Bounty Hunting Warrior Genes: Potential use of genetic
material for a clone army. 1
By Christine Morris2
Christine.Morris@griffith.edu.au
In 2000 I dreamt I was standing at a murder
scene. A police Inspector accompanied me. We were looking at the body of a
very pale translucent skinned clone whose body was hairless. The Inspector
says to me ‘You’ll find the source of the murder if look close enough.’
The clone appeared to have died from a diseased gash in the side of his
body. In reality a year later I was in New Zealand on a research trip
when I found myself looking across a fence at cloned cows with portholes
in their sides.
Introduction
However, I have written this account in a hope that
Indigenous people and especially artists will take a closer look at what
is going on. I hope that by reading the following story and it’s
challenging hypothesis that artists will also engage in discussions about
this technology, and that engagement will not be as a victim, but as a
commentator who have drawn on their own traditional law to make
comment.
This paper is written within an Indigenous intellectual
landscape. It is a landscape, in which dreams inform a person’s life
journey just as much as the experiences of reality. A landscape in which
the story reveals a message. A message which then allows the readers to
make up their own mind. The following story is about my own journey into
the world of genetic engineering. A world in which the Indigenous person
may think they have little input other than as a victim. However, I have
written this account in a hope that Indigenous people and especially
artists will take a closer look at what is going on. I hope that by
reading the following story and it’s challenging hypothesis that artists
will also engage in discussions about this technology, and that engagement
will not be as a victim, but as a commentator who have drawn on their own
traditional law to make comment. My journey will take the reader through a
series of events, which have brought the genetic engineering issues to my
attention. In the true oral tradition I will then use the narrative to
make sense of what I have seen. I will also incorporate a segment, which
sets out a small over view of my understanding of traditional law in
Australia - the land of my most ancient ancestors3.
However, to bring the reader into full view of the issues I
will be discussing I will first turn to a quote from one of the films.
This quote unfortunately contains more fact than fiction.
A few years ago, scientists shocked the world by
announcing that they had cloned a sheep. Cloning had long been the stuff
of science fiction, when suddenly it had become an alarming reality.. Soon
after the cloning announcement was made, lawmakers, scientists, and the
religious community undertook the great debate as to the legality and
ethics of human cloning. The debate was laid to rest as cloning a human
was said to be impossible, and that sheep had a unique series of factors
that made them ideal for cloning. The debate seemed to be forgotten until
scientists cloned a cow and a monkey, and later announced that human cells
had been made to replicate in an early step of the cloning process. Once
again the debates were raised, and once again, the cloning of a human was
deemed to be an illegal and unethical practice. (Sixth Day,
Gareth J. Von Kallenbach4)
In 2000 when the film was screened these facts where still
fiction. At the time of writing in 2005 they are now fact. In May, 2005
the BBC reported that the cloning of the first human stem cells in the UK
had now been permitted, however the cloning of a full human is still
banned.5
Based on these ‘now’ facts I will make the following challenge as to what
I see will be the future for genetic engineering.
This paper therefore speculates that in the future an
Indigenous clone army will be created due to the lack of historical and
cultural capital, especially in relation to the treatment of Indigenous
peoples. Furthermore, I will speculate that — it will be the cloning of
animals, which will bring down the ethical boundaries. The prototype for
the clone warriors, it will be argued, will be the Maori. The ideal
setting for this type of Dr Moreau-ish6
activity will be New Zealand. This supposition will be discussed firstly,
through an analysis of the character Jango Fett of the Star Wars
trilogy - Attack of the Clones7
played by Maori actor Temuera Morrison8
and the character Adam Gibson of the Arnie Schwarzenegger sci-fi film
about pet cloning – Sixth Day9.
This will be followed by a ‘conversational’ segment of a series of
questions and answers relating to the films and genetic engineering. There
will also be reference to famous futurists such as HG Wells10
and George Orwell11.
However I will first set out my journey into the cloning world. This
overall critique as mentioned at the beginning of the paper is regulated
by my tradition that informs my understanding of the laws of creation and
my assumptions about the direction of cloning.
The Journey
We can now transfer genes from one species to
another, creating pigs with human genes and crops that make their own
pesticides. Human embryos are screened for genetic illnesses. And all
convicted criminals in the UK have their DNA fingerprints kept on file.
