Rongoā Māori

Tohunga and the transmission of knowledge

Rongoā Māori is the healing system of Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand. A clinician-education article describes it as a system built on oral transmission of knowledge, diversity of practice and a spiritual dimension of health. It says that in early Māori history tohunga were seen as earthly mediums of controlling spirits, and that illness was viewed as disharmony with nature. A study of Māori healers describes rongoā as once the domain of tohunga, people specifically chosen for the role, who held prestigious positions in Māori society.

Authors working with healers state that rongoā has been used by Māori for centuries and derives from mātauranga Māori, the body of Māori knowledge. The sources reviewed give no dated account of particular remedies before European contact. European collectors recorded some knowledge from tohunga in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but a 2024 review says those records lack the preparation detail needed to make medicines, a gap it attributes in part to colonial suppression of the knowledge.

Colonization, disease and suppression

The clinician-education article says European settlers brought diseases such as influenza, measles, whooping cough and dysentery, with significant mortality among Māori, and that the Māori population kept declining into the early 1900s. A study of Māori healers states that the government of the time sought to base health care solely on biomedical concepts and to restrict the activities of tohunga.

Both sources describe the effects in similar terms. Confidence in Māori healing weakened and practice was pushed underground, with the identities of tohunga kept private, yet people continued to consult tohunga and knowledge continued to be passed on. The healer study adds that tohunga are now rare, and that today's healers are often taught within families and may not be chosen or trained in the way tohunga once were.

Revival and institutional recognition

From the late twentieth century, the clinician-education article reports, rongoā became prominent again alongside a wider resurgence of Māori culture. It lists the founding of a national organization of Māori traditional practitioners in 1993, the purchase of some rongoā services by regional health authorities from 1995, and continued Ministry of Health funding of services. The healer study says rongoā classes are now taught at New Zealand universities. The sources reviewed do not give service or uptake figures.

Rongoā and its main elements

A 2020 review gives the glossary sense of rongoā as remedy, treatment or medicine, with rākau rongoā meaning Māori herbal medicine, kairongoā a rongoā practitioner, and tohunga a chosen healer. A 2022 study of healers and patients lists the main elements as rongoā rākau (also wai rākau, plant medicines), mirimiri and romiromi (bodywork or deep tissue massage), matakite (seer, second sight), and karakia and wairua (prayer and spirituality).

The same 2022 authors caution against a narrow reading. They write that rongoā is often represented as no more than herbal medicine, whereas its primary goal is described as restoring and strengthening mauri, the life force of people and land.

Health models used to describe rongoā

Te Whare Tapa Whā was developed by Sir Mason Durie in 1984. According to the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand it uses a meeting-house image with four walls: taha wairua (spiritual wellbeing), taha hinengaro (mental and emotional wellbeing), taha tinana (physical wellbeing) and taha whānau (family and social wellbeing), with whenua (land and place of belonging) as the foundation. It is a general model of Māori health, not a description of rongoā technique, and rongoā researchers use it as a frame.

A 2010 interview study of six Māori spiritual healers found that they described mind, body and spirit and named two further aspects as fundamental to health, whānau and whakapapa (family and genealogy) and whenua (land). The authors proposed a five-part model they called Te Whetu, the star. It rests on a small sample and is one research group's interpretation.

Settings, practitioners and training

The clinician-education article says tohunga may work alone or in a clinic (whare oranga) and generally do not advertise, and that there is considerable variation in practice with no standard consensus on diagnosis or prescription. Treatment is described as individualized to tribe, area, local plants and the person, and as addressing spiritual, psychological, emotional, cultural, social, environmental, family and physical aspects of health.

Training is described as informal. Practitioners learn mainly from elders or through apprenticeship, and the article states there is no specific training program or institution. A survey of 38 healers and rongoā clinics in seven districts, conducted in 2013, found respondents were mainly Māori (88%), female (69%), aged 50 or older (60%) and working as volunteers, with te reo, mātauranga and tikanga the usual routes of learning.

Plant remedies

According to the clinician-education article, plant remedies are usually crushed or dried and mixed with water or ethyl alcohol. Plants must be correctly identified, gathered from non-polluted areas and prepared hygienically, and tikanga (customs) are observed during collection, preparation and storage. A 2020 review adds that harvesting should be carried out under the direction of a kairongoā or kaumātua (elder), and that practitioners often use blends in which each plant is thought to complement the others.

Bodywork, spiritual practice and consultations

A 2026 conceptual paper describes mirimiri as therapeutic massage delivered with cultural protocols. The sources reviewed do not describe specific techniques, and this article does not attempt to. Karakia and wairua are named by the sources as components of practice, but their content is not described here because it belongs to knowledge holders.

In a 2024 hospital feasibility study, six surgical outpatients consulted both a rongoā practitioner and a surgeon three times over six months. Appointments averaged 45 minutes, whānau (family) were welcome, and kai (food) was provided as a culturally appropriate custom.

Reasons people seek rongoā

The clinician-education article says traditional treatment may be sought for illness that is atypical or not responding to conventional treatment, for mental illness and for chronic lifestyle conditions such as type 2 diabetes, and that many Māori value rongoā while also using conventional medicine. It describes geographic, financial and cultural barriers to mainstream care, and says some Māori feel their needs are better met by traditional healers.

Participants in a 2022 study of 49 healers and patients described rongoā as a way to maintain connection with land and identity, and gave accounts of using plants for themselves and their families. These are participant perspectives and were not tested as outcomes.

