December 09, 2022
More work to align rongoā with Therapeutic Products Bill
Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare says rongoā was kept out of the Therapeutic Products Bill now before Parliament because more work needs to be done on how traditional Māori medical practices can be protected in legislation.
A separate workstream has been created so officials can sit down with rongoā Māori practitioners to discuss how rongoā and the mātauranga that comes with it can be protected.
That includes questions of intellectual property if it is exported.
Practitioners and the people who receive rongoā also need to be protected.
“I’ve had a number of rongoā practitioners come to me and sadly explain there are some cowboys in this sector and we want to make sure if you area practitioner or a person who receives it, that you get looked after and you get the kind of treatment and serviced you deserve,” Minister Henare says.
He says the Government wants to avoids the pitfalls of the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act, which effectively sent rongoā underground for a century.