King’s Birthday Honours 2026: Janice Kuka honoured for 40 years of service to Māori health
Janice Kuka has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Photo / Andrew Warner
For decades, Janice Kuka has stood in the spaces where healthcare, community and culture meet – advocating for Māori-led healthcare.
Now the Bay of Plenty health leader has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Māori health.
“It is very humbling,” Kuka said when asked how she felt about the honour.
“I don’t like being in the limelight so much, but I must say the honour is in the people, the hauora [Māori healthcare services], the kaumatua from Tauranga; that’s where I feel really honoured.”
Kuka (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) has been a leading figure and advocate for Māori healthcare in New Zealand for more than 40 years.
Through her role as a social worker in Tauranga Hospital, she contributed to the establishment of Māori nursing wards and mental health services at the hospital in 1989.
“I look back at that, and it was a great acknowledgement to the progressive thinkers that allowed us to set up a micro-system looking after Māori and high needs.”
She said it was a “strong and robust system” that remained in Tauranga Hospital today.
“It’s those small incremental wins that are permanent and sustainable, that’s what I’m most proud of.”
When asked what inspired her to work in health and social services, Kuka attributed it to her family life growing up.
She watched her father dedicate himself to his community for “many years”, joining every committee and supporting his iwi.
“I’ve seen that he’s role modelled it, and when growing up with that value, it just kind of passes on to the next generation. So it seemed natural to pick that up and carry it on.”
In 2010, Kuka became the managing director of Ngā Mataapuna Oranga, a Māori Primary Health Organisation (PHO) and Whānau Ora Hub.
She led the organisation to provide healthcare, social services and cultural support to about 30,000 people and operate four GP clinics in Te Puna, Gate Pā, Pāpāmoa and Te Puke with more than 12,500 enrolled patients.
Kuka said that over time, the clinics had been able to “scale up”, utilising resources more efficiently.
“We now support dental oral health to all schools, we have nurses and mental health services, we are the conduit for a network of hauora.”
Kuka co-ordinated funding which extended the organisation’s assistance to whānau and communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She expanded access to care by developing mobile clinics, which successfully delivered health services across the Western Bay of Plenty.
She said the clinics made a huge impact on getting better services for Māori and the wider community.
“I believe self-management and the ability to control decision-making over yourself is the key to addressing Māori health.”
Kuka is a member of several health boards, including the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation and is the chair of Turuki Health Care, Te Manu Toroa, and Pirirākau Hauora.
She has also contributed to the Waitangi Tribunal, representing and advocating for Māori PHOs.
Kuka said it was a “long journey”, having spent two decades contributing to the tribunal.
“It took us 10 or 15 years before we could actually finally be heard, and it was a really good, hard look at what was stopping Māori and New Zealanders getting good healthcare.”
Kuka said it was the people who continued to motivate her work after four decades of service to Māori-led healthcare.
“I saw the inequities, the suffering, I saw people dying earlier, I saw the poverty, I saw the anguish, and I still see it across our communities; it has never changed.”
She said it was a hard duty, both “toil and tedious”, but the joy and satisfaction it brought were what made her stick with it.
“I look back now and believe I can stand up to our people and say, I did my very best.
“I’ve done it with passion, and hopefully I’ve not lost any humanity trying to make changes for everyone.”
Kaitlyn Morrell is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.