Kai sovereignty is thriving in parts of Tāmaki Makaurau, thanks to the dedication of urban marae implementing localised food systems. For one of the chapters in our book, Pātaka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty — a collaboration between myself and Jo Smith, kaupapa Māori visual artist Johnson Witehira and kairangahau Yvonne Taura — we drew on soil and kai sovereignty conversations with five urban marae in the most populated city in Aotearoa.

These conversations were captured during the pandemic as part of a kaupapa Māori research project named Marae Ora Kāinga Ora (MOKO).

Maha ngā tangata ki runga i te māra, maha ngā kai ki runga i te tēpu.
When there are more people in the garden, there will be more food on the table.

Their stories, and what they tell us of the approaches marae are taking to food and soil sovereignty, are important in helping plan for secure Māori food futures.

Each approach supports whānau Māori to address food poverty by exiting foodscapes dominated by fast-food chains and supermarkets and instead learn to grow kai and reconnect with the ancient knowledge of tūpuna.

After all, Tāmaki Makaurau was once a rich food basket for mana whenua, as well as for whanaunga in the Waikato and beyond. Food grew in abundance in the fertile volcanic loam, pristine waterways provided kaimoana, wild foods were harvested from the ngahere and community gardens nurtured the taonga kai and seed handed down by tūpuna.

Image above: Trustee Hineamaru Ropati works in the māra at Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae. 

Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae: Increasing the capacity to care

‘By teaching someone to fish for themselves, or to grow kai that can feed themselves and others, you are increase their capacity to care and feel capable of building pathways to greater flourishing.’

That’s the kaupapa that drives Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae trustee Hineamaru Ropati (Ngāti Hine) and kaiwhakahaere Lionel Hotene (Ngāti Awa).

Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae is an urban marae located in Māngere. Hineamaru and Lionel represent a wider group in their hapori dedicated to continuing the vision of their founding matriarch, Mere Knight. Mere was one of the Aunties who formed the Pu Hao Rangi Trust (guardians of the early kūmara) almost 30 years ago.

These Aunties were part of the WAI 262 movement and founded the urban marae. Today, their legacy continues to be honoured with the marae planting as many as 30,000 tipu of kūmara each year.

The Māngere māra is Hua Parakore-certified — meaning kai is grown using Māori organic principles. Hua Parakore is the world’s first Indigenous verification system for Kai Atua (pure food). It was developed by Te Waka Kai Ora (Māori Organics Authority) under the leadership of Percy Tipene (Ngāpuhi).

Now Hineamaru and Lionel are tasked with keeping this intergenerational knowledge exchange alive.

‘Although we have kai, and although we have food, what is missing on the ground is hands in the soil, the mātauranga, the pūrākau — the stories of our tūpuna,’ explains Hineamaru. ‘Only a few of us have been dosed with stories . . ., and the wisdom of Uncle Percy is an example.’

Whatever is grown in the māra at Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae is distributed amongst Tāmaki Makaurau-based families and organisations and the rest used for market or seed stock. They also sell some of their Hua Parakore produce at the Grey Lynn farmers’ market.

Meanwhile, the marae contributes to the Kai Ika project — a food waste initiative that collects and redistributes fish heads, frames and offal to hapori who treasure this prized kai. Fish emulsion made from the offal also helps to feed the soils at Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae.

Image above: Working in the māra supports co-founder Pania Newton to stand her ground at Ihumātao. 

Ihumātao: Implementing mahinga kai practices

Ihumātao became the focus of an Indigenous-led resistance campaign in 2019. The high-profile land occupation near Auckland Airport was spearheaded by six cousins who whakapapa to Makaurau Marae.

In 2015, after discovering survey pegs on their confiscated whenua tūpuna, which intersects Māngere and Ōtuataua Stonefields, the whānau began a political action campaign to stop Fletcher Building from moving ahead with a planned housing development. After six intense years, the campaign achieved its aim.

Co-founder and spokesperson Pania Newton (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Waikato and Ngāti Mahuta) explains it was during the occupation that the group realised the importance of implementing mahinga kai practices in reclaiming their whenua tūpuna.

‘One of my friends came and saw me and asked, “What was the history of this whenua?” “It was a place where our ancestors once grew kai to feed our hapuu and the growing population of Taamaki Makaurau,” I replied. “Well, why don’t you grow kai?” she suggested.’

