Nau mai, haere mai

Eliminating cancer inequities between Māori and non-Māori.

Hei Āhuru Mōwai means a sheltered haven. For whānau facing cancer, that shelter is exactly what we exist to provide.

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Manuhiri arriving at the World Indigenous Cancer Conference, Tāmaki Makaurau, April 2026

Nau mai whakatau mai

Hei Āhuru Mōwai – meaning sheltered haven – was a name gifted to us by Kaumātua Kingi Turner (Ngāti Maniapoto) in 2012. It embodies our mission to provide a safe space for Māori cancer specialists to come together, wānanga, and collectively address Māori cancer inequities.

Our mahi includes ensuring Māori have a voice (māngai), researching (rangahau), providing and building Māori cancer expertise (mātauranga), and creating a safe space for cancer specialists to come together (āhuru).

A full theatre facing the stage and the World Indigenous Cancer Conference screen during a plenary session, Tāmaki Makaurau, April 2026 — The World Indigenous Cancer Conference, hosted by Hei Āhuru Mōwai in Tāmaki Makaurau, April 2026. More than 750 delegates from across the world.

The take

Cancer does not fall evenly in Aotearoa. Māori are around 1.6 times more likely to die from cancer than other New Zealanders, and 20% more likely to be diagnosed in the first place.

Behind those numbers are whānau who are diagnosed later, who meet a health system that has not always been a safe place for Māori, and who carry the weight of cost, distance and institutional racism on top of the illness itself.

We hold a space where care is grounded in tikanga, where whānau voice leads, and where being Māori is never a barrier to the best possible care.

These differences are intolerable, unfair and preventable. This is the unfairness we are here to change, and we have been changing it.

Ō mātou pou