By 1News Reporters
6:01am

Tanya Filia (Ngapuhi, Ngai Tahu) was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour more than 10 years ago. When she was told it was terminal she turned to
rongoa Maori - traditional Maori healing - a decision that she says saved her life. She shared her story with Leigh-Marama McLachlan on Marae.


For Tanya Filia, rongoa Maori has had a life changing impact on her and her whanau. In 2013, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour after she experienced the inability to recall some words and suffered from massive headaches.


"Long story short, ended up in Whangarei Hospital where I had a scan, and
they found that I had a grade four glioblastoma brain tumour. My husband
showed up and I told him, and we had a massive tangi. I thought about my kotiro, thought about my potiki, Willow, and thought, `what am I supposed to
do with that?' It's devastating. Your whole world ends. It's devastating."


She underwent an intense treatment plan that included surgery to remove most
of the mass, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy - a hard and fast approach she felt pressured to endure.


"No conversation at all about anything else. It was this way, highway, or no way. We're talking 42 treatments of radiation directly to my brain," she said.


Initially she went into remission but in 2015 she was told the cancer was
back and it had spread. She was given two months to live.


She refused to undergo further chemo and radiation therapy - "the mask on to
my face where they pin you down to give you radiation, I said 'I'm not doing that again'" - opting instead for rongoa Maori, natural therapies and intravenous Vitamin C.


Turning to rongoa Maori
Rongoa Maori is a wide-ranging holistic approach, not limited to just medicines.


Tanya's rongoa Maori treatment plan, which she continues to follow, includes karakia, mirimiri, tinctures and oils.


When asked to describe what happens during a mirimiri session, Tanya explains how it begins with karakia to cleanse and prepare her "for walking in that space".

"I go to a place where I walk and speak and talk to my tupuna," she said. "So it's not just a massage, like many people assume, it is done in the space of a-wairua. So it's good for my wairua, it's good for my hinengaro, and absolutely it is beautiful for my tinana."


Rongoa Maori is undergoing a resurgence. In 2023, the failed Therapeutics Products Bill drew criticism from practitioners and whanau for its impact on rongoa Maori. Since 2020, ACC has recognised the traditional Maori healing practice and offer rongoa as a recovery option. Thousands of people have claimed for rongoa services since.


Speaking as part of a discussion panel following Tanya's story, Eldon Paea (Ngati Kahungunu, Ngapuhi, Ngati Porou), head of Maori health partnerships at ACC, said they work closely with the rongoa community and have an advisory panel to ensure controls, process, and monitoring are in place, and to help improve outcomes.


"What we've found is as we've worked with the community through their leadership, it's kept us safe and ensures the integrity of rongoa is maintained."


ACC has partnered with more than 160 rongoa practitioners where the registration process includes an endorsement from mana whenua, a police check and requirement for all practitioners to be subject to the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994.


Paea said it was about ensuring that clients are treated fairly, are
respected, and that there's a good quality care of service.


When asked if rongoa Maori is valued in general, leading practitioner Donna Kerridge (Ngati Tahinga, Ngati Mahuta) said it is by those who use it but "maybe not" by others who don't understand.


"I think it's hard to value something that you don't understand, and you
don't know."


She said a lot more can be done to help improve collaboration "between those
of us who will work towards the same goal" of serving people to the best of their abilities.


Response to rongoa Maori
Tanya has been met with scepticism throughout her journey with people questioning rongoa Maori but is adamant that it is the patient's choice.


"It really comes down to the needs, wants and desires of the patient that's been diagnosed, and their whanau. Everything else should not matter. It
should not matter."


When asked if she thinks she's encouraging people to opt out of western treatments in favour of Maori healing approaches, she strongly denies wanting to discourage anyone off radiotherapy or chemotherapy but only hopes to share her experience.


"I would never, ever say to people `don't do that'. This is my journey. Your journey needs to be yours. I don't carry the responsibility of others. All I
do is share my journey so people can get a different perspective."


Tanya wants to see terminally ill patients given more treatment options and
be allocated funds so they can access whatever healing method they believe in.


Future prognosis
Going through the ordeal of a brain scan for official confirmation took
courage on Tanya's part.


"I was like, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing that. You're not doing that to
me again. What if I go and have a scan and they said it's all over, [that]
it's so widespread there's nothing we can do about it, then what will that do to my hinengaro, to my wairua?"

She becomes emotional recalling what her daughter said to persuade her to go through with it.


"My daughter said, `Mum, you were brave in 2013, you were brave in 2015, and you can be brave again'."


Her bravery was rewarded with her doctor reporting back that there was no indication of cancer, no lesions, "nothing".


"[Rongoa Maori is] a choice that we made and it's worked out for us. I've
been blessed with quality of life, I've been blessed enough to get longevity also. Rongoa Maori saved me, there's no other way to think about that."


Watch this episode of Marae on TVNZ+ for more on this story.




Glossary
rongoa Maori - traditional Maori healing practice that takes a holistic approach to wellbeing


rongoa - medicine, remedy, treatment


tangi - cry


kotiro - girl


potiki - youngest


karakia - incantations, prayers


mirimiri - massage incorporating physical, spiritual and mental aspects


tupuna - ancestors


a-wairua - spiritual, of the spirit realm


wairua - spirit


hinengaro - mind


tinana - body

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