealand warrants indigenous consultation. This paper suggests that progress around improving the practice of consultation and engagement with Māori could be made if the consultation requirements for mainstream research were to be paper based, and reviewed by an ethics committee without actual expectation of mandatory consultation conditions. On the other hand, Māori centred research should require actual and detailed evidence of consultation that would be tied to an explicit articulation of the mutual understanding of the benefits accruing from this relationship.