In writing a new book Pātaka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty – a collaboration between myself and Jo Smith, kaupapa Māori visual artist Johnson Witehira and kairangahau Yvonne Taura - we spoke to 17 food growers from Aotearoa and Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. In their profiles, they reveal the diverse solutions we need for improving our food futures.  

Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu
Although it is small, it is to be treasured

The common thread for everyone was their forebears’ extensive māra kai, and their memories of whānau and communities just one or two generations back being able to feed themselves through these māra.

All shared a reverance for the ways of our ancestors and are attempting to recover or rejuvenate traditional practices.

As kairangahau and Hua Parakore growers at Papawhakaritorito writing the book helped crystallise findings from Kai Atua: Food for Hope and Wellbeing - a three-year research project devoted to investigating, ‘What does a Māori food system look like?’

Indigenous knowledge delivering systems-change solutions

What we found is there is a wide variety of small-scale food production systems delivering seed, soil and kai sovereignty locally. Each solution is unique – from Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae in Tāmaki that uses Hua Parakore principles to plant 30,000 tipu of kūmara per year to Kai Rotorua that has set up 68 free raised-bed backyard gardens for whānau and kindergartens in the area to teach rangatahi how to plant, grow, harvest and store kūmara and healthy kai.

The common denominator is all of these kai growers have found practical ways to remedy the destruction and harm caused to tangata and te Taiao by global industrial agriculture.

What their experiences show is the best action we can take is to simply step away from a system designed to line the pockets of capitalist patriarchies through the imposition of GMOs and poisonous agriculture and instead start practicing systems-change solutions, based on Indigenous wisdom, heritage and the ethic of whakapapa.

It’s the little things

By getting our hands into the soil, planting and saving seeds and eating what we grow, we create a daily practice of honouring ngā atua and nourishing Papatūānuku.

This process teaches us to notice the small things – the seeds, the soil, the birds and the insects. When we notice the small things, we get to appreciate nature with all our senses and we deepen the connection to te Taiao and each other.

What was confirmed to me while writing this book is how fundamental it is that, as Māori, we learn what kai is suitable to grow in our own backyards and we grow it.

By doing this, we feed our tamariki and mokopuna. When we grow more than we need, we share it with those in our hāpori. By sharing what we’ve learnt, we support others in our hapū and iwi to grow their own knowledge and abundance.

Rēkohu reflections

The growing of knowledge and abundance is clear throughout Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, where small scale food movements in places such as Rēkohu and Samoa are revitalising connections to culture and practice.

When we talked to Māui Soloman (Moriori, Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) and his wife Susan Thorpe (Pākehā) in Rēkohu, we got the chance to learn about Māui’s role in elevating and revitalising the culture and identity of Moriori.

‘What’s most important is reviving our ta rē Moriori, our knowledge of our rongo, our songs, our karakii, our prayers, so that our people can understand our pūrākau, our history,’ says Māui.

That includes honouring the distinct environment of Rēkohu. In Pātaka Kai: Growing Kai Sovereignty, Susan recalls a visit by scientists from Aotearoa and how they were stunned by the differences in flora and fauna.

‘It’s not just that things are bigger down here, they behave differently,’ says Susan. ‘A lot of our manu don’t bother to fly: there is no point, their kai is all on the ground. They would have done that in New Zealand as well, the parea [wood pigeons] and so on. They look like sheep – funny, feathered sheep.’

Together, the couple are working hard to enhance the island’s biodiversity and awaken traditional practices. One example of these practices is the large permaculture gardens they cultivate so they can share both kai and seeds.

Says Māui, ‘On the island we’ve got … peat-based soil, seaweed off the beach, all sorts of natural resources available to us. So, we decided to set up our own little permaculture garden.’

Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa: Organic by default

Originally from Australia, Karen Mapusua has worked in the organic sector in the Pacific region for decades. She is the first female director of the Land Resource Division of Pacific Community (SPC), an organisation that provides scientific and technical support in agriculture and forestry for 22 Pacific Island states.

Karen explains that while traditional food-production practices are organic by default, sometimes their importance is undervalued. ‘You have a conversation with a farmer and talk about organics and the heart response is, “Oh yes, that is the way my farther farmed” or “my mother farmed”. But it is not valued as such by the broader community and definitely not by the development sector, which has been moving into what is thought to be more sustainable or income-focused production rather than nutrition-focused production. That is really what our traditional systems were about – nourishment and connection to the land.”

Yet despite a broader focus on export markets, in Samoa and across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, there is small but flourishing movement of growers returning to these traditional food systems.

Reimagining our Indigenous food systems

By highlighting the practices, traditions and learnings of growers around Aotearoa and Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, we have found that the movement of growing kai divorces us from capitalism and instead binds us to nature and community through whakapapa, tikanga and kaupapa.

Not only is growing kai good for our health, the practice also rebuilds traditional ecological knowledge, Indigenous languages and culture practices. These are the elements we need to deliver resilient Indigenous food systems, encourage biodiversity and restore food growing back to the loving hands of communities.

Pātaka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty is a research output from Kai Atua: Food for Hope and Wellbeing  - a three-year Marsden Fund project, funded by Te Apārangi.

To buy a copy of the book, head to our online store.