DNA opens many doors, but what does it mean to you?12
At the turn of the century my dreams began to take me into
the possibilities of the nightmarish future, which was more reminiscent of
the great classics of The Island of Dr Moreau or Animal
Farm than of fairytales. The dreams – or should I say, glimpses of
the possible future nightmare reality –were of clones who had contracted
some strange disease and had also been maltreated by their human
designers, whilst other dreams showed images of human spare parts,
including ‘wombs’13
which were being conveyed along great industrial conveyor belts. At the
time my appreciation of the debate was little more than that of an
interested ‘lay’ person, however, it was not long before I was sitting in
the Australian Federal Capital giving evidence to a Federal Inquiry
into Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research.14
I was not arguing on behalf of Indigenous interests as such, but rather
reminding the Committee of the historical tendency of governments/
corporations/ institutions towards slavery and other inhumane enterprises
in the name of profit – on one hand – and on the other, the unacknowledged
drive to appease the gods of modernity – ‘scientific imperatives’.
The future of the apathetic human – just like the
domestic animal – was there to serve man no matter how dotty he had
become. The acceptance of atrocities to animals was the forerunner to that
of ‘powerless’ humans, whom as depicted in Time Machine just
accepted the daily assault on their population.
About a year later I found myself in the rich dairy lands of
the Waikato River district of New Zealand facing the spectacle of what
appeared to be cloned dairy cattle with portholes in their sides.
I had been warned through the laconic humour of the local academics that
the cows around those parts of the world had viewing windows in
their bodies. The rational for such a bizarre undertaking was scientific
convenience. Oddly this was an accepted fact of life as it pertained to
New Zealand’s recent entry into the global dairy industry as a
multinational. This knowledge however was no preparation for being
confronted by the Orwellian spectacle. The docile cows appeared to be
straight out of Orwell’s Animal Farm15.
They seemed to notice my presence and just stared blankly at me. They
reflected the apathetic and bovine acceptance by society of such
undertakings of despicable experiments on animals. HG Well’s Time
Machine16
then came to mind. The future of the apathetic human – just like the
domestic animal – was there to serve man no matter how dotty he had
become. The acceptance of atrocities to animals was the forerunner to that
of ‘powerless’ humans, whom as depicted in Time Machine just
accepted the daily assault on their population.
By 2002 I was drawn into the controversy over Genetic
Use Restrictive Technology (GURTS), more popularly known as
Terminator Technology. The use of gene modification technology
had become a lucrative venture for multinational companies. Monsanto being
the most infamous. At the Montreal meeting of the Convention on
Biodiversity,17
I presented a paper entitled “Do Seeds Have A Passport?” This paper did
not seek to address so much the technical issues, as to pose a rhetorical
question. I argued for caution in the wholesale use of the word “seed”. I
suggested that the use of the word ‘seed’ in reference to gene
modification technology should be carefully monitored lest the botanical
meaning of the word shift to include humans – that is – lest humans be
dehumanised to be no more than an apple seed.
Later that year I found myself in Canada’s Banff New Media
Institute in the Rocky Mountains as part of the Aboriginal Collaborations
organized by Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew.18
At this conference I was able to view the latest technology in relation to
cyber developments and the use of artists to help advance these
innovations. Artists were being used to help the stultified scientist to
open up possibilities. I had arrived there due to a presentation I had
made in Australia in relation to cloning. The Converge conference dealt
with the issue of the use of genetic material as a new artistic medium.
The use of animal genes to make artistic designs was presented as though
animals where on the earth for utilitarian purposes rather than our
totemic older brothers. This seeming unending trail of events and
basically – assault on my sensibilities lead me to consider in more depth
the possible direction this technology was going. Furthermore, it called
into question the type of ‘law’ that should be regulating the inventions.
I could see no other law other than that of the Indigenous which could
regulate technologists who presupposed themselves the new gods of
creation.
The Indigenous legal regime I am referring to is that as I
have learnt from my elders. The following is an extract from a paper which
I wrote on Indigenous Law. The small extract is meant to give the reader a
sense of the legal regime I would use to regulate this kind of technology.
The quote will then be followed by my the critique of the films and the
thinking behind the latest developments in genetic engineering.
