WELCOME Nau mai haere mai
Te Rōpū Hauora Māori ā Niho
o Aotearoa Charitable Trust
Te Rōpū Niho Ora is the peak body for the Māori Oral Health Provider sector
Our story
In the mid-2000's the Ministry of Health’s Te Kete Hauora undertook a project to invest in the capacity and capability of Māori Health Providers to establish new or develop existing oral health services. It was during this phase that the Māori Oral Health Providers, despite their commonalities as indigenous oral health services, found they had little opportunity for communicating and collaborating across their sector. To enable this, Te Kete Hauora established the Quality Improvement Group for the Māori Oral Health Provider sector.
We established as a Charitable Trust in 2023 - Te Rōpū Hauora Māori a Niho o Aotearoa Incorporated. The name change to Te Rōpu Niho Ora was adopted to better reflect and acknowledge the importance of tikanga Māori. Our rōpu comprises representation - both clinical and non-clinical - from Māori oral health providers, and other Māori oral health experts who provide specialist support.
Our vision and purpose
Our vision is of a sustainable Māori oral health provider sector and equitable publicly-funded services delivering whānau-centred preventative care leading to orally fit whānau and equity in oral health outcomes for Māori.
Our primary purpose is to champion Māori oral health equity by identifying priorities for the Māori oral health provider sector, developing and leading projects and providing advice to relevant organisations that is focused on enabling equitable and sustainable oral health services and improved oral health outcomes for Māori.