Hei Āhuru Mōwai Māori cancer leadership is committed to building a thriving Māori cancer research community. Supporting and increasing Māori cancer research capacity is one way to address the substantial disparities experienced by Māori across the cancer pathway.

Studying can be an exciting time for Māori students and looking after their mauri, wairua, tinana, hinengaro and whānau can provide unlimited benefits to the student, the institutions and Aotearoa nui tonu. As such, we have developed these tikanga/recommendations for universities and other education and research institutions to help support Māori Masters, PhD, and Post-doctoral students during their study.

• Āhuru karahipi – Provide Māori students with scholarships or bursaries at a living wage level.

• Āhuru koha – Provide Māori students with a tikanga allowance that matches the requirements of their project.

• Āhuru tono karahipi – Provide Māori students with scholarship application support including project refinement, creating a budget, and writing the application.

• Āhuru rauemi – Provide Māori students with office and lab space, preferably with other Māori students and staff.

• Āhuru wairua – Resource and support Māori students to access to rongoā, tohunga, matakite, kaumātua and kuia.

• Āhuru mauri – Provide Māori students access to Māori supervisors, topic, and cultural experts and a tuakana /teina programme.

• Āhuru whanaungatanga – Proactively support Māori students to engage with Māori networks and communities including whānau, hapū and iwi.

• Āhuru whānau - ensure whānau are welcomed into the study space, and that students are supported to maintain their whānau roles and responsibilities throughout their studies.

• Āhuru I te wā KOWHEORI 19 – ensure Māori students are well supported and COVID related impacts are minimised.

Nā tātou te rourou

We acknowledge that Māori students are well looked after by Māori research units and Māori departments within institutions, therefore we also recommend:

• Āhuru tari Māori - Disproportionately resource and support Māori departments within your institution to provide āhurutanga for themselves and students as they deem appropriate.

• Āhuru te kaupapa – Ensure that the total funding available in your research pool is equitably distributed and Te Tiriti o Waitangi compliant in terms of recipients, the type and focus of studies you support.

• Āhuru amo titoki - proactively support the development of Māori supervisors, Māori models of supervision practice, and examination processes that meet the needs of Māori students.

• Āhuru Whare Wānanga - critically review your institutional privilege and how your Māori students could be supported to study at Whare Wānanga Māori.

• Āhuru mātauranga Māori - critically review whether the kaupapa /research should and could be looked after by your institution or whether it is appropriate to be looked after by Whare Wānanga Māori.