Pegasus Hauora Māori Team attend GPNZ Māori Health Leaders Hui

The GPNZ Māori Health Leaders rōpū is a collective of Māori Health leaders across the PHO network that was established two years ago and is currently chaired by Pegasus Health Director of Hauora Māori, Irihāpeti Mahuika.

The group were hosted by Western Bay of Plenty PHO in February to develop a workplan for the future.

“As the health system as a whole settles into a new way of working, the opportunity to grow something and stay connected is really important,” says Irihāpeti. “For me, the opportunity to learn from one another and share ideas and resources is probably the biggest benefit.”

Four key areas for development were identified by the rōpū, including Māori governance and partnership, recruitment of Māori into primary care, General Practice support tools to make Māori health planning intentional and authentic, and the development of tikanga within the GPNZ and PHO
networks.

Pegasus Health Hauora Māori Manager, Melody Tuliau, also attended the hui. “It became very clear that some of the thinking we have and the way we’re working are on par with other Māori health leaders across the country,” says Melody. “We also have some of the same issues and being
able to share our experiences and talk about what’s been working in their spaces that we can bring back was really valuable.”

“It was really nice to know that we’re all experiencing the same things. The biggest takeaway is that were not alone in this,” shared Irihāpeti. “He waka eke noa, we’re all in this together.”

View the March newsletter.