December 19, 2022
Healers fight to keep rongoa safe
A leading rongoa practitioner says the Crown has no authority to regulate the practice of traditional Māori hearing.
The Government has left rongoa out of the Therapeutic Products Bill so discussions can continue with Maori on what controls they want – and how to deal with cowboy practitioners.
But Donna Kerridge, the founder of practitioner roopu Ora New Zealand, says that’s for Maori to determine.
She doesn’t want the Crown to blunder in under the guise of safety.
“In the last two years we have administered more than 65,000 treatments through crown contracts one way or the other in the rongoa Maori space and we’ve not had one safety complaint or issue. I bet no other health practice in Aotearoa could make similar safety claims. Maori have adequately regulated rongoa Maori through tikanga. For the crown to start meddling with tikanga is to make rongoa unsafe,” Ms Kerridge says.
The current legislation fails to acknowledge Maori tino rangatiratanga, and it also makes it illegal for rongoa practitioners to make claims abut traditional Maori use.