Rongoā Māori
The Healing System of Aotearoa
Evidence grade 1 of 5, Untested. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.
Rongoā's evidence is layered, and much of its knowledge is held as taonga (treasure) within Māori communities rather than extracted into Western trials. Several of its plants have genuine pharmacological support (mānuka, source of the clinically used mānuka honey; kawakawa and others under study), and its holistic, culturally grounded approach has real value for Māori wellbeing and for engagement with care, public-health bodies and the WHO advocate including traditional healers, and rongoā is being integrated into New Zealand health services for exactly these reasons. At the same time, the spiritual and ceremonial dimensions are not biomedical treatments and are not evaluated as such, and rigorous trial data on whole rongoā practice is limited (and often inappropriate to demand of a sacred, holistic tradition). The honest framing: a living Indigenous system with genuinely useful herbal and physical elements, powerful cultural and spiritual dimensions, and real value for culturally grounded care, documented with respect, increasingly integrated with conventional medicine, not a replacement for it.
Reference only. Not medical advice.
What can go wrong
Practiced within its tradition, rongoā is generally safe and increasingly delivered alongside conventional care. The specific cautions are real. Some native plants used in rongoā are toxic and should be prepared only by people trained in the tradition, a point rongoā practitioners themselves emphasise; tutu, for example, is used topically but is poisonous if taken internally. Herbal preparations can interact with medications, and Health New Zealand advises telling your usual health provider what you are taking. As with any traditional system, relying on rongoā in place of effective treatment for a serious condition can cause harm through delay. For serious, worsening, or persistent illness, and for pregnancy, children, and mental health concerns, work with a qualified health professional and use rongoā in coordination with, not instead of, medical care. The modern integration model, with trained rongoā practitioners working alongside conventional services, is designed to keep people connected to that care.
Rongoā Māori is the traditional healing system of the Māori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, held within hauora, a holistic view of health spanning spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, family, and environmental wellbeing. It draws on three main strands: rongoā rākau (remedies from over 200 native plant species such as kawakawa, harakeke, koromiko, and mānuka), physical work including mirimiri and romiromi massage, and karakia and wairua, prayer and the spiritual dimension that practitioners describe as the most fundamental part. Knowledge was traditionally held as tapu and passed orally by tohunga. A few of its plants carry real pharmacology, and mānuka gave the world mānuka honey, now an FDA-cleared wound dressing, though the system as a whole rests on tradition and cultural meaning rather than clinical trials. The New Zealand government suppressed it under the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act, repealed in 1962, and today funds rongoā through ACC and Health New Zealand alongside conventional care.
The living Māori healing system of Aotearoa, native-plant medicine, mirimiri massage, and spiritual healing within a holistic hauora framework, revived and integrated into NZ health care.
What people take it for
These are the reasons people give for taking it. They are not effects it has been shown to have.
How it is supposed to work
Where rongoā uses plants, the mechanisms are real plant pharmacology, several native species (kawakawa, mānuka, harakeke) have documented bioactive properties, and mānuka honey in particular became a globally studied wound product. Mirimiri massage works through the mechanisms of bodywork (relaxation, musculoskeletal effects), and the spiritual and karakia dimensions engage the meaning response and the powerful effects of cultural connection, trust, and community on wellbeing. The holistic hauora framework aligns with modern understanding of the social, psychological, and spiritual determinants of health. The spiritual elements (mate atua, wairua) are cultural and religious, not biomedical, frameworks.
What people get wrong
Often saidRongoā is just folklore with nothing of real value.
ActuallyA few of its native plants have real pharmacology. Mānuka gave the world mānuka honey, and the 2015 Cochrane review found high-quality evidence that honey heals partial-thickness burns about 4 to 5 days faster than conventional dressings; the FDA cleared a medical-grade mānuka honey dressing in 2007. Kawakawa has a small human pilot trial associating it with lower inflammatory markers. Its holistic, culturally grounded care is valued enough that New Zealand now funds rongoā through ACC and Health New Zealand. The spiritual dimensions are cultural; some herbal and physical ones are genuinely useful.
Often saidAny native plant remedy is safe because it is natural and traditional.
ActuallySome rongoā plants are toxic, which is why rongoā practitioners themselves stress that preparations should be made only by people trained in the tradition. Herbal remedies can interact with medications, and Health New Zealand advises telling your doctor what you are using. Rongoā is safest practiced by trained healers alongside conventional care, not instead of it.
Often saidBecause it is a spiritual system, its plant medicines have no measurable effect.
ActuallyThe two are separable. Kawakawa (Piper excelsum) contains characterised active compounds such as myristicin and lignans, and mānuka honey's antibacterial activity is driven by measurable methylglyoxal content. A finding in the plant chemistry does not validate the spiritual claims, and the spiritual framing does not erase the chemistry; each is assessed on its own evidence.
Who profits, and who pushes back
Rongoā practitioners & tohunga
Practice rongoā as a holistic system of native-plant medicine, mirimiri, and spiritual healing, grounded in hauora and increasingly delivered alongside Western medicine.
NZ health system & WHO
Recognize and integrate rongoā into public health services, valuing its cultural grounding and reach for Māori while supporting coordination with conventional care.
Ethnobotany research
Documents genuine bioactivity in rongoā plants such as mānuka (source of clinically used honey) and others under study, within a far larger body of cultural knowledge.
Safety perspective
Note some native plants are toxic and need trained preparation, and that rongoā should complement rather than replace treatment for serious conditions.