From a paper19
I wrote on ancient cultures and parallel universes:
That is, the jurisprudence is designed to appreciate
intellectual property, not as property but as a way of life; a way of life
that aligns itself with the creative process, rather than trying to
control or determine the creative process. When it is based on individual
alignment with the universe and fine-tuning to the genetic material around
itself, it has little need of objects. In other words the aesthetic mind
combines the natural movements of its environment in all its forms of
communication and activity.
In the Australian Aboriginal cultures there is
no single encompassing creation story or pan theology; however, there is a
generic jurisprudence based on a custodial ethic [2], known as the "Law of
Relationships" [3]. The structure of this pure form of law is based on the
double- helix structure, as found in DNA, the blueprint of life [4]. The
phrase "The Land is the Law" is the colloquial way of explaining this deep
knowing: the ancients tell us continuously that "Our story is in the
land…it is written in those sacred places, that's the law. Dreaming
place…you can't change it, no matter who you are" [5]. Just as there are
two strands of DNA whose chemical bonds govern the growth of an organism,
so too does the interactivity of these two strands govern the growth of
the society under jurisprudence of the Law of Relationships [6].
Furthermore, this does not imply a gender divide. Both groupings
are identical but independent, both containing the same elements – males
and females, flora and fauna, animate and inanimate objects. This in turn
has allowed the aborigines to continue as the oldest continuous
jurisprudence in the world and one of those best versed in the notion of
"intellectual property." That is, the jurisprudence is designed to
appreciate intellectual property, not as property but as a way of life; a
way of life that aligns itself with the creative process, rather than
trying to control or determine the creative process. When it is based on
individual alignment with the universe and fine-tuning to the genetic
material around itself, it has little need of objects. In other words the
aesthetic mind combines the natural movements of its environment in all
its forms of communication and activity.”
I will now discuss these films and combine my further
experiences, which relate to the films.
Attack of the Clones20
The first of the films is Attack of the Clones
produced by Lucas Ltd21
as part of the Star Wars22
series. A series which in my view is the beginning of the creation of a
new messianic cult which in centuries to come will take on a life of its
own.
As Joseph Campbell, Lucas’ mentor taught him – ‘Myth is the
secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour
into human manifestation..."23
My speculation on the future and the influence of Campbell on Lucas –
whether Lucas is aware of it or not he is in a powerful position to offer
possibilities, such as a clone army for society to consider and debate.
Therefore, the inclusion of an Indigenous as a clone template is worth
Indigenous people also considering the meaning and place of the Indigenous
in the great technological myth of the future. For it is the Indigenous
more than any who should understand the implications of Campbell’s
understanding of – the power of myth!
My predominant interest in the film Attack of the
Clones relates to the character Jango Fett, played by Temuera
Morrison24.
Fett is a Bounty Hunter and the warrior-clone template for the clone army.
The fact that a Maori had been cast in the role of the template
immediately caught my attention. Furthermore, Temuera Morrison was already
internationally famous for his role as an urban warrior in the film
Once We Were Warriors25.
About a decade prior to the outbreak of the Clone
Wars, a man named Tyranus approached Jango on the moons of Bogden with an
intriguing proposal. In exchange for a sizable fee, Jango would become the
template of a clone army. Fett agreed, but with an unusual stipulation in
his contract. In addition to his fee, he would be awarded an unaltered
clone of himself. Unlike his other duplicates, this clone would not
undergo growthacceleration or docility tampering. It
would be a pure replica of Jango.
The Kaminoans
provided Fett with private accommodations in their hermetic
TipocaCity, and Jango dropped out of the bounty hunting
limelight. He concentrated on teaching his son, the unaltered clone he
named Boba, the ropes of survival and combat while the Kaminoans extracted
genetic material to build thousands of clone soldiers.26
The fact that he is a Maori triggered my memory of a
question that had been posed to me a few years before at a WIPO
meeting27
by a Maori nurse. Her query related to the hospital procedure of
collecting umbilical cords from Maori babies. At the time I thought it was
associated with the collection of stem cells for experimentation, as the
obtaining of stem cells from umbilical cords is far less controversial
than sourcing them from embryos.
At the same time Indigenous gene activist Debra Harry, a
Northern Paiute geneticist, was expressing her concerns about the use of
Indigenous genetic material.