That’s exactly what they did. Starting with simple planter boxes, as their mahi māra developed, so too did the focus of the occupation. Connections were made between their actions and the peaceful resistance that took place at Parihaka in Taranaki in the 1870s.

Today, those aspirations have grown with kai sovereignty remaining at the heart of Makaurau marae’s kaupapa.

Converting an old cowshed into a nursery to grow kai and plant seedlings has supported an extremely abundant harvest from the māra. Kai, seedlings, plants and kākano are shared amongst whānau and the sale of plants helps pay for the operational and maintenance costs of the marae.

There are visions to develop a seed bank and plans afoot to restore the mauri of te taiao, bring kai species back to the awa and prevent industrial encroachment on their papakāinga.

‘We want to restore the puna and repo across our whenua; we want to strengthen the connection between our whaanau and the whenua,’ says Pania. ‘We also want to be able to increase kai sovereignty and security among our whaanau because we know there are so many benefits to growing our own kai and working in the maara.’

Image above: Papakura Marae co-ordinator Luella Linaker is teaching whānau how to prune fruit trees. 

Papakura Marae: Developing a self-sustaining food forest

Papakura Marae co-ordinator Luella Linaker (Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau, Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāti Awa, Fiji Indian) is using her kai-growing skills to help the marae deliver on its underlying mission of manaaki i ngā wā katoa (providing hospitality at all times).

She first became interested in growing kai while being raised by her father in Manurewa and has vivid memories of her and her siblings enjoying eating kai from his garden and fruit from the neighbours’ trees.

It’s this personal history that Luella and chief executive Tony Kake are drawing on to realise their aspirations of growing a self-sustaining food forest at the marae.

Established in the 1980s, Papakura Marae was developed to support Māori  who found themselves in Tāmaki as a result of urban migration with a place to carry out their cultural practices.

Today, the marae takes care of tāngata living in Papakura and the wider Manurewa and Franklin areas. Its services include a GP clinic, an onsite pharmacy, Mokopuna Ora, budgeting services, a food bank and a weekly community dinner.

Providing whānau with fruit and vegetables is at the cornerstone of the food forest kaupapa. Luella believes that access to nutritious food is a basic human right and should not be a burden for the people.

Not only is she working on plans for establishing a community orchard so that people can come and harvest fruit, but she also wants to educate whānau about how to grow and care for fruit trees.

‘Manurewa and Papakura have a lot of state houses that had fruit trees … The peaches, plums and apples are still there if the houses haven’t been demolished … A lot of those old trees need a bit of a prune and we need to develop ways for the people who live there to be able to pick them.

‘If you drive around you see fruit rotting on the ground. Partly it has probably got a bit of brown rot, so the families don’t touch them; partly, too, we have been conditioned to think the beautiful fruit is good fruit. Actually, the ones that look the ugliest often taste the nicest, in my opinion.’

Luella hopes that this kaupapa will support whānau to use the fruit for themselves, learn to look after the trees, share excess fruit with the wider community and for whānau to be able to make some money from their produce or give it away for free.

Image above: Helena Stevens is co-chair of Manurewa Marae and recently completed the Kai Oranga programme at Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae.

Manurewa Marae: Nurturing seeds through kōhanga reo

Manurewa Marae is one of the largest marae in Tāmaki Makaurau. Its co-chair and longstanding kōhanga reo practitioner Helena Stevens (Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Whātua, Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto) recently completed the Kai Oranga programme at Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae.

Now she is sharing this knowledge of Hua Parakore and mātauranga with staff and tamariki at her local kōhanga to build on the vision of her grandparents, John and Martha Turner, who were founding members of the marae.

The vision is for a healthy, strong and vibrant Manurewa community where tikanga, kawa and mātauranga thrive.

The strength of this kaupapa is evident in the way understanding has changed for tamariki about where their food comes from. Seven years ago, a colleague of Helena’s did a project on māra kai in the kōhanga and found that most thought their food came from Pak’nSave.

‘Since then we have tried things a bit differently because they had never seen a māra kai grow. We’ve tried over the years to at least put something in the garden so the kids can see.’

They get a chance to sit in the māra and play with the soil. They also love the opportunity to harvest something. ‘They get to hold it, and we wrap it, and we put their name on it. They know it’s going home, so that is even more beautiful.’

And this work in the kōhanga māra is just the beginning. There are plans to grow more with Hua Parakore at Manurewa Marae to help bring people together to share expertise and experience.

