Making a difference for Māori health
Te Mana Ora | Community and Public Health is committed to ensuring positive Māori health outcomes and reducing inequities. We have a number of projects that specifically address Māori health needs throughout Canterbury, South Canterbury and the West Coast.
Te Mana Ora embraces a model of best practice (Te Pae Māhutonga) that promotes and brings together the value of traditional and contemporary viewpoints on Māori wellness and current research to enhance its service delivery.
Our role is working with Māori to assist and to strengthen whānau, hapū and iwi – in addition to liaising with non-Māori.
Te Mana Ora works in Māori settings such as Marae, Kura and Kōhanga Reo. Staff aim to support Māori communities to make their own healthy choices, and create their own healthy environments.
Te Mana Ora has a valuable role in contributing at a population level to ‘living healthy lifestyles’, ‘participating fully in society’ and ‘confidently participating in te ao Māori’.
Ao Mai te Rā: Combatting racism in the health and disability system
Ao Mai te Rā: the Anti-Racism Kaupapa is a Ministry of Health initiative to support the way the health system understands, reacts and responds to racism in health.
Eliminating all forms of racism is critical to achieving health equity and the vision of pae ora – healthy futures for all New Zealanders.
Ao Mai te Rā will help us deliver effective and appropriate stewardship of the system, and enable the right for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, to live, thrive and flourish according to their own philosophies and ways of being.
Racism is increasingly recognised as a key determinant of health that results in avoidable and unfair disparities in health outcomes across racial or ethnic groupings. Within Aotearoa New Zealand, the presence of racism in the health and disability system and its impact on health outcomes has been well evidenced and researched.
As kaitiaki of the system, the Ministry of Health has an important role to play in creating an environment where all people can access the health care they need without fear of racial discrimination. The Ministry has outlined a commitment to addressing racism and discrimination in all forms.
Documents
Latest Māori Health Publications
- “Without racism Aotearoa would be better”: Mokopuna share their experiences of racism and solutions to end it (Children and Young People’s Commission 2024).
- Nōku te Ao: Sovereignty of the Māori Mind (Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora – updated March 2024).
- Towards understanding the role of kai in the complex lives of whānau (Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu 2023).
- Pae Tū: Hauora Māori Strategy (Ministry of Health 2023).
- Kāinga Kore: The Stage One Report of the Housing Policy and Services Kaupapa Inquiry on Māori Homelessness – Wai 2750 (Waitangi Tribunal 2023).
- Maranga Mai! The dynamics and impacts of white supremacy, racism, and colonisation upon tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand (Human Rights Commission 2022).
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi and alcohol law (Health Promotion Agency 2022).
- Position statement and working definitions for racism and anti-racism in the health system in Aotearoa New Zealand (Ministry of Health 2022).
- Evaluation of the Māori Influenza and Measles Vaccination Programme: In Pursuit of Māori Health Equity (Ministry of Health 2022).
- Review of the Ministry of Health-funded Rongoā Sector (Ministry of Health 2022).
- Māori Māmā views and experiences of vaccinating their pēpi and tamariki: A qualitative Kaupapa Māori study (Health Promotion Agency 2021).
- Role of Māori in the transition to a low-emissions economy (Ministry for the Environment 2021).
- Funding to Māori Health Providers 2015/16 to 2019/20 (Ministry of Health 2021).
- More Than Just a Jab: Evaluation of the Māori Influenza Vaccination Programme as part of the COVID-19 Māori Health Response (Ministry of Health 2021).
- Mana to Mana: Principles of ‘Mana to Mana’ Practice in Community Food Distribution (Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective 2021).
- Alcohol Use in New Zealand Survey (AUiNZ) 2019/20 – Māori results (Health Promotion Agency 2021).
- Te Tapeke Fair Futures in Aotearoa: A fair go for Māori (Royal Society Te Apārangi 2020).
- Whakamaua: Māori Health Action Plan 2020-2025 (Ministry of Health 2020).
- Wai 2575 Māori Health Trends Report (Ministry of Health 2019).
- Hauora: Report on Stage One of the Health Services and Outcomes Kaupapa Inquiry (Waitangi Tribunal 2019).
- Te Oranga Hinengaro: Māori Mental Wellbeing (Health Promotion Agency 2018).
- Ngā Hua A Tāne Rore: the Benefits of Kapa Haka (Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2014).
- The Health of Māori Adults and Children, 2011–2013 (Ministry of Health 2014).
- Hauora Waitaha I: Health Profile for Māori in Canterbury (Community and Public Health 2010).
COVID-19 response
- Exercising rangatiratanga during the COVID-19 pandemic (Te Hiringa Mahara | Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission 2023).
- 2021 COVID-19 Māori Health Protection Plan: December 2022 Monitoring Report (Ministry of Health 2023).
- 2021 COVID-19 Māori Health Protection Plan: May 2022 Monitoring Report (Ministry of Health 2022).
