Government,Church and Māori Responses to Mākutu (Sorcery) in New Zealand in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

ABSTRACT

Traditionally Māori attributed disease to supernatural causes, including mākutu (sorcery) and, as with some other indigenous cultures, considered that killing sorcerers was both just and right. Belief in mākutu ran counter to the Church's desire to gain religious primacy, and mākutu-related murders challenged the State's claim to sovereignty, and its desire to ‘civilize’ Māori. Each indigenous society possesses unique characteristics, just as the nature of each settler society develops within its own environment. While some similarities with other colonized societies can be identified, distinctive local conditions influenced the relationship of Māori to the New Zealand colonial state, and thus attitudes and actions relating to sorcery-related crime. This article explores how mākutu brought Māori communities into conflict with both Church and State, and how the latter in particular was constrained by political realities. As the nineteenth century came to an end, the murders had largely ceased and the State and Church became more concerned with Māori spiritual healers. The article also shows that Māori reformers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries took a lead in changing Māori attitudes.