Table 1 Summary of themes with illustrative participant quotations

1.Kaumātua mana motuhake:Kaumātua autonomy

Proverb: Nō te mea rā ia he rākau tawhito, e mau ana te taitea i waho rā, e tū te kōhiwi

For it is certain that in a very old tree the sapwood is on the outside and heartwood stands firm

1.1 kaumātua centredness of TT programme.

The kaupapa of the programme was centred on kaumātua wellbeing and perspectives.

• “You had to get the kaumātua’s permission, to see if they were okay about it and ask them “what is important to you” (2b-29).

• “We need to remember who we’re focusing on and it’s kaumātua” (4b-4a)

1.2 kaumātua centredness of implementation

Implementation was based on kaumātua needs not research needs.

• “This rōpū (group) said ‘this is the way’ that they wanted to go. That’s what I liked about it (the programme)” (4b-45c).

• “We need to make sure that they have a pathway, a safety net to support that kaupapa (purpose) for the kaumātua” (4d-135b).

2.Whakawhanau-ngatanga:relationships

Proverb: He kura te tāngata

The human being is precious

2.1 CR–kaumātua relationships

The importance of building and nurturing relationships with kaumātua

• “It takes a little time to build rapport with our whānau. It’s not a matter of just going, ‘And this is what you know’ –that takes time, and once you build the trust then you can start introducing ideas” (1b-83).

• “Once you got into it [talking] it was really good; [kaumātua] were quite receptive [to] a project about them, [where] they were the main focus of this whole research. Some of them felt it was quite important” (2a-17a).

2.2 CR–UR relationships

The importance of building relationships with the lead researchers.

• “When things haven’t gone so good I’ve been able to talk to someone like [named URs] and let them know just about where we’re at—then we’ve been able to carry on” (4b-45).

• “We asked [named UR] to come and talk to the kaumātua—this wasn’t part of the plan. [UR] came and talked to the taumata (decision group of kaumātua) about the project and that wasn’t on the schedule, that was out of the box” (2a-153).

3.Whakaoti Rapanga:problem-solving

Proverb: He moana pukepuke e ekengia te waka

A choppy sea can be navigated.

3.1 Flexibility of implementation strategies

Providing structure for programme implementation, and allowing for flexibility.

• “[the resource kete] template was perfect because it gave us the structure of what they were looking for. And we opted to basically stick with their template and add all the services and health providers that were in our area; it was great” (3b-94).

• We’ve loved that we could change some of the stuff and make it—[locally] centred” (3a-65)

3.2 Adaptability to kaumātua life factors

Compassionate management of kaumātua challenges

• “We’re not going to be the only ones that have people with literacy issues, and is there tricks and tips that the researchers have that we [could] add into the kete (resource kit) for the tuakana, about supporting people with literacy” (2b-111).

• “One of our [tenia] had one of her mokopuna (grandchildren) staying with her, who was on synthetics and they don’t want to say because they’re embarrassed, and they don’t want to share that stuff about their families. So, there’s going to be some real sensitive kōrero (talking). How do you balance that?” (1a-129c).

3.3 Response-ability to external factors

Adjusting to the challenges of the COVID pandemic

• We just came out of COVID, when we started our big first intake. So, of course, they were all happy chappies because they’ve been stuck at home, but some of them weren’t quite so happy [due to fear of illness]” (2a-35).

• “It was a bummer about COVID, but we’ve been able to be flexible. We made the agreement that even though we’ve [used] the funding and we’ve employed somebody else to look after [the CR] we’re going to manage that going forward even though we will go past the contract time. That was really good to be able to do that” (2b-25a).