Nadine Helen Riwai (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Te Uri o Hau, Ngai Takoto), The Univerisity of Auckland
Across Aotearoa, national cancer screening programmes—breast, bowel, cervical, and emerging areas such as lung screening—aim to save lives through early detection. Yet Māori continue to experience barriers to access, delayed diagnosis, and poorer outcomes. These inequities are not the result of individual behaviour, but of health systems that too often fail to uphold mana, dignity, and cultural safety for whānau.
This doctoral research will co-design a mana-enhancing Māori framework—provisionally titled He Taura Mana—to strengthen and transform how cancer screening programmes are designed and experienced. The framework’s name and form will evolve through kōrero and partnership with whānau, Māori cancer leadership groups, and community organisations, ensuring it reflects collective values and aspirations.
Guided by mātauranga Māori, tikanga, and whānau voice, this research seeks to restore connection between people, services, and policy. It will identify practical ways to embed mana-enhancing practice across policy, workforce development, and service delivery. Ultimately, this kaupapa aims to reimagine cancer screening in Aotearoa through a Māori worldview—one that centres equity, cultural integrity, and meaningful engagement so that whānau Māori experience screening as a pathway to wellbeing, not a point of inequity