Donna Kerridge on Maori Healing

A Look at Indigenous Knowing and Healing By investing in understanding how indigenous peoples interpreted their landscape and wellbeing - we consider innovative ways to bridge the gap in health equity in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Māori healing (rongoā Māori), is akin to enhancing vitality (mauri), restoring the life force of people and planet and our connections to the land. Māori, saw themselves as an extension of a wider family group (whānau) and indeed the world itself (Te Ao Marama), totally interdependent - one heart, one breath, one world. Nothing, healed in isolation and the lore of nature, not human doctrine, dictated wellbeing. Donna Kerridge (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a traditionally trained Māori medicine practitioner. She is a passionate advocate for the sharing of traditional Māori knowledge as a means to address health inequities in the modern world. She is the contracted spokesperson for Te Kāhui Rongoā, the New Zealand national collective of Māori medicine practitioners.