Emeritus Professor: Preventive and Social Medicine and Oral Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences, University of Otago.

John is responsible for the integration of Hauora Māori/Oranga Niho in the curriculum of the undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Surgery and the Bachelor of Oral Health.

John is a past director of the Ngai Tahu Māori Health Research Unit within the Centre for Hauora Māori.  The Unit was established in 1996 as a partnership between Te Runanga O Ngai Tahu and the Dunedin School of Medicine.

John has published widely on oranga niho. His PhD thesis topic was ‘Oranga niho: A review of Māori oral health service provision utilizing a kaupapa Māori methodology’. The thesis was originally submitted for the Master of Community Dentistry but on the recommendation of the examiners it was awarded the higher degree of a PhD.

John established Te Whare Kaitiaki, a Māori oral health clinic for whanau within the Faculty of Dentistry in 1990. He has spearheaded two oranga niho research projects. The first is the International Collaborative Indigenous Health Research Partnership which is a multinational, multi-million dollar Health Research Council funded project with Indigenous research partners in Australia and Canada. In Aotearoa, the research partners are Raukura Hauora O Tainui and the Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development. The project focussed on the oral health of mothers and their new born babies who will be followed through from infancy. The second oranga niho research project is with research partners Te Manu Toroa in Tauranga. This project, also funded by the Health Research Council will focus on the oral health of tangata whaiora.

John was a co-curator of the exhibition “Te Aō Māori: Māori Treasures from the Otago Museum”, which opened at the Shanghai Museum in China in July 2011 where he also presented a public lecture and had two papers published in Mandarin. John is also an internationally recognized Māori playwright and a recipient of the Bruce Mason Playwright Award. A new production of his acclaimed play, Michael James Manaia, was a standout hit at the International Festival of the Arts in Wellington.

ProfessorJohn Broughton was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to Māori health, theatre and the community. John is a commissioned officer in the New Zealand Territorial Force. he was awarded the Efficiency Decoration and the New Zealand Defence services Medal.