In the area of human genetic research, indigenous
peoples are currently the subjects of evolutionary genetic research,
pharmaco-genetic research, the search for single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs), or genes associated with behavioral or health-related conditions.
Indigenous peoples are finding themselves treated as objects of scientific
curiosity, with very little regard for their needs or concerns about how
the research may negatively impact on their lives.28
I then returned to the land of the Orwellian cows, where I
had the good fortune to meet Sandy Morrison,29
a senior academic who is the sister of Maori actor Temuera Morrison. Sandy
relayed the story of how her brother wanted her to meet Marlon Brando
during a remake of the film The Island of Dr Moreau.30
This film was based on one of HG Wells’ great classic of the same
name.31
The story tells of how a man is rescued after a shipwreck. However, he
finds himself on an island where a doctor who sees himself as a visionary,
experimenting on animals to try and make them human.
However, since meeting Sandy Morrison in the Orwellian
setting and being reminded of her brother’s acting career and also
considering the past events this paper has given me an opportunity to
speculate as to what all this means. These events have lead me to
re-consider the question of umbilical cords and the possible use of the
stem cells in a whole new way. Therefore I will speculate that the
character of Jango Fett offers much for us to consider in the way
Developed Countries are utilizing this technology and their seeming lust
for weapons of war on one hand and their avoidance of death on the other.
And more importantly their lack of great myths to cope with their
technological advancements.
In contrast to the Star War ‘inter-galactic’ moral dilemmas
of a society and war, the film Sixth Day is more about the
individual and cloning and in particular the seemingly ever increasing
inability of the affluent individual to accept their own immorality. This
dilemma is played out in Sixth Day and clearly shows the ways in
which the affluent use animals to basically pave the ethical road for
their own future decisions in relation to their own unwelcome death.
Sixth Day32
The title Sixth Day refers to the Biblical creation
myth in which man was created on the sixth day and therefore the notion of
man as the creator of humans is seen as a challenge to the authority of
the biblical god. The plot of Sixth Day gives us the impression
this is a wholesome family film about the little guy winning over the big
impersonal multinational. In other words one man can make a difference.
However, a non-WASP reviewer Alex Rieneck33
has a totally different perspective on the film and makes this chilling
observation of the film.
Because this film is set in the Future, “and sooner
than you think” no expense has been spared in creating a believable high
tech glitzy expensive looking future. A future that, (unless I am blind,)
contains no black people, no women in jobs of any importance (unless hired
killers with daffy hairdos count) and no poor people. A future where women
are objects and wives, and where the only non-white person is a faintly
Chicano looking person wearing a bandana who plays the part of a crazed
loner religious assassin. This is a REPUBLICAN future and (by god) you’d
better not forget it. If you like films set in the future, this is a big
budget one and nice. You’ll like it. It’s pretty. I wouldn’t guarantee
that you’d enjoy living in it unless you are white, male and rich though.
He further comments:
This is the best Arnold movie for a few years. If,
on the other hand you have a brain and you aren’t rich white American male
you may want to think about Arnold’s close political ties with the US
Republican Party and the Reagans and the Bushes and buy some property deep
in the outback, and dig a bomb shelter and live in it until Bubba either
blows the world up or leaves office.
Even though I agree with our witty Jewish friend, I however,
have a different view of the multinationals and suggest that their
decisions are more pragmatic about the ‘masses’. They are more likely to
collect what is beneficial to their overall profit margin and not some
ideal WASP future.
If another prototype such as the Bounty Hunter is more
useful – then that is the ‘ideal human’. After all Indigenous people are
said to be inherently more conservative by nature, than the ‘lawless’
Gibson, the WASP, hero of Sixth Day, fighting for his rights of
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… McDonalds-ised or not. Let us
therefore for the sake of this argument say that the ideal has become the
conservative Temuera, who incidentally began his acting career playing the
sombre white-coated doctor in a long running soap on New Zealand
television. By coupling the doctor/warrior with the latest developments in
pet genetic technology we have a whole new reality filming out
before our eyes.
In the state of Texas at the A & M University34
where they have already begun the cloning of pets thanks to the funding by
Genetic Saving and Clone.35
Pair this with the activities of the rogue human cloning company of
ClonAid36
and then the plot of the Sixth Day is not so futuristic. As we
unfortunately know all new scientific developments begins with animals.
