differences in socioeconomic status as the opportunities provided by income, education and housing are not evenly distributed in NZ [7; 8]. Due to the effects of colonisation, non-Maori have higher median incomes and educational achievement than Maori [9]. This, in addition to institutional or structural racism, has led to adverse effects on healthcare and medicine access and consequently health outcomes [7; 10].  
High rates of antibiotic dispensing for Maori, in large part driven by higher rates of infectious disease, contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. Addressing unnecessary antibiotic use provides an important opportunity to reduce antibiotic consumption [5; 11]. One example of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing is for acute upper respiratory tract symptoms (or 'cold and flu' symptoms). Studies have reported that whilst many general practitioners were aware that prescribing of antibiotics for cold and flu symptoms is unnecessary [12], a key driver of this unnecessary antibiotic prescribing was either to meet patients' expectations for antibiotics, or the general practitioner's perceptions of their patients' behaviour and expectations [13; 14]. Key drivers of these expectations are the patients' beliefs about antibiotics and their general perceptions of healthcare [15].  
Understanding people's beliefs and perceptions about antibiotics is important for informing antimicrobial stewardship initiatives, as perceptions can have a significant influence on the patient-health professional interaction and can impact antibiotic use [16; 17]. General practitioners have suggested that interventions that target the public and their perceptions of antibiotics would be useful to reduce unnecessary prescribing [12]. Within NZ, a study of Samoan people's perceptions, beliefs and knowledge of antibiotics found that more than two-thirds of participants thought that antibiotics were for pain relief and most (81%) perceived antibiotics as a useful treatment for common colds/flu. Interestingly, the participants held a more traditional understanding of health, rather than a Western view [16]. The study concluded that health professionals should not assume patients hold the same Western understanding of infection and antibiotics [16], and that understanding a patient's world view and perceptions is an important first step towards optimising medicine use.  
Differing worldviews on health can influence treatment and healthcare expectations in individuals, and health professionals' perceptions and behaviours are influenced by these expectations, potentially contributing to suboptimal or unnecessary antibiotic prescribing [13; 15]. A significant gap in current knowledge is understanding the views of antibiotic use for Indigenous Maori in NZ. Attaining such information fulfils New Zealand's Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi; see Supplementary File S1 for Te Te Roe definitions) responsibilities, has the potential to advance Maori health and achieve health equity [18]. As there have been no prior studies that have explored the perceptions of Maori towards antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, there is a need to investigate the experiences of Maori using a qualitative research approach. Qualitative research provides rich descriptive accounts of people's experiences to understand participants' own worldviews rather than counting occurrences, or reducing phenomena to numerical values to carry out statistical analyses [19]. Qualitative approaches are particularly valuable when used to inform later quantitative research, for example, to inform the design of surveys or questionnaires, or to help explain quantitative data [20].  
This paper thus aims to explore the experiences, perceptions and beliefs that Maori have about antibiotics and the use of antibiotics in regard to acute upper respiratory tract symptoms, and of antimicrobial resistance, using a qualitative research approach.