'Why would you give your children to something you don't trust?': Rangatahi health and social services and the pursuit of tino rangatiratanga

Persistent health inequities between rangatahi Maori (Indigenous young people) and other young people within Aotearoa New Zealand are incurred by a colonial machinery of institutions, service systems and sociocultural contexts that facilitates the marginalisation of Maori. Despite a skilled and dedicated Maori workforce, current service contexts severely limit the innovation of Maori practitioners working from a basis of matauranga Maori (Maori ways of knowing and being), and curtail their ability to support rangatahi Maori and their whanau (community of related families). We report on an interview study with 13 Maori practitioners in youth development, exploring their struggles, strengths and strategies, as part of a larger project exploring rangatahi wellbeing and whanaungatanga (connectedness and relationality). Utilising reflexive thematic analysis, we describe three conceptual domains that participant accounts spoke into: mitigating system failures to embrace rangatahi and their whanau, sustainability and longevity of services for rangatahi Maori, and fostering rangatahi tino rangatiratanga. Participant accounts illustrate the need for bold reform within youth services, towards sustainable models premised upon tino rangatiratanga - services led by Maori, designed by Maori, and intended to cater for the unique needs and aspirations of rangatahi Maori.