Once it is made acceptable with ‘man’s best friend’ and society has become
seduced into such acceptable behaviour because their ‘best friend’ could
tolerate it then man himself is next.
In light of this scenario I would therefore now like to
speculate and ask the following questions based on our present situation
in which I wish to address the possible slippery slope
of ‘shifting ethical’ boundaries relating to the use of genetic technology
in times of war. I would question whether the technology that may have
been developed from the Maori genetic material collected over a decade ago
could be used in a future war? Will our shifting ethical stances provide
loopholes for governments to disassociate themselves from those in ‘body
bags’37
if a future world war erupts? Will the Maori stem cells provide the future
ideal warrior clones? And is Temuera’s character a timely warning for his
people and other such cultures as the Mohawk, Zulu, Ghurkha and Afghans
that have been charactered by Hollywood as the great warrior nations?
Answer to Questions
I will now turn to the questions and answer segment. But
first a bit of ‘black humour’ about this most bazaar of futures.
Why The Maori (this is meant to be a tongue in cheek
analysis)
Dr Moreau-like38
setting.
Firstly it is a small nation at the back end of the world.
The political climate has much to offer the astute multinational. The
Natives are peaceful, as best as one can expect, and the Pakeha seemed to
be as docile as their cows. No one gets overly excited. However, at the
same time they have a good public image as a nation that cares (eg anti
nuclear stance, anti GM food); also it is the home of the Lord of the
Rings film trilogy.39
The infrastructure is good and totally focused on consumer comfort and a
Hobbit like existence of healthy food, good wine and pleasant conversation
and most importantly they have Natives who are good actors. However, we
must not forget that there is an excellent pool of genetic material
collected via umbilical cords, blood samples and all the other illnesses
the Natives are genetically proned to catching, thanks to the
forward-thinking colonialists who have ensured that the 19th
century practices continue to this day. The clincher however is New
Zealand’s exemplary animal farms and proven track record in sheep and
cattle experimentation.
Shifting Ethics
This bit of humour I would argue actually typifies the
level of cultural capital with which I believe the general public knows
about the Maori and issues such as cloning. All of this is to the
advantage of the multinationals. Because the general public has little
cultural capital in relation to their own history let alone that of
Indigenous peoples, it is much easier to shift an ethical boundary by
making up new futuristic myths via movies.
This bit of humour I would argue actually typifies the level
of cultural capital with which I believe the general public knows about
the Maori and issues such as cloning. All of this is to the advantage of
the multinationals. Because the general public has little cultural capital
in relation to their own history let alone that of Indigenous peoples, it
is much easier to shift an ethical boundary by making up new futuristic
myths via movies. The Rights argument as Graham40
says has much to ingratiate the multinational argument as well. The West
driven by its demands for rights and only recently understanding
of its responsibilities can easily seduce the general public by
reminding them of their rights to genetically modified children free of
disease. The right to conceive cloned children. The
right to genetically enhance themselves if it doesn’t affect the
germ line.
The creators41
of Dolly wrote in their book that they were amazed how quickly the cloning
debate shifted from of a ‘dangerous’ undertaking to that of ‘unless you
can prove there is actually going to be harm, then it should be allowed.’
This shift was aided by the rogue cloning cult the Raëlians42
who funded the multinational company known as ClonAid.43
One only needs good media coverage and a rogue group prepared to weather
the storm and you are on your way to a healthy profit margin.
Furthermore, it is the following kind of ‘emotional
intelligence’, which also ensures success of even breaking down the
barriers in relation to germ-line transformation. Gregory Stock44
in his article: The Prospects for Human Germline Engineering.
We are intervening in realms hitherto beyond our
influence, and we can seek only limited guidance from the past. Humanity
has moved out of its childhood and into its adolescence, and it must
recognize its growing powers and take responsibility for them. We have no
choice. We are beginning to play god in many realms and cannot turn back.
Some have suggested we pause until we have the wisdom to proceed. But even
were that possible, it would be a flawed approach. We will gain the wisdom
to make wise decisions about our newfound capabilities not by fearfully
trying to avoid them, but by feeling our way forward, by probing and
gathering more information, by making mistakes and responding to them, and
by fully engaging in a collective decision-making process about how to go
forward.
