ACC - How we define Rongoā Māori
We recognise rongoā Māori as a kaupapa Māori service.
It’s culturally grounded care that weaves tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, te reo Māori, and te ao Māori through all aspects of the service.
We respect that these aspects embrace ngā kaupapa tuku iho (values gifted by tupuna Māori). So we expect rongoā practitioners to whakapapa (affirm their connection) to ngā kaupapa tuku iho.
We're guided by the Waitangi Tribunal’s definition from the Ko Aotearoa Tēnei report to define rongoā Māori.
This definition covers various traditional Māori healing methodologies, including:
- mirimiri (bodywork)
- whitiwhiti kōrero (support and advice)
- karakia (prayer).
We acknowledge that these are only some methods of rongoā.
We define rongoā Māori in the wider context of traditional Māori healing methodologies, which include but are not limited to the above techniques.
We don’t consider healing techniques from non-Māori cultural traditions, such as reiki or hyperbaric oxygen treatment, part of rongoā Māori. Even if they’re provided by Māori practitioners,
