Kua hinga te tōtara i Te Waonui-a-Tāne.
It is a sad and solemn occasion for us to have learned in the last few days of the death of Barry Smith, at Rotorua. To our delight, Barry had recently agreed to join AHRECS as a Consultant and added considerable gravity to our presence in New Zealand. We will miss him.
A fuller item of appreciation of his significant contributions to human research ethics will appear in our next edition. In the meantime please read this reflection on Barry’s work as an academic and musician.
BIOGRAPHY
Of Maori descent, Barry has a PhD in sociology and degrees in chemistry/mathematics and music. He works in health analytics and health ethics with the Lakes District Health Board in Rotorua, New Zealand. Barry is associated with a number of Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) and Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund supported projects in the areas of ethics, genomic research and smoking cessation. He is involved with a new project with University of Auckland philosopher Tim Dare that examines the ethics of predictive analytics in social policy. Recent publications include a book with Martin Tolich entitled The Politicisation of Ethics Review in New Zealand (Dunmore Publishing, 2015), the multi-authored Te Ara Tika: Guidelines for Maori Research Ethics (HRC, 2010) and Te Mata Ira: Guidelines for Genomic Research with Maori (University of Waikato, 2016). Barry has been a member and chair of HRC science assessing committees and sits on the National Heart Foundation research committee. He currently chairs the Ministry of Social Development Ethics Committee, the Lakes DHB Research and Ethics and Clinical Ethics Committees and was a previous chair of the HRC Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART), the Auckland Regional Tissue Bank Governance Advisory Board and chairs the Royal Society of New Zealand Maori Reference Gro up that provides advice on indigenous matters to the Society’s project on gene editing. A frequently invited presenter at ethics conferences, he was privileged to attend and present at the 2016 WHO Global Ethics Summit in Berlin and the Asia-Pacific Regional Ethics Meeting held in Seoul in October 2017. Barry also contributes to courses run by the Bioethics Centre at the University of Otago and is involved with Victoria University of Wellington’s postgraduate Diploma of Clinical Research. He has just finished contributing to a rewrite of New Zealand’s National Ethics Guidelines. Outside of ethics Barry performs on and teaches classical guitar.
Graham Mellsop and Barry Smith, 2007, Reflections on masculinity, culture and the diagnosis of depression. Australian and NZ Journal of Psychiatry 41:850-853.
Barry Smith, 2009, A review of Understanding Health Inequalities in Aotearoa NZ by Kevin Dew and Anna Matheson. New Zealand Sociology 24(1).
Barbara Laird, Barry Smith, Gaelle Dutu, and Graham Mellsop, 2010, Views and experiences of family/whanau carers of psychiatric service users on diagnosis and classification. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 56 (3): 270-279.
- Kumar, P. Dean, B.Smith, G. Mellsop, 2012, Which family – what therapy: Maori culture, families and family therapy in New Zealand. International Review of Psychiatry 24(2):99-105.
M Tolich & B Smith, 2014, Evolving ethics envy—New Zealand sociologists reading the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical conduct for research involving humans, Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 9:1, 1-10
Barry Smith, 2014, Maori-centred codes of ethics: championing inclusiveness in creating professional codes of ethics across the New Zealand health sector. The New Zealand Medical Journal 127 (1397):9-12
Barry Smith and Martin Tolich, 2014, A cultural turn: The trivialisation of indigenous research ethics in New Zealand post-2012 health and disability ethics committees. MAI Journal 3
A Beaton, B Smith, V Toki, K. Southey, M Hudson, 2015, Engaging Maori in biobanking and genetic research: Legal, ethical, and policy challenges. The International Indigenous Policy Journal 6(3)
M Hudson, et al., 2016, Te Mata Ira Guidelines for Genomic Research with Māori. Hamilton: University of Waikato.
M Hudson, et al., 2016, He Tangata Kei Tua: Guidelines for Biobanking with Māori. Hamilton: University of Waikato.
- Hudson, et al., 2016, Key Informant Views on Biobanking and Genomic Research with Māori. The New Zealand Medical Journal 129(1447).
Martin Tolich and Barry Smith (Guest Editors), 2016, Ethics in Practice: Special Issue. New Zealand Sociology 31(4).
- Beaton, et al., 2017, Engaging Maori in biobanking and genomic research: a model for biobanks to guide culturally informed governance, operational, and community engagement activities. Genetics and Medicine 19(3):345-351.
Barry Smith, 2017, Review of Bollinger, N. (2016). Goneville: A memoir. Wellington: Awa Press, 304 pages. New Zealand Sociology 32(2): 199-201