It is evident from this kind of statement that Mr Stock has
little cultural or historical capital other than from that induced by the
American Dream. If he would bother to look outside of either the corporate
tower or the laboratory he might note that such new frontiers are as old
as the bible. Man has never been original, after all isn’t he just a clone
of the Western’s idea of a god.
The issue is rather the decision-making process in relation
to this move into adolescence, is not that of humanity, but is both
elitist and culturally relative. The elite being seduced by what is
nothing more than multinational-consumer-driven technology. As an
Indigenous person the cultural relativity of the decision-making is
glaringly obvious and historical unoriginal.
The cowboy mentality that believes that there is no turning
back or even time to reach a ‘considered’ response sounds like a script
from the ‘rogue’ entities be they nation states, multinationals or
individuals who are now dominating the international stage. Just as the
Hollywood produced movies dominate most cinemas throughout the world with
the American Dream, so too is this kind of rhetoric to those who are not
on the receiving end of this technology.
Timely warning
I ask, is this a timely warning for Indigenous peoples? To
answer this question I will refer to a quote from another Indigenous
person who just happened to visit my people’s country last year. Jerome
Cybulski45
describes the following scenario in Current Challenges to Traditional
Anthropological Applications of Human Osteology in Canada:
Dr. Ward collected blood samples among the
Nuu-chah-nulth in the 1980s for research on rheumatic diseases. At the
time, he was part of a study team from the University of British Columbia
but later began his mtDNA research at the University of Utah. Almost 900
Nuu-chah-nulth were tested. While there was, indeed, important research
connected to the study of rheumatic disease in these people (Atkins et al.
1988), those results were not apparently reported to the donors, even on a
tribal basis. Nor, apparently, were they informed that additional,
unrelated research was to be conducted. The present end result, according
to the news reports, is that the Nuu-chah-nulth membership feels deceived
and used, and has threatened legal action
It is activities like this that call for a ‘timely warning’.
This unethical scenario committed against these people whose lives are
inundated with social problems and lack of employment. To the city dweller
these people live in the ecological paradise of Yuquot Sound, Vancouver
Island. But their role as custodians is constantly hampered by this kind
of parasitical behaviour.
However, these lack of rights and no appreciation of
responsibilities do also at times extend to the little guy, even in the
WASP. The present day version of the Sixth Day protagonist turns out to be
cancer victim and American citizen John Moore.46
John, like Gibson, found out that he was basically being sacrificed on
behalf of science. A healthy profit was being made from his cell lines.
The court ruled against his rights to his own cell line and so set a
precedent for the type of thinking for the above case:
In a significant 1990 California Supreme Court
decision, the court established that a donor does not have a “property
right” in the tissues removed from his or her body. The court further
reasoned that to favor John Moore’s claim would “… hinder research by
restricting access to the necessary raw materials,” thereby interfering
with the progress of science.47
Sharing and Caring
Therefore there is little evidence that there will be the
great sharing and caring that is said to come of such technology. James
Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double-helix, has stated in his new book
that there is an imperative to change the human germ line to protect us
from viral onslaughts such as AIDS. But as Bill McKibben48
questions in his book Staying Human in an Engineered Age, just
who. but those who make movies, would believe that the governments let
alone multinationals are going to provide the specialized germ line
engineering for the salvation of the tens of millions of the poor who are
the main sufferers of AIDS. These hypocritical debates are supposed to
cover up the obvious, that such technologies are designed for the
privileged few or ‘funded-others’.
Conversely, we must not lose sight of the fact this kind of
medical and technological privilege is not something new. What bothers me
is that we keep falling for the same old ‘hat trick’. McKidden said that
Watson is worried about the ‘epidemic of human stupidity’ and that we need
to save people by engineering their brains. I am not unsympathetic to
Watson’s argument. He is indeed surrounded by idiots. But if he did make
them smarter, that is by increasing their emotional intelligence he would
soon be out of a job. So we can be assured that the type of ‘intelligence’
engineering will be carefully monitored to ensure a certain kind of
intelligence. And so once again it is not the ideal WASP that would be
brought forward but actually some thing with selective intelligence. And
it is this ‘designer’ intelligence engineering which has the ‘profit’
allure attached to it. For a clone army you need one kind of intelligence.
