Reader Doug reported this “discovery” in a comment on a recent post. It’s a press release from a ministry of the New Zealand government, describing an astounding example of the power of “other ways of knowing” to effect plant growth. The announcement is (as usual) full of Māori language that we Anglophones don’t understand, but I’ll translate the important ones in brackets.
The upshot is that the Ministry claims that speaking and singing to plants in traditional Māori ways helps plants grow. Click to read. “Waita” in the headlne means “singing”:
Here’s the upshot (my emphasis)
A Northland marae [traditional Māori meeting ground] , which has recently expanded its business, is showing that a little TLC (tender loving care) in its nursery operation can go a long way to giving seedlings a head start.
Akerama Marae nursery support manager Thelma Horne says, her team regularly korero and waiata to the fledgling native tree seedlings in their nursery.
“Some people think we are a little crazy, but it is how we do things around here,” Thelma Horne says.
Proof it works is on full display in their nursery where prized Kauri and Totara, grown from eco-sourced forests nearby, are shooting up much faster than what is normally expected, says Thelma Horne.
“Scientists want to know why our trees are growing so successfully. Instead of taking months, we are cropping Totara seedlings out in weeks.”
According to a correspondent and a Māori dictionary, “korero” as a verb means “to tell, say, speak, read, talk, address, while “waiata” as a verb means “to sing”. In other words, talking and singing to the saplings speeds up their growth.
This effort is supported with a big-bucks grant from the Kiwi government:
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Services partnered with the marae-based project last year, with a grant of nearly $500,000 over 2 years through the One Billion Trees (1BT) programme. [“Marae” are traditional Māori meeting grounds, complexes with buildings and an open area.]
. . . and is using traditional “ways of knowing, or mātauranga Māori, to speak and sing to the trees.
“Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service is proud to be associated with the Akerama Marae Nursery,” says Alex Wilson, director forest development, grants and partnerships.
“The nursery project has sound foundations in mātauranga Māori and restorative planting principles.”
Thelma Horne says there aren’t any trade secrets to what is driving their success in the nursery.
“We have a different language to scientists. We can whakapapa [“to recite in proper order (e.g. genealogies, legends, months) recite genealogies”] direct to the rakau [“plant”], and that’s what we’ve been doing. We grow our plants, like we manaaki (help) our tamariki (children) so they can grow strong. A whanau is resilient when they are with their family, and we have maintained that analogy when they are growing in the nursery.
“Whanau” is defined as “extended family, family group, a familiar term of address to a number of people – the primary economic unit of traditional Māori society. In the modern context the term is sometimes used to include friends who may not have any kinship ties to other members.”
This practice will be used on a big scale:
“I believe, it is a start to many generations to return and to be able to rediscover their connection to the whenua [“land“] and to the rakau, and to learn more about their own whakapapa . . . that is a wonderful thing, and it all starts with learning our own waiata oriori (lullaby to regenerative seed and whanau) about planting seeds,” Arapeta Barber says.
Now it’s good to restore the forest, but of course where are the data showing that singing and talking to plants in Māori ways makes the plants grow taller? The only evidence is this “proof”:
Proof it works is on full display in their nursery where prized Kauri and Totara, grown from eco-sourced forests nearby, are shooting up much faster than what is normally expected, says Thelma Horne.
Is there a control group that isn’t spoken or sung to, and is otherwise treated the same? And another control group that is spoken to in another language, say English?
If there’s no control, then the only evidence is “growth higher than expected,” which of course is not evidence at all. And if there is a control group, could somebody be giving the special plants extra attention?
It’s just another sign of the New Zealand government’s unrestrained fealty to all things Māori that they fund a project that includes singing to plants, promoting unpublished and data-free results as a press release, and giving total credence to unbelievable results to legitimize Māori traditions.
Now I suppose there’s some unknown way that speaking and singing to plants in Māori could promote their growth, but I’m willing to bet a substantial sum that a properly controlled experiment overseen by objective observers wouldn’t work.
Where are the real scientists in New Zealand to ask “where are the data” and say “I won’t believe this without evidence”? Where are they? They are too cowed to speak up.
But what if a Maori sings Mozart? Or did I just cancel myself?
