The Government’s decision to halt a planned nationwide expansion of rongoā Māori in prisons is facing strong criticism from practitioners who say traditional Māori healing is being misunderstood and reduced to little more than massage.
ACC-registered rongoā Māori practitioner Te Aroha Williams says the kaupapa is far broader, encompassing physical, emotional, cultural and spiritual wellbeing and offering Māori in the corrections system another pathway towards rehabilitation.
Williams has been delivering rongoā Māori services inside New Zealand’s privately managed prison since January 2024.
She says mirimiri and romiromi are only components of a much wider traditional healing system that can also involve whakawhiti kōrero, karakia, rongoā rākau, tikanga, whakapapa and wairua.
The debate erupted after Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell halted a procurement process that could have expanded rongoā Māori services to 13 prisons.
The proposed programme was worth up to $9 million over five years, although Corrections says no money had been committed or spent before the process was paused.
CULTURE IS PART OF REHABILITATION
For Williams, the controversy also raises a fundamental question about whether an Indigenous healing system is being judged differently from other health services.
Prisons already use psychologists, counsellors, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals.
Rongoā practitioners argue their work should not be dismissed simply because its foundations are Māori rather than Western.
Rongoā Māori approaches wellbeing through interconnected relationships between tinana, hinengaro, wairua, whakapapa, whenua and whānau.
For Māori in prison, that cultural dimension can carry particular significance.
Disconnection from whakapapa, whānau, whenua and identity can sit alongside trauma, addiction and other factors contributing to offending.
Williams says reconnecting people with identity and purpose can therefore become part of the rehabilitation process rather than something separate from it.
PILOTS ALREADY UNDERWAY
Rongoā Māori inside prisons is not simply an untested proposal.
Corrections says a rongoā Māori health service has been operating as part of a programme at Christchurch Women’s Prison since late 2024, while a pilot has operated at Tongariro Prison since January 2025.
Corrections says feedback from the Tongariro pilot indicated improvements in participants’ physical and mental wellbeing as well as their ability to focus on the future and remain motivated.
The proposed expansion would have taken services into prisons from Te Tai Tokerau through to Invercargill.
Instead, the procurement process was paused on 4 August following the Minister’s direction that rehabilitation and reintegration spending should focus on skills and education.
Corrections is now reviewing rehabilitation and reintegration programmes across the prison network.
Existing referrals made through ACC claims will continue to be honoured while that review takes place.
WHAT ACTUALLY REDUCES REOFFENDING?
Behind the political controversy sits a much larger question.
What does successful rehabilitation actually require?
A driver licence can help somebody get a job.
A qualification can provide a career pathway.
Education can open doors.
But practitioners such as Williams argue those opportunities may achieve far less if the person leaving prison is still carrying unresolved trauma, addiction, poor health and disconnection from their identity.
For Māori, who remain disproportionately represented within the corrections system, that question has particular urgency.
If the objective is genuinely to reduce reoffending, the test should ultimately be whether an intervention helps people heal, reconnect, develop skills and successfully return to their whānau and communities.
That means the argument over rongoā Māori cannot simply be reduced to whether prisoners should receive massage.
The real debate is whether traditional Māori healing has a legitimate place alongside Western healthcare, education and employment programmes within rehabilitation.
Te Aroha Williams believes it does.
And with Corrections’ own pilot reporting improvements in wellbeing and motivation, the pressure is now on the Government to explain why expanding that approach should stop.
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