- COVID-19 Māori Health Protection Plan (Ministry of Health 2021).
- COVID-19 Māori Vaccine and Immunisation Plan (Ministry of Health 2021).
- Haumaru: The COVID-19 Priority Report – Wai 2575 (Waitangi Tribunal 2021).
Children and young people
- Youth’19: Brief on Rainbow Rangatahi Māori (University of Auckland 2021).
- Youth’19: Brief on Rangatahi with a disability or chronic condition (University of Auckland 2021).
- What Makes a Good Life for Tamariki and Rangatahi Māori? (Oranga Tamariki and the Children’s Commissioner 2021).
- Poipoia te kākano kia puawai: Family structure, family change and the wellbeing of tamariki Māori (Ministry of Social Development 2020).
- Te Ohonga Ake: The Health Status of Māori Children and Young People in New Zealand – Series Two (NZ Child and Youth Epidemiology Service 2017).
- Te Ohonga Ake: The Determinants of Health for Māori Children and Young People (University of Otago 2014).
Māori Health Tools, Models and Strategies
- Te Hiringa Hauora Research Framework (Health Promotion Agency 2022).
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi-based practice in health promotion (STIR: Stop Institutional Racism 2017).
- The Guide to He Korowai Oranga – Māori Health Strategy (Ministry of Health 2014).
- Whānau Ora: Transforming our futures (Ministry of Health 2011).
- The Health Equity Assessment Tool: A User’s Guide (Ministry of Health 2008).
- TUHANZ – a Treaty Understanding of Hauora in Aotearoa-New Zealand (Health Promotion Forum 2002).
- Te Pae Māhutonga: A model for Māori health promotion (Mason Durie 1999).
Downloads
Download or order resources from the Community Health Information Centre.
- Me Mutu Tātou/ Let’s All Quit.
- Aroha in Action (Ministry of Social Development).
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi/ The Treaty of Waitangi.
Links
For further information, contact:
CANTERBURY
Ph: +64 3 364 1777
SOUTH CANTERBURY
Gwen Angelm-Bower
Ph: +64 3 687 2600
WEST COAST
Shanita Whittle
Ph: +64 3 768 1160
MĀORI RELATIONSHIPS MANAGER
Gail McLauchlan
Ph: +64 3 364 1777
Te Aka Wahi Ora | Māori Health Authority disestablished
Minister of Health media release: 28th February 2024
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says that legislation to disestablish the Māori Health Authority heralds the start of a new vision for Māori health.
“My dream for the health system isn’t about bureaucratic structures and endless plans and reports. It’s about identifying need and responding to it.
“One of the fundamental differences in approach to health is enabled by this legislation. This Government believes that decisions should be made closer to the community, to the home and the hapū. Local circumstances require local solutions rather than national bureaucracies.
The iwi-Māori partnership boards will have a role in planning and delivery of healthcare in their communities. Local input into health services, especially primary and community services, is good for everyone and a priority for this Government.”
Key differences from the previous government across all of Health include:
- health workforce as the biggest hurdle;
- targets at the forefront of our health policy; and
- decentralising as close to the home and hapu as possible.
“There will be more to say and more thinking to be done. We need to have ways of working that identify and support local solutions to local health challenges. That means using data, measuring progress, and working with people who know their communities best.”
The staff at Te Aka Wahi Ora will eventually be folded into Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.
Te Aka Wahi Ora was created to work in partnership with Manatū Hauora | the Ministry of Health and Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand. It was responsible for ensuring the health system delivers equitable outcomes for Māori.
Hauora and oranga resources from the All Right? campaign
Hikitia te Hā is a simple breathing exercise developed by Rawiri Hindle and supported by the All Right? campaign. Three new Hikitia te Hā videos have been developed after the success of the first one. The exercises are extended into tai chi, taiaha and yoga.
- The Maramataka calendar gives life to a Māori tradition that aligns wellbeing with the phases of the moon.
- Find out about Te Waioratanga ki Waitaha directory.
All Right? has created season-based activities that whānau can do together. The activities are all about looking to strengthen the everyday magic that happens within the whānau.
He Tohu Ora: Find out about Māori wellbeing in greater Christchurch
He Tohu Ora is part of the Canterbury Wellbeing Index and presents indicators that reflect a Māori view of wellbeing. 19 indicators were selected on the basis of a te ao Māori worldview and the availability of suitable quantitative data.
For example you can find information on:
- how many Māori in Canterbury can speak and understand te reo;
- how Māori rate their whānau wellbeing and their own quality of life; and
- how important Māori feel taha wairua and engagement in Māori culture are to their wellbeing.
Whānau, community leaders and policy makers are encouraged to explore the data and use it to put the wellbeing of Māori at the front and centre of decision making.
He Tohu Ora was developed in liaison with Ngāi Tahu and Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu.
