Talk:Tohunga Suppression Act 1907

Request for Help
I created this article. I am Pakeha. I cannot state, hand on heart, that this article is unbiased. I feel I have no right to take the POV, which, unfortunately I have. I request help on this page to provide some balance.


 * The article needs a greater understanding of the POV of the Pakeha MP’s who were concerned about Maori health. Also, it would be useful to include a Maori POV that has as a different paradigm that of Sir Maui.


 * It desperately requires a more detailed description of the place of Tohunga at the time. (Can someone of authority please create an article on this subject, even if it just says that it’s not open to discussion for goodness sake?? Of all the pages Maori is missing!). Can someone PLEEEEEZ describe the effects upon culture that the TSA had by way of proscribing traditional teachings.

My knowledge on this subject comes from an interest based upon teachings I received in tertiary education. It is by no means expert, but this to me is the one “event” that springs to mind when someone says “1907”.

Please help give this article the import it deserves. L-Bit 11:41, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Well it doesn't seem too biased to me. a good effort and a valuable contribution. (But I wonder if instead of italicising that quote, you could put a reference at the end of the quote like this: (McLauchlan 1992:xx). where xx is the page number the quote came from. And could you also do the same in other paragraphs to indicate which page of McLauchlan they came from.) Maui Pomare was probably working with Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck) who was Maori Officer of Health at the time I think... if that is any help. They were trying to improve Maori health and living conditions too, not just trying to hasten the assimilation. Buck's writings indicate he thought it was inevitable that Maori would assimilate totally. It wasn't some kind of betrayal of their own people (as it might be interpreted by today's values), in the context of the time people really thought it was best. Kahuroa 00:49, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Suggestion of political motivation
The Act appears to have been supported, if not initiated by, Maori leaders. The aim was to eradicate quackery disguised as Maori traditional medicine. That seems to be a laudable aim, not a politically motivated Act as described in the article on the 2007 Makutu lifting case. However were there actually any prosecutions under the Act?Royalcourtier (talk) 22:24, 14 March 2015 (UTC)