Whist for the colonization of other planets or even something as mundane
as ‘crop picking’ you need a different personality. After all they have to
continue stealing land and exploiting people, otherwise history might
catch up with them!
But then let me make a total back flip and ask, would any
sane Indigenous group want to be on the other end of this technology.
Wouldn’t we rather it was the Mr Stocks and Watson on the other end of
this technology which believes wisdom comes about from probing and the
gathering of information and history can only give limited guidance.
Sometimes it pays to be discriminated against and not be entitled to
having your brain enhanced or your children installed with designer
chromosomes. Interestingly, this is the same conclusion the ‘prototype’
Jango Fetts came to in the Attack of the Clones. He requests that he be
given one clone as a son but it be unaltered. In other words he didn’t
want an ‘improved’ version, which the Cloners thought rather a ‘strange
request’.
Conclusion
Rather than as an Indigenous legal regime would point
to – that humans are merely a species, which is patterned into an overall
whole. A whole, which when disturbed in one part, alters the balance of
that whole. Therefore any decisions about the alteration of creation is a
decision in which the whole of the planet must have a say, as that’s how
all encompassing this kind of technological engineering is – or as I would
say – technological interference!
I would suggest this analysis of the films Attack of the
Clones and Sixth Day is merely one Indigenous person’s view
of history and is meant – like all accounts of history – to stimulate
people to learn from history and drawn comparison and lessons for their
own immediate reality and historical experiences. It is essential for the
Indigenous to have a closer look at world politics and the way the
boundaries are being shifted, either by ‘stable’ or ‘rogue’ nation states
and multinationals. Furthermore, it is important for them to engage with
the narratives that are influencing technologically advanced nations and
to critique the ways in which Indigenous are being positioned in those
influential films. We Indigenous must ask ourselves is there an imbalance?
If so how do we participate in that rebalancing for the future
generations? This critique however, needs to be from an Indigenous
understanding or jurisprudence of the laws of creation. There is no point
arguing from a Western constructed ‘rights’ argument because it is based
on an understanding of creation as something ‘man’ has dominion or
stewardship over. Furthermore, the legal argument of ‘rights’ assumes a
power over nature, a power which those of little historical and cultural
capital – other than that of the American Dream or the British Way of Life
believe they are in a position to make decisions. Rather than as an
Indigenous legal regime would point to – that humans are merely a species,
which is patterned into an overall whole. A whole, which when disturbed in
one part, alters the balance of that whole. Therefore any decisions about
the alteration of creation is a decision in which the whole of the planet
must have a say, as that’s how all encompassing this kind of technological
engineering is – or as I would say – technological interference!
Christine Morris
Christine Morris -. is a descendant of the Kombumerri and
Munaljahlai clans of South-East Queensland, Australia. She is a doctoral
candidate in the School of Law, Griffith University, Australia. Her
present fields of specialization and research interest include Indigenous
jurisprudence, intellectual property, media studies, biodiversity and the
ethics of genetic engineering. She has carried out extensive research in
Indigenous communities throughout Australia in relation to media and
intellectual property issues. As well as activity involved in the
revitalization of her own peoples language – Yugumbeh. Her work has been
published nationally and internationally. She is a former
producer/presenter for Australia's Radio National Broadcasting Corp. She
was also the guest editor for the Literature section of the Encyclopedia
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. She has participated as
an expert panelist in the UN’s Convention on Biodiversity forum on issues
relating to genetic technology and Indigenous communication systems. She
has also advised the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP)
on economic and cultural policy issues.
Notes
1 This paper has been
presented at three legal conference; Critical Legal Conference, Sth
Africa, Law, Humanities and Culture, Connecticut and Galactic
Jurisprudence, Australia. Thanks to support and encouragement of my
supervisor, DrWilliam MacNeil, Griffith Uni. Australia
2 Christine Morris,
Kombumerri/Munaljahlai clans, Australia. Phd Candidate, Griffith
University, Faculty of Law.
