I was really looking forward to this WORD Christchurch event, I have read some of Jessica Hutchings' other work and treasure the copy of Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore a Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook that I have at home. As someone who likes to garden it’s the kind I book that I imagine I’ll turn to time after time.
The talk is held in the afternoon at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, everyone gets comfortable as Jessica and Jackie take a seat at the front of the room. Jessica Hutchings’ (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati) is a senior kaupapa Māori research leader, author, activist and Hua Parakore grower, Jackie Burrows (Ngā Puhi) is the former Chief Executive of He Waka Tapu.
Jessica introduces herself with a pepeha and Jackie gives a further introduction. Dr Jessica is a nationally and internationally recognised leader in indigenous food systems. Jackie tells us how she has moved from her position at He Waka Tapu and is now living on Wharekauri the Chatham Islands and is starting the life of Pātaka Kai on the home she’s brought in to, this has got her really interested in speaking with Jessica today, especially about her methods of decolonising research.
Jessica takes a moment to acknowledge her wife, Jo Smith who penned the book, she lets us know the book was a collaborative effort and a labour of love. She goes on to explain that to really understand what is happening in our food systems in Aotearoa food research must be decolonised. Kaupapa Māori research methods were used to create Pātaka Kai. Researching through this lens helps us to understand how food systems might have worked, before forests were cleared to grow food that was sent back to “the mother land”:
“It reveals what we have lost in biodiversity and honours the denuding of our forests and atua”.
Still today “We produce enough food in Aotearoa to feed 50 million people”, most of it gets exported overseas Jessica explains.
Jessica talks about decolonising our puku and the gut bacteria out tīpuna would have had, unique, as they brought very little with them to Aotearoa. This diet would have supported the gut microbiome and created health at a micro level; the growing of these crops would have supported soil health too.
Talking further about their research Jessica says in looking at other international literature they found 4 key principals around indigenous food sovereignty:
- Kai isn’t a commodity, it's connected to our wairua or spirit, inside ourselves and inside the land.
- It gives us every day intergenerational and whānau connection.
- It allows us to live in the landscape and to eat seasonally daily.
- We need to be able to make policy change and systems change to support these principles.
Another key point is joining together to revitalise te Reo Māori. Jessica's question to us is "What is Kai sovereignty without our own language?" She talks about a family that are featured in the book, they have an area in the garden where they speak reo Māori. It is a relaxed way to learn gardening terms and plant names. She also speaks about learning and writing waiata and karakia, something easy to share and pass on to future generations and ancestral connection.
Jackie says she notices a continuous theme of sharing kai throughout each story in the book, Jessica responds by talking about different kinds of currency and the vision to create an economy of reciprocity, not so much as a way to trade by, but a way to live by. The conversation between Jackie and Jessica then touches on how Pātaka Kai includes information on pacific communities and Aotearoa’s relationship with the Islands when it comes to food sovereignty.
Jackie asks Jessica what would your ideal world be? Jessica answers with a long inspiring list, here are a few I managed to catch!
- “Flourishing and full of biodiversity”
- “Community seed banks across Aotearoa, to open pollinated heirloom seeds"
- "No GMO"
- "An outside of currency economy"
- "A rebuilding of ecological knowledge"
What followed were questions from the listeners and answers from Jessica, there were quite a few and Jessica was very generous and practical in her answers, there were lots of gardening tips! To finish up, here is one question and answer I thought spoke well to Christchurch with its expanding subdivisions and the Red Zone:
Question: How do we grow food in modern high-density housing that doesn’t have much if any garden space?
Answer: Together we must keep lobbying for community gardens at a council level, locally and nationally.
A suggestion for the Red Zone was again taking charge as a community, and for example giving care by pruning the fruit trees.
Katrina
Matatiki Hornby Centre
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