Lay summary
Kaupapa Māori health interventions are now statutorily empowered and the new Māori Health Authority (Te Aka Whai Ora) has committed to lifting Māori health outcomes through Indigenising our health system. However, the body of knowledge on how kaupapa Māori approaches lift outcomes is largely philosophically oriented or offers fragmented insights sourced from narrow impact evaluation case studies. We will create more precise and rigorous evidence that can inform practice innovation and enabling policy settings. We will trace the causal mechanisms across a diverse range of kaupapa Māori exemplars to identify ‘critical causal success factors’. In partnership with Te Aka Whai Ora, iwi, Whānau Ora and whānau-led innovators, we will support practitioners to increase impact and commissioners to target their investment to the highest impact opportunities. We will also produce a typology of kaupapa Māori approaches and propose a mātauranga Māori reframing of health determinants.