Steinerian song and dance probably works better according to Western ways of knowing
I suppose talking/singing while standing close enough might supply a little extra CO2. A reasonable control would be just standing there breathing.
What?!! CO2 is plant food and not a deadly poison? 🙂
Is the “nursery” a greenhouse?
Many greenhouses add CO2 to their atmosphere to bring it up to 1500 ppm. This is a widespread technique, so truthfully not a “secret”, but one which settler-run greenhouses in NZ might be unwilling to admit to for fear of being accused of accelerating global warming. They couldn’t fall back on Maori valourization to defend themselves.
Or they just use extra chemical fertilizer.
Or the seedlings don’t really grow faster “than expected” and the unnamed scientists aren’t surprised or impressed at all. We have only Ms Horne’s word for it. How many scientists who visited the place are going to risk cancellation by disagreeing with her in public?
One of my pet peeves is using “proof” in a scientific context.
At best we might get corroborating evidence. And perhaps disproof.
Speaking of arcane traditions – in this case the British monarchy – Prince Charles would approve. In 2010 he said: “I happily talk to plants and trees and listen to them. I think it’s absolutely crucial.” He also shakes “hands” with trees when he plants them.
When we plant saplings for the Bruce Trail Conservancy, we fluff up the root mass gently with our free hand after we remove them from their plastic nursery pots, before we stick them into their holes in the ground. Metaphorically this could be like shaking hands, as a way to not forget to do it.
I don’t talk to them, though. Not when anyone is listening, at least….
You do know that “fluffier” is a job description, don’t you? They also deal with “root masses”.
Many years ago, my then wife and I attempted to raise assorted veggies in a kitchen garden. I did what I could to whakapapa to our plants, often wishing them “zei gezunt” and humming Yiddish lullabies to them. Alas, in those days the Northwest summer was on the cool side, and our tomatoes always stayed green, so my wife simply made green chutney out of them. Perhaps they would have progressed further if I had used their native Chinook jargon, such as bidding them “skookum aankháawu”.
So many controls, so little time……I mean they did do all the controls…..right….
PS Lost cross tracking to WordPress, so had to enter my details again, anyone else having that issue?
Yes … and again and again.
They would need to go to a lot of trouble to double blind the studies, or these amazing trees will probably suss out which group they are in.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7671032/#:~:text=Recent%20studies%20show%20that%20plant,the%20yield%20of%20some%20crops.
Certain sound frequencies can increase germination rates
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-02556-9
Sound can be used to induce resistance in plants
Getting a grant of 500000 can also hire you more staff who can provide better care and attention to individual plants. R&D small plots always have better yield results that field scale trials due to observer effect on plant husbandry.
Set up Plant Acoustic Frequency Technology and apply sound for the same time as singing to the plants and see if there is a difference.
If they could make some recordings of the singing, I could pipe the
sound into my greenhouse which would, no doubt, please my Euphorbia collection.
I don’t need a randomized clinical trial to believe that plants respond to music, but it would be interesting to determine whether they respond more positively to the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. My hypothesis would definitely favor the Beatles.
Um, traditionally there has often been a bad relationship between plants and Beetles.
Rolling stones can be harmful to plants, too.
But very good for the grass in your lawn.
The Etymologicon Mark Forsyth.
We have two huge totaras on our property and they have no problems propagating. I let the seedlings grow 15cm or so, pot them and give them away. Perhaps it’s bird song from the locals, tuis, kotare (kingfisher)to be specific that help…
I have never tried singing to my vegetables, but I have shouted at them from time to time, especially during this difficult summer in the UK. I can confirm that this doesn’t work.
Like this, you mean? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHmFMVGJs4s
In this case, I’d stick to Western culture which traditionally regards delivering any form of speech to plants (except maybe angry shouts and curses) as a rock-solid indicator of insanity. But the elevation of Maori beliefs to the level of science looked like insanity from the beginning.
“Than expected” is hardly a precise measurement, but it absolutely, positively couldn’t have been anything else. I am convinced.
