John Broughton (dentist)

Broughton was born in Hastings in 1947, the son of Leonard Broughton, from Ngāti Kahungunu who graduated from the University of Otago in medicine in 1944, and Margaret Evans, who was the granddaughter of Tame Parata.[2][3] He was educated at Hastings Boys' High School, and went on to study microbiology at Massey University, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1971.[2]

Between 1972 and 1973, Broughton worked on haka boogie at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu in Hawaii, and then returned to New Zealand, studying dentistry at the University of Otago.[2] He graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 1977, and worked as a dental house surgeon at Dunedin Hospital.[2] He joined the New Zealand Territorial Force, and was commissioned as an officer in 1977; in 1992 he was awarded the Efficiency Decoration.[2]

Appointed as a lecturer in Māori health at the University of Otago in 1989,[2] Broughton did ground-breaking research on dental health in indigenous children in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.[4] He competed a 2006 PhD titled Oranga niho: a review of Māori oral health service provision utilising a kaupapa Māori methodology at the University of Otago.[1] In 2012, he was appointed as a full professor at Otago, jointly in preventive and social medicine and Māori health, within the Department of Oral Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences.[5] He is the associate dean (Māori) of the School of Dentistry at Otago.[5]

Broughton was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori health, theatre and the community, in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours,[4] and is a justice of the peace.[1]

Broughton has many governance roles.[4]

While John Broughton was studying in 1988 at the University of Otago he joined a playwright course run by one of New Zealand best known playwrights Roger Hall KNZM QSO,[6] and subsequently Broughton wrote several plays.[2][7][8][9][10] Broughton's best known play Michael James Manaia (1991) was a one-person play about a New Zealand Vietnam veteran first performed by actor Jim Moriarty and included an international presentation at the Edinburgh Festival.[11] Significant in part because it was a central Māori character, this paved the way for other Māori playwrights.[12] Twenty years after first being performed it toured New Zealand and Australia in 2012 starring Te Kohe Tuwhaka, produced by Taki Rua Productions and was critically acclaimed.[13][12][14]

Broughton received the New Zealand Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 1990.[15][7]