Tohunga
The Maori expert, a priest, healer or master of a craft, whose work was suppressed by New Zealand law from 1907 to 1962.
Also: tohunga ta moko, tohunga whakairo, māori priest
A tohunga is a person of expert skill in te ao Maori. The word covers a priest who recited karakia and kept tribal lore, a healer, a master carver, a navigator or a tattooist, tohunga ta moko. Knowledge was taught in schools of learning, whare wananga, and held under tapu. Missionaries and officials disliked the priestly tohunga, and in 1907 the Tohunga Suppression Act made it an offence to claim supernatural powers to treat illness or predict events. It was rarely used, but it had a chilling effect, and it was repealed in 1962. Since then Maori healing and spiritual knowledge have been revived, and the title tohunga is used with care by iwi who decide who may hold it.