Herstory was made on 15 October 2024 when we led a delegation of tangata whenua (Indigenous Māori) to Navdanya on World Food Day to present a Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone - for Seed and Soil.

When small is big

After almost two weeks back home on the whenua at Papawhakaritorito, I am reflecting on the impact our collective, diverse communities make. No matter where we may live in the globe, small is big and together, we are such beautiful living expressions of nature. We are advocates for the power of life, the regenerative capacities of the seed and the microbes in the soil. I am struck by the universal love for the work of regeneration and the radiance of local food cultures that sow, grow, eat, save seed and tend soil microbes - one farm and community at a time. The beauty is in the small. As Vandana Shiva has reminded us, "in the essence of the seed, there lies the hope". 

The beginnings of creating the Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone

The Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone - for Seed and Soil, germinated at He Whenua Rongo - an Indigenous food, seed and soil sovereignty symposium, held in Tāmaki, Aotearoa, NZ in April 2024. Dr Vandana Shiva was our keynote speaker and generously spent three days with us reinvigorating and connecting global movements, in the name of Earth Democracy. At the symposium we called for the end of capitalist patriarchy and biopiracy and championed the rise of living local economies. 

It was on the last day of the conference that my fellow trustee Jo and I spent an afternoon with Dr Shiva, discussing the work of the Declaration and what we were wanting to achieve. Together, we agreed what needed calling out and what nature-based solutions needed to be implemented to work with all of Earth's creatures. It was definitely an awestruck moment to be brainstorming and discussing ideas for the Declaration with someone who has inspired my career. 

Motivated by our kōrero with Dr Shiva, we set to work, with our friend Matariki Carr, to wānanga the Declaration and begin writing. We had numerous rounds of external feedback including from Dr Shiva herself. All in all it took about four months from the idea being germinated to having a document ready for signing. Dr Shiva invited Papawhakaritorito Trust to bring a delegation with us to present the Declaration in India, as part of Navdanya's celebrations for World Food Day on 15 October 2024. 

A Hua Parakore rōpu travel to India to meet with Dr Vandana Shiva 

Fast forward to October 2024 and Jo and I met an amazing Māori delegation of kai sovereignty and hua parakore leaders in Delhi to embark on the trip of lifetime. Together, we journeyed north of Delhi to Dehrudun, the home of Navdanya Conservation and Biodiversity Farm. We were a formidable group that included rangatahi from Tuhoe and Papatūānuku Kokiri Marae, rongo practitioners and Indigenous educators and researchers. We also travelled with filmmakers from Maoriland Film, who were with us to document our journey and cut the signing of the Declaration into a short film to elevate the kaupapa. We traveled unified in our purpose to uplift seed and soil and grow Indigenous food sovereignty movements through partnerships. 

Signing the Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone

With over 300 people gathered together, we signed the Declaration. Our signatures are a representation of our commitment, as diverse global communities, to the kaupapa that small is big. To read the full Declaration, see below. 

Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone  - Māori women’s declaration for Soil and Seed 

Hineahuone sculpted from the red soils of Papatūānuku at Kurawaka. 

Hineahuone alive with ancient mana and mauri. 

Hineahuone origin of our human whakapapa to Earth. 

E kore au e ngaro he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea 

For I am not lost, I am a seed broadcast from the sacred homelands of Rangiātea

Te take | Intention

Resistance to late-stage capitalist patriarchy and the imperative for restoration of our soils and seeds are at the heart of this declaration. It is an urgent call by Indigenous women to return to ways of listening to, and being in inter-relationship with, Hineahuone (Soil Deity) and Papatūānuku (Mother Earth). 

Although Indigenous Peoples (living on their lands) make up only 6 percent of the global population, we care for 80 percent of the world's biodiversity. This means we are uniquely placed to create a renewed future – one based on the thriving biodiversity that is rising in the wake of the fall of modernity.

As Indigenous Peoples, we are a human expression of the land and therefore, natural leaders in how to live in balance with nature. The devastated conditions of our soils and seeds means there is no choice but to return to this wisdom. To fulfil our obligations to the natural world that provides the conditions of life for us all.

This declaration sets out how we are swiftly moving away from capitalist patriarchy’s addiction to expansionism and extraction from nature to a radical interdependency that comes when we trust in the self-regenerating powers of Mother Earth. 

We call on all people to resist agri-colonialism and return to the fundamental truth held by the world’s Indigenous Peoples, and by Indigenous women - we humans are of the Earth, just as seeds are of the soil. To survive these grave times, we must honour nature’s laws, to create a flourishing biodiverse world that can sustain us now, and for many more generations to come.

Mahia te mahi | Actions 

• We demand that soil and seed be honoured as the heart of biodiversity and our commons. This would allow Indigenous and local food and farming systems to flourish, leaving behind global capitalist food systems as the dominant pathway for feeding people.
• We say no to the extractive logic of capitalist patriarchy, the chemical poisoning of Papatūānuku and Hineahuone, patents on lifeforms, GMOs and reductive, mechanistic worldviews that create a false separateness between humans and nature.
• We are outraged that governments and corporations still seek unfettered growth, and colonial states continue to negotiate international treaties to advance corporate power and profit, at the expense of Papatūānuku and her descendants.
• We are listening to Papatūānuku, and call for an urgent return to balance between humans and nature. 
• We advocate for the mana (authority) and mauri (lifeforce) of the soil and seed to be elevated and call out practices that degrade the soil food web and patents on seeds.
• We call on people, movements and governments across the world to reinvigorate our reciprocal relationship with Papatūānuku and to generate healing grounds and food farms that grow soil and build living-seed communities.

Removing capitalist patriarchy by powering up nature's abundance 

Late-stage capitalism is in its violent death throes and the pain is shared by all of life. The immense size of the chaos is disheartening, but it is precisely the heart of Mother Earth that we must protect. By resisting a dying system, we create an opportunity to re-connect to nature’s rhythms. By maintaining radical belief and helping foster the emergence of balanced systems between humans and nature, we will once again thrive. 

This is best achieved by remembering that we are nature. We work as nature does, in patterns and rhythms, starting like a seed grounded in our places then radiating in relationship with each other. A radical interdependency will form when we trust in the self-regenerating powers of nature. 

This declaration is an urgent call to return to the ways of listening to, and being with, Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) and to foster the emergence of the wellbeing and healing that comes from honouring the creative abundant energies of soil and seed. We acknowledge Earth’s creative, self-regenerating and life-giving capacities. We assert our responsibilities as human beings to be in a restorative relationship with Mother Earth and to power up nature’s abundance. Our job is to ensure that nature thrives beyond our lifetime in abundant diversity for future generations. Sign the declaration to show your support for Indigenous women's led movements for seed and soil. 

We would like to acknowledge the various funders of this trip including theTodd Foundation, River and for the aligned support of the Seeding Hope: He kakano ahau - kaupapa Māori research project, funded from the Te Apārangi, Marsden Standard Grant.