Dr Jessica Hutchings explains why the capitalist food system is broken and how Indigenous women around the world are rising with a call to rematriate our seeds, soils and foods.

Sharing insights from "Pataka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty", she reveals the diverse ways Indigenous communities around Aotearoa are, through growing one māra at a time, putting foods back into the hands of Indigenous communities.

This is the heart of kai sovereignty - a return to ancient wisdoms and to living, eating and breathing the cultural food scapes from which we come. 

Over the past decade, several Māori iwi in Aotearoa have made history and fetched international recognition by gaining "legal personhood" status for natural features.

Author Monica Evans interviewed Dr Jessica Hutchings about this topic and her own quest for reorientation.

RNZ interviews Dr Jessica Hutchings for Matariki 2024. In the kōrero, she shares the importance of Matariki, how it helps us decide what to do in the māra and what she's harvesting during Māori New Year. 

Te Ao Māori News comes along to cover He Whenua Rongo in Tāmaki Makaurau. Learn about seed, soil and food sovereignty.

Te Karere reports on the first day of He Whenua Rongo in Tāmaki Makaurau. The three-day symposium is designed to support research and practices that champion kai atua and deliver biodiversity, food security and cultural heritage.

Dr Jessica Hutchings is interviewed about revitalising Indigenous food practices in a story tracking the history for fry bread from America to Aotearoa. 

For Hutchings, Māori food sovereignty is “being able to return to eating our cultural landscape. But it’s connected to seed and soil sovereignty as well”.

Listen to Dr Jessica Hutchings as she contributes to, ‘He Pito Mata’. This webinar from Resilience to Nature's Challenges brings together experts on food security, food resilience and indigenous food sovereignty, to explore how we might build a food system that can ensure our nation has enough food to feed our people, both pre- and post-disasters.

The Asia New Zealand Foundation recently supported  Jessica and the Storybox crew to travel to India to interview Dr. Vandana Shiva about her work. The interview is one in an eight-part series about Hua Parakore (a kaupapa Māori framework for growing organic food) and Māori food sovereignty. The series is n scheduled for release on Whakaata Māori in 2024.

Jessica was interviewed as part of a Christmas series with Māori growers. She specifically focuses on cutting out synthetic fertilisers using hua parakore. 

Photo courtesy of Paul McCredie /NZ GARDENER/STUFF

Jessica is honoured to be a semi-finalist for Kiwibanker New Zealander of the year in the Environmental category alongside amazing people and kaitiaki all doing the work to uplift the mana of our Taiao. 

Read about all the finalists in the link below. 

Indigenous Stewardship: Fulfilling our Responsibilities to Land and Community

Hear Jess speak, alongside other Indigenous leaders to hear how they are risking their lives to secure land titles, protect their territories from extractive industries, rematriate and restore land, and get land back to its original stewards.

Hua Parakore: A kaupapa Māori pathway for Maori soil and food sovereignty

Dr Jessica Hutchings joined the Toi Tangata Hui ā Tau 2021 to share her mātauranga around hua parakore, a kaupapa Māori pathway for Māori soil and food sovereignty.

Interview | Jessica Hutchings on Soil Sovereignty 

“There’s something very restorative and nurturing about eating food that’s not out of plastic, that hasn’t needed oil in its production method through transportation or food supply, pesticides or chemicals…it’s a big part of wellbeing for me.”