Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.
By Jesse Peach
Experts in Maori custom are questioning how it all went so wrong in the fatal exorcism of Janet Moses.
The judge allowed the five family members found guilty of manslaughter to escape jail sentences yesterday because they had a genuine and firm belief in makutu, or curses.
But their idea of tradition is being questioned by other Maori.
Dr Amster Reedy is a tohunga - an expert in Maori tradition. He says makutu is a sacred ritual that requires many years of study to understand.
"It's nothing that you would want to play around with or be innovative with," he says. "The maketu requires a dedication of the mind."
Ms Moses died when her family members performed what they believed to be a makutu, pouring water into her mouth and eyes for hours.
"I think the use of water there was a misunderstanding there," says Dr Reedy. "Water is generally used for purification."
While he says this so-called makutu did not follow tradition, the judge said that "act of tradition" was a reason they escaped jail time.
Professor Rawiri Taonui agrees they may not have meant to harm the mother of two, but thinks they got off lightly. He can't accept that in this case, tikanga - or Maori custom - has been used as an excuse.
"At the end of the day they did kill her. They did cause her death, and the tikanga they applied was a distortion of the tikanga most Maori would know."
He says this shows that the justice system can't deal with traditional practice.
"The Moses case has highlighted that perhaps one way forward in cases like this, it might be better to have a Maori judge and a Pakeha judge sit alongside each other."
Prof Taonui believes a Maori judge may even have given a firmer sentence, and not accepted this was makutu.
"If a Pakeha is trying to determine these things on their own, on one hand they'd probably be too dismissive of Maori things, but on the other hand and perhaps this case, been too dismissive."
He says this is a case of Maori misunderstanding their own rituals, and perhaps Pakeha wrongly interpreting them as authentic.
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