In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, religious or otherwise. Tohunga may include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teachers and advisors. The equivalent term in Hawaiian culture is kahuna. Under the authority of the Ariki (High Chief) were the Rangatira (chieftains) of the tribe and Tohunga held an important status within the tribe as a spiritual and expert advisor under/to these authorities.
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Many classes of tohunga (Best 1924:166), include:
Each Tohunga were gifted spiritual leaders and possessed the natural ability of communicating between the spiritual and temporal realms through karakia (prayers), pātere (chants) or performing waiata (songs) that had been passed down to them by Tohunga before them. However, their rites were mainly in their individual fields of which they practiced as outlined above.
An example of such a karakia and waiata is one to Hineraukatauri (Goddess of Music).
Tohunga held knowledge of most spiritual and temporal rites and knowledge in general were passed down through many generations by oral communication at wananga (places of learning/schools). Tools they would also use were Taonga pūoro for the purpose of calling on divine intervention or assistance from the Gods.
Although Maori revered Tohunga with high respect for their knowledge, skill or craft and practice; there was some uncertainty regarding their sources by which the early European settlers misunderstood and were regarded by Christian beliefs as a dangerous cult or even witch-craft when Tohunga would touch on fear "or magic" of which the Christians believed and have long accused Māori Tohunga of creating in their work.
Many Tohunga declined to pass on their oral traditions after the Tohunga Suppression Act was enforced in New Zealand so this left the Māori people bereft of much of their traditional base, beliefs and practices for a long time from 1907 until the Act was repealed in 1962.[2]. Sadly by this time, much of the language and traditions had been either corrupted or lost with Tohunga that had long since died. There is no doubt that the enforcement of Christianity together with the Tohunga Suppression Act has played a dominant role in the obstruction of traditional Māori healing practises. In fact, colonisation has had a huge impact on the dis-connection of many of the indigenous peoples to their body, mind and spirit as well as the natural concept of one-ness with the ancient ancestors that reside both in the spiritual and temporal worlds.
The concepts of Mātauranga Māori (indigenous Māori knowledge) relate to the continuum of Tohungatanga (priestly knowledge), the loss of which has left many scars on the holistic health and well being of the Maori people, the land, the waters, the air, the bush, and the wildlife. The preservation and transmission of Tohunga (high priest) knowledge was and is vital to sustain the future generations of all living and non-living things in the metaphysical world of Māori.
Whatever the overt intentions, there was a paradigm of the time amongst English colonists that Māori were a "lost race", the effect of banning the practices of spiritual and cultural leaders was that it hastened the assimilation of Māori. Fortunately although in hiding, there were few kaumatua and kuia (elders) that held steadfast and true to Maori traditions and continued to orally communicate their knowledge through the generations.
One observation to the survival of Tohungatanga was the insignificance of the "female tohunga‟ perspective and yet, wahine (women) were the "most powerful tohunga" as they had a direct lineage and link to Te Ira Atua (spiritual realm of the Gods) and are a class that have been ignored in any literature until now.
The most important aspect of Tohungatanga is Te Reo. The Māori language is not just the arrangement of kupu (words) like for instance, whakatauki, karakia or takutaku. Rather, the true Te Reo (language from the Māori world view) has vibrations that bring about a deeper, more profound understanding and meaning to life.
Another important aspect of Tohungatanga is whakapapa (genealogy) and most authentic Tohunga were and are well versed in their whakapapa, many of whom can whakapapa back to the Atua (Gods) and even back to the beginnings of time. Whakapapa is the genius of the Māori world whereby the ancestors have used it as a tool to show relationships, explain the origins, classify and group different kinds of plants, animals, trees and phenomena in the natural world that are both visible and invisible.
Tapu was one of the most deeply ingrained beliefs and religious customs of the Maori and one of the most interesting observances. The word tapu may be translated as sacred or forbidden, but the Maori tapu has a host of variations. There was a personal tapu and local tapu; tapu of one kind or another faced the Maori everywhere. It often served a purpose similar to some of the Jewish laws of prohibition and quarantine.
Priests, or tohungas, were imbued with the mysterious essences of the tapu because of their knowledge of ancient and potent karakia (incantations), religious ceremonies and their office as mediums of communication with the dread atua (gods). All Ariki (High Chiefs) also had a strong personal tapu which prevented any common person eating out of the same food basket or using anything belonging to the chief.
About Fig. 2 - The remains of the sacred dead and all connected therewith were highly tapu and anyone who had been engaged in handling the dead or bones of the dead would be extremely tapu and would not dare to touch food with the hands. Consequently such persons had to be fed in the manner shown in this picture.
It was painted from life at old-time pa in the Wanganui district. The outer pallisaded fence of which, with its roughly carved posts, usually totara, is shown in the background. The tohunga is kneeling on his mats in front of a raupo whare in a remote corner of the settlement. This is his temporary dwelling, for to enter the other buildings would infect others with tapu.
Te Whetu Marama created this and preached to the Maoris of New Zealand.
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