Co-Leader of the Maori Party, Rawiri Waititi published an article in the New Zealand Herald to mark Māori Language Week. It included the following statement:

 

“Part of colonisation and imperialism is to assert the dominance of the colonial culture and language. Colonisation meant that the whole system of Māori self-belief had to be attacked and derided. The Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907 is merely one example of our spiritual leadership being outlawed.”

 

Apart from showing an overt tone of racism what this article does is identify his failure to get his facts right. Even a cursory study of the history of the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907 would have shown him that rather than being something forced on Maori by the colonial administration it was in actual fact sponsored by his ancestors, the Maori MP’s of the day.

 

The reason they wanted this Act passed was to protect their people from those who were practising on superstition or misleading or attempting to mislead Maori by professing or pretending to profess supernatural powers in the treatment or cure of any disease, or in the foretelling of future events.

 

The law made no attempt to prohibit many of the traditional treatments used by tohunga, such as medicinal plants and herbs, even if they turned out to be worthless.

 

The legislation was introduced to Parliament by one of Maoridom’s most illustrious politicians, James Carroll, who was Minister of Native Affairs and in fact, all the four Māori MPs in Parliament in 1907 voted in favour — including rising star Apirana Ngata.

 

Furthermore, it was strongly backed by Māui Pōmare, who became New Zealand’s first Māori doctor in 1899 — and was made Minister of Health in 1923.

 

Appointed Māori Health Officer in 1901, Pōmare was a fierce critic of the practices of some tohunga (variously defined as “priests” or “experts in traditional Māori healing”). These included treating feverish patients by putting them in cold water and plying them with alcohol, as well as exorcising devils.

 

As Māmari Stephens — now a law academic at Victoria University — noted in her LLB (Hons) dissertation on the Tohunga Suppression Act:

 

“After 17 children died in one pā alone after the ministrations of tohunga, Māori Health Officer Dr Māui Pōmare pushed, in his 1904 annual report, for legislation against the practices of tohunga. This report was one of the main drivers for the eventual passage of the legislation.”

 

The bill was undeniably promoted by influential Māori figures and the attempt by Rawiri Waititi to blame it on oppressive colonialism just emphasises both his failure to know the history behind this Act or the reason for the Māori MP’s support for the Act.

 

In fact I believe it is just another example of trying to make the facts fit the narrative to suit an agenda rather than making the narrative reflect the reality of the facts.

 

Even Meng Foon, the Race Relations Commissioner, last year, in a Stuff column titled, “We must speak out against racism”, claimed:

 

“Measures such as the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act were introduced, undermining Māori culture and wellbeing, and enabling disharmony and inequity to persist until now.”

 

Last December, a Metro magazine writer Haimona Gray, in an article titled, “Should Māori trust the public health system?” described the Tohunga Suppression Act as no less than an “original sin”.

 

Under a heading: “We take their ‘cures’, while they suppress our medicine”, he wrote: “If there can be an identifiable ‘original sin’ which began the distrust [of health authorities] we find ourselves dealing with today, it would be the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907.

 

“The Tohunga Suppression Act was created to discredit and criminalise traditional Māori health practices. The intended effect of this was to ensure the government’s health system faced no competition or alternatives. The Act was not very effective in its prosecutions — only nine convictions were ever obtained — but it was highly successful at sowing the seeds of distrust in traditional Māori values.

 

A further inconvenient fact for those who prefer to blame colonialism is that any prosecution under the Act required the assent of the Minister of Native Affairs. James Carroll held that position from 1899 to 1912, which meant he, or his successors, could ensure the law was not used to unfairly punish or persecute Māori. And, of course, to approve its use where they thought it was warranted.

 

The Minister for Māori Development, Willie Jackson, in an article published in 2017, acknowledged that Apirana Ngata took a bold stand in backing the Tohunga Suppression Act — and pointed out that the influential politician was “more concerned about mortal risks posed by charlatans dispensing lethal concoctions than any diminishment of Māori traditions and knowledge”.

 

The fact that the current Co-Leader of the Maori Party along with many others, does not mention — or perhaps not even know — who supported the passage of the Tohunga Suppression Act and why they did so, only demonstrates his own incorrect & jaundiced view of our colonial history.

 

This is a similar issue as the new compulsory school history curriculum that focuses largely on the Māori experience of colonisation, which is to be introduced into schools next year. The new history curriculum is another that tries to make selected facts fit the agenda rather than actually teaching the whole of the facts. It is designed to, wittingly or unwittingly, mislead and convince students that the whole of colonialism was disastrous for Maori.

 

When in fact a glance at history of NZ shows that prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, slavery and cannibalism were commonplace in the Maori world and the life expectancy of Maori was approximately thirty years of age. Since the signing of the Treaty this life expectancy has grown to approximately seventy years.

 

Rather than pushing the new history curriculum into schools we should maybe require compulsory history lessons for all politicians on entering parliament to ensure they get the facts correct.