Tohunga Suppression Act
- When
- 25 September 1907
- Reach
- Nationwide
An Act making it an offence to practise as a tohunga, aimed at prophets and healers whose authority the state saw as a threat to assimilation.
Promoted by Māori MP James Carroll and the Young Māori Party as a public health measure against dangerous quackery, it functioned more broadly as an attack on customary knowledge and religious leadership. Prosecutions were few, but the message was clear, and much traditional healing and teaching went underground. The Act stayed on the books until 1962.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
The great Māori urban migration
Māori went from about 25 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1975 — one of the fastest urbanisations recorded anywhere.
The Native Land Court is established
The court converted customary communal title into individual freehold — the mechanism by which most remaining Māori land was lost, without a shot fired.
The Rātana movement rises
Te Hāhi Rātana
Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana built a faith and then a political machine around one demand: ratify the Treaty of Waitangi.
Rātana PāThe influenza pandemic
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than seven times the Pākehā rate.