‘I believe Manurewa Marae is a pivotal point of change. If we share just little snippets of these things we are talking about, then somebody will want to fill up their kete.’

Image above: Mataatua Marae head of operations Baari Mio shares taura here standpoints on
kai sovereignty. 

Mataatua Marae: Sharing the knowledge of kai growing

Mataatua Marae in Māngere is a marae for taura here that was created to unite descendants of Ngāti Awa living in Tāmaki Makaurau, as well as provide a place for all nationalities that make up this rohe.

Head of operations Baari Mio (Ngāti Awa) says while the marae played an important role in providing kai and support in the time of Covid-19, the intensive housing developments in Māngere means there is no space for māra kai.

Mataatua Marae is also without secure long-term land tenure and not an official service marae, meaning kai sovereignty for them is constrained by both a lack of people and funding.

Instead, Baari and the executive have focused on strengthening their relationship to Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae by sharing in māra kai activities and participation in Kai Oranga courses.

The two urban marae also maintain organisational connections. For instance, kaiwhakahaere for Papatūānuku Marae Lionel Hotene sits on the board of Mataatua Marae.

‘Rather than step over the top of the mahi that Papatūānuku Marae is doing, we support what they do,’ says Bari. ‘There are whakapapa links between the whānau there and our whānau of Ngāti Awa. Many of our hapū have registered for the Kai Oranga courses … That is really our hononga, our connection to that space.’

Along with access to whenua and soil, council by-laws restrict the range of options Māori have to gather, grow and distribute kai. This impinges on Māori food futures and our capacities to achieve kai sovereignty.

‘I should be able to walk out the back of that reserve behind the marae and have a māra kai and not be told, “you can’t have it there, it is only 22 metres from the berm and you’ve got the cycleway there” … that isn’t sovereignty.’

Image above: Ethnobotanist Rob Small is drawing on his interest of the relationship between people and plants to support Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to realise their vision for Pourewa.

Pourewa: Māra kai as pūrākau

‘They described Pourewa as a place where they wanted Ōrākei to be open to the world. In their vision document, they proposed an area where they would grow rongoā rākau, and an area where they would have a community garden.’

This was the brief given to Rob Small (Ngāpuhi, Māhurehure) when he was engaged by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to use his skills as an ethnobotanist to recloak Pourewa.

Situated on reserve lands and involving co-management between Auckland Council and the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust, Pourewa is a public park and is part of mana whenua aspirations to be an educational and cultural hub.

Beginning his long-standing involvement with the iwi as an independent director for their operational board,  Rob has been collaborating with them for seven years to design and develop Pourewa.

Plans include a māra kai, māra rongoā, a māra to support mahi toi, a plant collection, and a seed bank that preserves the botanical histories of the Tāmaki region.

His focus is to use garden design as a storytelling practice to bring to life the mātauranga, wairua and whakapapa of those who have gone before, for those who visit and live on the Ōrākei block.

Historically, the site was used for food production and contributed to the highly productive farming practices of the Tāmaki isthmus. While the 700-acre Ōrākei block was confiscated from the iwi by the Crown, in 2011 they signed a deed of settlement and the iwi gained access to Pourewa Creek in 2018.

Today, the aspiration is for Pourewa to become a predator-free sanctuary in the middle of the city that offers a thriving example to the world of what Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei was once like.

The general approach to the māra kai design is underpinned by the six principles of Hua Parakore and, at the time of writing the book, Pourewa was undergoing the Hua Parakore verification process.

‘Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei have had a real sense of how they care for te taiao since coming back onto the land. So it is about Hua Parakore, it is about some of those broader principles not doing any harm to Papatūānuku and helping her restore her cloak in terms of her native forests and all of those living things within it. I simply followed their direction.’

Māori environmental economics in action

Each of these stories are short extracts from Pataka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty that show the diversity of how urban marae in Tāmaki Makaurau are creating localised food systems.

By drawing on Hua Parakore principles and connecting with each other across their various rohe, the tāngata who are implementing these changes are passionate about placing the well-being of Papatūānuku at the heart of all decision-making.

These stories provide a hopeful and transformative opportunity to reimagine our Indigenous food futures.

These book extracts have been written as part of "Seeding Hope: He Kākano Ahau" — a three-year, Indigenous-led, kaupapa Māori research project, funded from the Te Apārangi Marsden Standard Grant. 

To read the full stories, get your copy of Pātaka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty from our online store.