3 I have also Celtic and
Romany heritage
4
http://www.thezreview.co.uk/dvdreviews/s/sixthdayse.htm
Roger Spottiswoode, 2000
5
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4563607.stm
6 Wells, H.G. The Island of
Doctor Moreau. 1896 (This is a story about a man after being rescued and
brought to an island, the man discovers that it's inhabitants are
experimental animals being turned into strange looking humans, all of it
the work of a visionary doctor.)
7 Lucas Ltd, 2000
8 Temuera Morrison is an
international actor from New Zealand.
http://www.answers.com/topic/temuera-morrison
9
http://www.thezreview.co.uk/dvdreviews/s/sixthdayse.htm
10 Wells, H.G. (1901)
11 Orwell, George; (1946)
Animal Farm
12
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/competition/index.shtml
13 McKie, R. Feb, 10,2002
Doctors are developing artificial wombs in which embryos can grow outside
a woman's body. The work has been hailed as a breakthrough in treating the
childless.
14 House of
Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs,
Inquiry into the Scientific, Ethical and Regulatory Aspects of Human
Cloning and Stem Cell Research. - Hearing presentation given Canberra,
29th March, 2000 Parliament House, Canberra
15 Orwell, George, (1946)
Animal Farm
16 Wells, H.G. (1901) Time
Machine
17 A Keynote presenter:
Thematic programmes of work—progress reports on implementation:
agricultural biological diversity - Potential impacts of the
application of genetic use restriction technologies on indigenous and
local communities and on Farmers’ Rights REF: UNEP/CBD/COP/6/INF/ 28
February 2002
18 Bridges Consortium II -
New Media Symposium on October 4 – 6, 2002.
http://www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/bridges/ [Editor's Note: The Aboriginal
Collaboration was organized in conjunction with but quite separate from
the Bridges Consortium conference. The collaboration examined the
Drumbeats to Drumbytes think-tank report of 1994 to assess elements of
contemporary and future relevance to Aboriginal new media art production
and networks. http://drumbytes.org/about/timeline.php ]
19 Morris, C. (2004)
“Shape-shifting Through Reality: The Interactivity of Parallel Universes
in the Daily Life of the Ancients” in Punt, M. From the Extraordinary
to the Uncanny: The Unusual and Inexplicable in Art, Science and
Technology, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, MIT Press Vol 12, No 11
November, 2004
20 Attack of the Clones,
Lucas Film Ltd
21 Lucas Ltd,
http://www.lucasfilm.com/
22
http://www.starwars.com/themovies/
23 http://www.jcf.org/
24
http://www.answers.com/topic/temuera-morrison
25 Once We Were Warriors
(1995) directed by Lee Tamahori
26
http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/jangofett/index.html
27 Sub-Regional Workshop
on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge,
Brisbane, Australia, June 25 to 27, 2001
28
http://www.biowatch.org.za/dharry.htm
29 Sandy Morrison, Senior
Lecturer, School of Maori and Pacific Development, Waikato University
30 Island of Dr. Moreau
(1996) director John Frankenheimer
31 Wells, H.G. The Island
of Doctor Moreau. 1896
32
http://www.thezreview.co.uk/dvdreviews/s/sixthdayse.htm
33
http://www.gnomon.com.au/movies/alex-rieneck/thesixthday.shtml
34
http://www.genetics-and-society.org/analysis/promodeveloping/pet.html
35
http://www.savingsandclone.com/
36
http://www.clonaid.com/
37 El Salvador Phd student
38 Wells, H.G. The Island
of Doctor Moreau. 1896.
39 Lord of the Rings –
Part 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, director Peter Jackson, filmed in
New Zealand Internet Movie Database entry at
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120737, based on novel by JRR Tokien (1955)
40 Graham, Mary, personal
communication 4/2003
41 Wilmut, I., Campbell,
K. & Tudge, C. (2000) The Second Creation, Headline Book Pub, London
p.247
42
http://www.rael.org/english/index.html
43
http://www.clonaid.com/
44
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2621/1.html
45
http://citdpress.utsc.utoronto.ca/osteology/cybulski.html
46
http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~ecstein/gen/iatp/ipr-info7.html
47 Moore v. Regents of
the University of California et al., California Supreme Court. (1985)
and Moore vs. Regents of the University of California, 793 P.2d
479, 271 Cal. Rptr 146 (1990).
48 McKibben, B. (2003)
Staying Human in an Engineered Age, Henry Holt & Co., US
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