Traditional plant uses

The clinician-education article tabulates traditional uses recorded for native plants. Examples include kawakawa leaves chewed for toothache, harakeke (flax) leaf or root as a poultice for wounds and abscess, and preparations of mānuka and kānuka for cuts, sores, aches and coughs. These are recorded traditional uses and are not validated indications.

A 2020 review states that rongoā blends containing kawakawa, karamu and kūmarahou have been used in traditional practice for type 2 diabetes (mate huka). The review treats this as traditional knowledge to be investigated, not as an established effect.

What kind of research exists

Most published research on rongoā Māori is qualitative. Examples include interviews with six spiritual healers in 2007, 17 healers on cooperation with doctors, and 49 healers and patients in 2021. Such studies describe views and meanings but do not test whether rongoā changes a health outcome. A PubMed search on 2026-10-06 combining rongoā, Māori and traditional medicine returned 17 records, and a search for mirimiri or romiromi returned one, a conceptual paper. The titles and abstracts reviewed identified no controlled trial of rongoā as a system or of mirimiri, and no study comparing health outcomes of Māori who use rongoā with those who do not.

A 2024 feasibility study placed a rongoā practitioner and a surgeon in a hospital outpatient clinic with six patients. Its data were interviews with patients, whānau and practitioners, analyzed into seven themes, and the authors concluded that collaboration in public hospitals is possible. It reported no clinical outcome measures, and the authors acknowledged the small sample.

A 2020 survey of staff at one district health board drew 1,181 responses from about 6,000 employees (19.6%). Of responders, 46% were familiar with rongoā, 16% had used it themselves or for whānau, and about 32% felt it should be available to patients and staff. The low response rate limits how far the results generalize.

Laboratory and human studies of plants

A 2020 review of three plants used in rongoā for type 2 diabetes (karamu, kūmarahou and kawakawa) found no clinical trials. Its supporting evidence came from laboratory and animal studies of isolated compounds, and its authors state that many claimed efficacies have not been tested in laboratory or human studies. They also note that rongoā uses blends, so single-compound studies may not reflect traditional preparations.

Later, a pilot crossover trial and a follow-up crossover trial in healthy volunteers compared kawakawa tea with water before a high-glycemic breakfast. In the pilot (six men), plasma glucose and insulin were lower at 60 minutes after the high dose (4 g in 250 mL); in the follow-up (30 participants), only insulin was lower at 60 minutes. The authors call for longer-term studies. These were single-dose studies in healthy people, so they do not show an effect in people with diabetes.

Stated gaps

A 2026 conceptual paper proposing rongoā alongside specialist supportive clinical management for eating disorders states that no evidence exists for rongoā Māori as a treatment for eating disorders, and that the proposal needs empirical testing of feasibility, acceptability and efficacy. It also notes that the peer-reviewed literature is limited and mostly qualitative, which it links to historical underfunding of Māori health research.

Land, genealogy and reciprocity

In the 2022 study, participants described land as part of identity, as a site and source of healing, as reciprocal with people, and as something to be protected through kaitiakitanga (guardianship). The authors write that the health of land and people is understood to mirror each other, and that where land or water is polluted, rongoā plants may be absent or less effective. These are statements of the tradition and its researchers, not tested claims.

Cooperation with biomedicine

Interviews with 17 healers found mixed views. Some supported cooperation, arguing the two systems are complementary and could work side by side. Others resisted it because of doctors' limited understanding of rongoā and concern for the cultural integrity of rongoā. The authors discuss pluralism, meaning cooperation without integration, as one approach.

Knowledge holders and research protocols

A 2024 review proposing a regional pharmacopoeia states that such work should be led by mana whenua and directed by knowledge holders, with prior informed consent, and that the safety and mauri of the plants themselves must be considered before human use. The 2022 study followed research guidelines under which the right of healers to hold and provide knowledge is maintained.

Plant-specific cautions

The clinician-education article states that plants must be carefully prepared because some species are toxic if not used correctly. Its plant table marks tutu (Coriaria arborea) with a warning that all parts are poisonous except the swollen petals and that its toxin, tutin, has caused death.

Separately, a retrospective investigation of a 2008 outbreak identified 22 possible or probable cases of poisoning linked to locally produced honey containing tutin from tutu. That report concerns food contamination, not rongoā preparations, but it shows tutu is a recognized hazard in New Zealand.

Kawakawa toxicology studies

Kawakawa has received the most toxicological study of the plants discussed. In a rat study of tea and leaves, 14-day and 28-day dosing at amounts equivalent to up to four cups per day produced no adverse effects, though small differences in organ weights and biochemical and hematology measures were seen. A chemical analysis of leaf sources found that pharmacologically active compounds from traditional infusion or seasoning were well below documented toxicity thresholds, while content varied significantly by leaf source. Animal and chemical data do not establish suitability for any person, and these sources do not address interactions or use in pregnancy, childhood or illness.

Interactions, disclosure and care boundaries

The clinician-education article notes that plant remedies in general can interact with conventional medicines, giving St John's wort as an example, and that some Māori patients may not tell their doctor about traditional healing. It says Ministry of Health standards expect practitioners to ensure patients are referred to other services where appropriate, especially for emergency or acute needs. Necessary medical care should not be delayed or replaced by any practice.

The sources reviewed report no adverse-event data for mirimiri or for rongoā as a whole. That gap reflects the limited research, and it does not show that harms do not occur. Practitioners, clinicians and readers who combine plant remedies with other treatments are best placed to discuss what is being taken with a qualified health professional.