Rongoā Māori as a generative response to the crises of our times

Abstract

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples maintainsthat Indigenous Peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. This simple right alone links to other various inalienable rights such as to see their lands, Indigenous languages and cultures flourish. Yet throughout the world, historic and contemporary practices of colonialism continue to negate these traditional Indigenous public health systems which make critical and holistic connections between human and environmental well-being. This chapter explores the potential of rongoā Māori (Māori systems of healing) as a practice of Indigenous-led intergenerational resilience (connectivity and knowledge transmission between species). Set in Aotearoa / New Zealand, it combines the perspectives of four traditional knowledge holders on the potential of rongoā Māori as a broader philosophical system and decolonizing practice for reconnecting and reorientating Māori (the Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa) and settler peoples to earth-centred lifeways. In doing so it explores the interrelated issues of Māori land tenure and language and the broader kinds of intersectoral policy and practice approaches needed to advance rongoā Māori as a generative practice of Māori-led intergenerational resilience.