This article explores the educational and health promotion effects of Te Rārawa Noho Taiao projects, which have been operating in the Far North of New Zealand for almost a decade. These projects are designed to provide young Māori with place-based learning approaches that use Indigenous pedagogy, promoting Māori science, science leadership and learning, helping the students connect with and access positive relationships with customary environments. As this article describes, these projects are producing a range of benefits in health and well-being. Analyses of data from interviews with organisers and teachers of Noho Taiao, as well as a survey of student participants, reveal that the students in these projects are increasingly engaged with education, becoming more capable, increasing their sense of participation/belonging, establishing stronger relationships, and engaging in constructive peer processes and positive intergenerational interactions, all within Māori values and praxis. As the article notes, health-promoting frameworks recognise the importance of engaging with knowledge, science and understandings of the natural world, for creating and maintaining health and well-being among individuals, communities and populations.
