SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: A Rongoa Rort
Philip Duck

January 21, 2009

Put 3 teaspoons of fresh Kumarahou leaf in a glass and fill with boiled water. Cover and allow infusing for 15-30 minutes. Drink. It's a suggested treatment for cancer.

Won't work? Well, of course not. But it will if you also say a karakia (Maori prayer) during the picking, preparing and drinking of the concoction. At least so say some practitioners of Rongoa Maori. Rongoa includes the use of native herbal remedies, karakia, mirimiri (Maori massage) and spiritual healing, and it is promoted as an effective way to treat a whole range of health ailments.

Absolute nonsense, and dangerously so when Maori quacks promote such cures when their patients would be far better off seeking proven methods of treatment from western doctors and hospitals. However, these rogues are encouraged by the government to promote Rongoa; the Ministry of Health funds such charlatans to the tune of nearly $2 million each year. And in a blatantly racist decision the government decided that Maori 'healers' should be the only alternative-medicine providers to receive direct government funding.

While these quacks have to provide the Ministry with an annual report, the results of their 'healing' are not reviewed. Said deputy director-general of Maori health Teresa Wall, "traditional Maori healing could not be viewed from the perspective of Western medicine, where people were prescribed something and expected to get better." Really? Then why exactly is the government forking out for such quackery if there is no expectation that the sick are going to get better? Rolfing, hoodoo, spiritual healing or Rongoa Maori - all bollocks - but it's none of my business what people choose so long as I'm not forced to pay for it by my tax dollars. Or, as is the case for Rongoa, forced to pay twice; once for the traditional Maori nonsense and, inevitably, again for the public-funded western cure.

Still, looking on the bright side, should you have chosen a 'special' mirimiri massage from that K Rd. parlour and you weren't as careful as you should have been, just take the central core root of the Kowhai, extract the juice, and take 3 times daily. It cures gonorrhea in less than a week!

ends

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