They are “too cowed to speak up,” as you say. Therein lies the danger of mob rule,
In New Zealand the term ‘mob’ has a particular, and nasty, connotation, referring to a number Maori motorcycle gangs, mostly violent who are involved in the drug trades. One of these is known as the ‘Mongrel Mob’, another as ‘Black Power’. At present overall numbers are in the thousands, with their numbers growing. Figuring how to deal with them is a major headache for political parties.
The New Zealand government has a great way of dealing with gangs. During the pandemic they granted Sonny Fatupaito, the head of Waikato’s Mongrel Mob chapter, “essential worker exemption” to travel in and out of Auckland. Not sure what sort of essential work he was performing – maybe korero and waiata to fledgling cannabis plants in a bid to boost profits.
although ”mob” also refers to a group of sheep in NZ
Luckily for New Zealand their future king, the current Prince of Wales, also believes in talking to his plants. (He finds them more “relatable” than his subjects , I dare say.) And apparently, there have been studies in the past: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7973727.stm
What’s even more of interest is the complete silence from the NZ or Australian Skeptics on this issue. I did contact the Australian Skeptics who responded that they were not going to act because they didn’t want to be ‘called racist at the drop of a hat’…
The current chairperson of the NZ Skeptics, Craig Shearer, signed the pile on letter organised by Hendy and Wiles against the NZ Listener letter “In Defence of Science”, so I doubt you’d have had any joy there. The scepticism of NZ Skeptics does not appear to extend to the claims of MM.
Not only that – Wiles is a relatively high-profile member of NZ Skeptics (speaking at conferences, etc) and a recent recipient of their ‘Bravo’ award. They are peas in a pod.
My plants only grow faster when I sing to them in Italian.
When I sing in English, they visibly wilt.
Damn racist orchids…
Lingoism! 🙂
“I talk to the trees, that’s why they put me away” – Eccles, “The Goon Show”
Oh, it’s too bad that Spike Milligan isn’t still around to take on all of this woke nonsense.
Scientists here definitely are cowed. The overwhelming majority know this is utter nonsense — but also know that speaking up can be rapidly and severely career-limiting.
The NZ government, media and academic administrations are utterly riddled with this kind of ‘new’ thinking and are ready to pile on heretics at a moment’s notice.
It’s very depressing. I’d hate to have a child of school age here now. Fortunately my son has finished an engineering degree at Auckland, but I see that the Engineering department there has now embraced Mātauranga Māori, or at least feels obliged to pay lip service. We hear tell of how NZ is in need of skilled immigrants, but I could not in all conscience advise anyone with school age children to come here unless they could afford private school fees.
And the rot seems to have extended tentacles everywhere! E.g. I have heard reliable reports from a senior midwife about new midwifery graduates who can readily recite their whakapapa and principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, but struggle to perfom a vaginal examination.
This nonsense is doing nobody any good.
… and the Governor of the NZ Reserve Bank (who is charged with keeping inflation under control amidst our cost-of-living crisis) recently gave a speech to a group of bankers in Brussels saying our Reserve Bank has embraced Te Ao Maori (Maori Worldview) and had adopted the legend of Tane Mahuta, the god of the forest and birds, as a framework to describe the bank’s work. This stuff is everywhere.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/business/reserve-bank-governor-adrian-orr-shares-maori-perspectives-with-central-bankers/
1. The extended quote from (https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-releases/waiata-helping-native-seedlings-to-thrive/) is:
“Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Services partnered with the marae-based project last year, with a grant of nearly $500,000 over 2 years through the One Billion Trees (1BT) programme.
The nursery will produce an additional 80,000 native seedlings over 2 years to assist with local hapu planting projects. The 1BT grant has also enabled the expansion of existing nurseries facilities, additional water tanks to ensure short-term water supply, upgrade their nursery equipment, and budget for paid nursery staff.”
That is, the money looks to be going toward pretty reasonable uses.
2. What evidence is there congruent with the argument that NZ scientists are “cowed” besides the affirmations in some of the other comments? Are there any peer-reviewed, or even news stories, about the cowing of the scientific community? And I do not mean vigorous anecdotes in the comments sections of blogs.
3. Given the commercial success of the Simardians in the USA, those of us who live in that country should probably focus first on the motes in our own eyes.