This article explores and expands the discourse around the whare tapa whā which has been depicted in New Zealand curricula and in educational literature as a contemporary Māori model of health, as a Māori perspective of health, as a Māori philosophy of hauora and as a four-sided meeting house. 

Type-2 diabetes and other illnesses associated with a sedentary lifestyle have a high prevalence among Māori. While the application of knowledge from exercise physiology, a specific discipline of the health sciences, could be used to enhance Māori health aspirations, Māori-led research in this field is relatively uncommon. Exercise physiology seeks to understand physical performance and the relationships between fitness, body composition, health and illness. Rarely have the key tenets of exercise physiology been applied to Māori populations.

Recruitment and retention of participants in longitudinal studies relies on systems that support the participants throughout the research, and ensures high quality data management and protection. In addition, working with indigenous communities and participants requires specific processes that are informed by indigenous knowledge and understandings of the constituent properties underlying “good” and ethical research practice.