Where the research comes from
Most of the published research on this comes from one place. 90% of it is from Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings that no unrelated group has reproduced are weaker than the study count makes them look.
| Place | Share of published research |
|---|---|
| Aotearoa New Zealand | 90% |
| NZ public health (integration) | 62% |
| Māori diaspora | 55% |
How we got here
Rongoā grew over centuries of Māori settlement in Aotearoa, carrying Polynesian healing heritage into an encounter with New Zealand's native flora, and it was transmitted orally through tohunga rather than written down. Te Ara records more than 200 native plant species in traditional use, with the spiritual dimension held as the heart of the practice. Colonisation brought disease, land loss, and the erosion of Māori authority over health. In 1907 the New Zealand Parliament passed the Tohunga Suppression Act, given royal assent on 24 September, introduced by James Carroll and backed by Māori MPs including Āpirana Ngata and Māui Pōmare, aimed at replacing tohunga with Western medicine. Few convictions followed, but the Act drove practice underground and led many tohunga to withhold their knowledge, so much was lost. The Maori Welfare Act 1962 repealed it. From the later cultural renaissance rongoā revived, and from the 2000s the health system began to recognise, standardise, and fund it.
- Pre-1800sRongoā develops through centuries of Māori settlement, joining Polynesian healing heritage to Aotearoa's native flora; over 200 plant species come into traditional use
- 1907Tohunga Suppression Act (royal assent 24 September) aims to replace tohunga with Western medicine and drives rongoā underground
- 1962Maori Welfare Act repeals the Tohunga Suppression Act
- 1970s-1990sMāori cultural renaissance; rongoā knowledge revives and organises
- 2014Ministry of Health publishes Tikanga ā-Rongoā, a voluntary quality standard for rongoā services
- June 2020ACC launches its Rongoā Māori Service, funding rongoā within injury rehabilitation
- 2024First human pilot trial of kawakawa tea (n=26) reports reduced inflammatory markers
- June 2025ACC reports its Rongoā Māori Service has supported over 15,000 clients in its first five years
How it is understood
Rongoā Māori is the traditional healing system of the Māori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, a holistic practice grounded in the Māori understanding of hauora (health and wellbeing) as encompassing spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, family, and environmental dimensions. It has three intertwined components: rongoā rākau, herbal medicine made from native plants (more than 200 species are used, including kawakawa, harakeke/flax, kōwhai, and mānuka), prepared as drinks, poultices, lotions, and steam baths; mirimiri, therapeutic massage and physical manipulation; and karakia and wairua, prayer and spiritual healing. Māori traditionally distinguished illnesses with spiritual causes (mate atua, linked to breaches of tapu) from those with physical causes, and knowledge of rongoā was considered tapu (sacred), passed orally to a select few by tohunga (expert priests) in the whare wānanga (house of learning). Crucially, rongoā is a living tradition undergoing a strong revival, recognized and increasingly integrated into New Zealand's public health system, with practitioners working alongside Western medicine.
At a glance
- Components
- Rongoā rākau (herbs), mirimiri (massage), karakia (prayer)
- Framework
- Hauora, holistic wellbeing
- Plants
- 200+ native species (kawakawa, harakeke, mānuka)
- History
- Suppressed 1907, repealed 1962, now reviving
What this entry does not yet cover
What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about Rongoā Māori. A short entry is not a safe entry.
- Cost and market. We have not documented what it sells for or who sells it.
- Supply chain. We have not mapped where it is made.
- Who uses it. We have not documented the user groups.
- What could change. No forward-looking summary yet.
- How it compares. We have not set it against the alternatives.
- Children and teenagers. We have not checked what is known about younger people.
Sources
Rongoā components (rongoā rākau, te oo mai reia, mirimiri, kōmiri, karakia) and integration with Western medicine; some plants toxic; disclose use to provider
200+ native plant species; oral transmission via tohunga; spiritual dimension central; herbal, physical, and spiritual strands
Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand - Rongoā, medicinal use of plants
Tohunga Suppression Act 1907: introduced by James Carroll, royal assent 24 Sept 1907, backed by Māori MPs (Ngata, Pōmare, others), drove tohunga underground, knowledge lost; repealed by Maori Welfare Act 1962
Tohunga Suppression Act repealed 1 November 1962 by section 24 of the Maori Welfare Act 1962
Te Ara Encyclopedia - Tohunga Suppression Act document; NZ Legislation
Honey heals partial-thickness burns ~4 to 5 days faster (high-quality evidence), moderate evidence for infected surgical wounds, low/very low for chronic and diabetic wounds
Cochrane Library - Jull et al., Honey as a topical treatment for wounds (2015)
Methylglyoxal, the antibacterial in mānuka honey, is a protein-glycating agent and proposed potential risk factor in diabetic ulcer healing (mechanism concern, not established harm)
Majtan, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2011), PMC3135160
Mānuka honey from Leptospermum scoparium native to New Zealand; FDA cleared Medihoney (active Leptospermum honey) as first medical-grade honey wound product in 2007
Therapeutic Manuka Honey: No Longer So Alternative, PMC4837971
Kawakawa (Piper excelsum) first human pilot trial (n=26 healthy volunteers) associates kawakawa tea with reduced IL-6 and IL-8 via microRNA regulation
ACC Rongoā Māori Service launched June 2020; supported over 15,000 clients in first five years to June 2025; sessions ~doubled year on year to May 2023; ~40% of claims from non-Māori
Ministry of Health voluntary quality standard Tikanga ā-Rongoā for safe rongoā service delivery
Traditional medicine should be integrated in a science-based manner with evidence of safety, efficacy, quality, and pharmacovigilance to avoid patient harm
Harakeke (Phormium tenax) leaf-base gum used traditionally as antiseptic for boils, burns, and wounds; kawakawa used for skin, gastrointestinal, and respiratory complaints