Kawa haumaru: a matauranga Maori approach to child safety in Aotearoa New Zealand

Enduring health inequities exist between Maori and non-Maori children within child injury prevention in Aotearoa. These inequities reflect broader patterns of health inequity experienced by Indigenous peoples globally and in Aotearoa. We assert their existence is the result of the ongoing impacts of colonisation and the dominant Pakeha framing by which injury prevention messages and interventions in Aotearoa have largely been developed. We argue the need for a strengths-based approach, grounded in matauranga Maori (traditional Maori knowledge) and te ao Maori (traditional Maori worldview) perspectives, to form the basis of more effective child injury prevention messaging and interventions. In this viewpoint, we detail foundational elements of matauranga Maori, tikanga (customs), kawa (practices) and matapono (values) that underlie Maori culture and contain protective elements and safety principles that can be readily applied to injury prevention messaging. We present two values-based child-rearing practices: (1) tuakana (older sibling/s) and teina (younger sibling/s) relationships and (2) kotahitanga (collective), which are determined by matapono that illustrate the value of a Maori framework. Incorporating a kaupapa Maori (Maori perspective/s) approach to injury prevention is necessary to reduce health inequities between Maori and non-Maori. Moreover, it offers a culturally safe approach that is responsive to Maori and enables tamariki (children) and whanau (families) to flourish.