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Angela Clifford of Eat New Zealand, Manaia Cunningham, Jessica Hutchings, Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea and Jo Smith at the Food Hui (Photo: Supplied)
Angela Clifford of Eat New Zealand, Manaia Cunningham, Jessica Hutchings, Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea and Jo Smith at the Food Hui (Photo: Supplied)

KaiNovember 15, 2019

How Māori kai producers are decolonising the New Zealand food story

Angela Clifford of Eat New Zealand, Manaia Cunningham, Jessica Hutchings, Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea and Jo Smith at the Food Hui (Photo: Supplied)
Angela Clifford of Eat New Zealand, Manaia Cunningham, Jessica Hutchings, Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea and Jo Smith at the Food Hui (Photo: Supplied)

Māori food systems are rich with potential, and whānau-based food producers across the country are looking to traditional ways to ensure their communities thrive in the future. Alice Neville reports from the Eat New Zealand Food Hui.

In recent years there has been much talk – in food business, hospitality, tourism and food media circles at least – about “telling the New Zealand food story”.

A couple of years ago, Dr Jessica Hutchings was listening to an interview on RNZ with former Labour MP and Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey, who has spoken much on the topic. While she enjoyed the interview, in which Maharey spoke about New Zealand’s need to transition from being a farming nation to a food nation, “I could have been anywhere in the world,” said Hutchings. “There was no reference to indigeneity, there was no reference to mana whenua. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Where is the missing Māori contribution within the New Zealand food story?’”

Hutchings was speaking as part of a panel discussion on Māori food systems at Eat New Zealand’s Food Hui held in Auckland last week. After listening to that Maharey interview, Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati), a kaupapa Māori researcher, activist and hua parakore grower, put together a proposal with fellow researcher Dr Jo Smith (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) to apply for funding through AgResearch’s Our Land and Water National Science Challenge.

“We wanted to make an intervention into this New Zealand food story discourse that was happening, we wanted to story-tell from a kaupapa Māori perspective our own pūrākau, our own stories and our own indigenous narratives around what kaitiakitanga might mean if we’re thinking about it from a Māori land and water food systems perspective,” she explained.

Jessica Hutchings speaks on the panel with Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea and Manaia Cunningham (Photo: Supplied)

The funding (nearly $250,000) was awarded and Hutchings and Smith spent 15 months working with a diverse group of Māori food producers. At the hui, Hutchings said it was a conscious decision to work not just with agribusinesses, which is where the project organisers wanted to drive them, with the hope of increasing productivity and export potential. “But the innovation is happening at other levels within our Māori food systems. Some of the Māori agribusinesses in Ngāi Tahu, where we’re from, don’t look any different from conventional Pākehā farming.”

Hutchings also emphasised the need to contextualise the Māori food story within the wider political landscape, namely that Ihumātao, the site of Aotearoa’s earliest food gardens, is still in occupation. She also highlighted the importance of Wai 262, the claim on Māori intellectual and cultural property rights. The 2011 Waitangi Tribunal report on the claim recommended wide-ranging reforms to laws and policies affecting Māori culture and identity. She issued a wero to the mainly Pākehā attendees of the hui – to understand that Māori culture is not there for the taking. 

“Matauranga Māori is a complete intact indigenous knowledge system. It’s not floating around to be picked out – ‘oh I’ll take manaaki, I’ll take a bit of Matariki because I understand that, oh I know what whanaungatanga means so I’ll take that’. It has to weave a relation to everything else.”

The resulting research project, which was completed in July this year, is called Storying Kaitiakitanga and profiles different Māori food producers ranging from beekeepers and kiwifruit growers to yoghurt makers and kiwifruit growers, a kōura farm and a clean “kai co-op”.

‘Our food system is fucked’ – Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea of Kai Rotorua addresses the Food Hui (Photo: Supplied)

Joining Hutchings and Smith on the panel at the hui were two producers who shared their stories with the project, Manaia Cunningham and Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea.

Kiripatea (Te Arawa, Rongomaiwahine ki Kahungunu), leads Kai Rotorua, a non-profit volunteer organisation that teaches people to grow, harvest and store kūmara, rīwai (potatoes) and other vegetables. He told the hui the project was about “reconnecting us to Papatūānuku through kai”, and spoke of how the project works by the maramataka

“Why are we doing this?” asked Kiripatea. “Well, I was going to say because our food system is fucked, but then I thought, ‘ooh no, I might be in the wrong company, I better not say that’. So I won’t, but you know what I mean,” he quipped. Kai Rotorua works with several schools in the area and has plans to launch a food hub comprising a seed bank, cafe, kūmara bank, garden and spaces for education, food storage and distribution.

‘It’s about being with Tangaroa and Papatūānuku’ – Manaia Cunningham of Koukourārata (Photo: Supplied) 

Cunningham (Ngāti Irakehu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga), leads a marae-based market gardens programme at Koukourārata on Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū (Banks Peninsula). The māra (gardens) at Koukourārata grow taonga potato species organically, which feed the community as well as being sold at local markets, proceeds from which are reinvested into health and education outcomes for the community. In collaboration with the Department of Corrections, the gardens provide work for people serving community-based sentences.

Cunningham spoke of how his mahinga kai journey began as a young boy with his Ngāpuhi Aunty Pauline, who lived in his village at Koukourārata. “She loved gin, smoked plenty and boy could she swear, but she loved us kids and she’d take us around the marae to harvest kūtai or pāua. My very first lesson was this – when we’re harvesting kaimoana, we don’t swear. When our kids go gathering, they’re well-behaved. When we’re harvesting food, we don’t yell and scream around the water’s edge. We do it quietly, collectively – there’s a bit of humour, a bit of banter, but it’s about being with Tangaroa and Papatūānuku.

“With pāua, with kūtai, at times you have to lift up the rock to gather – Aunty would say just put the rock back how you found it and let the pāpaka, the crabs, let the ecology under that rock live. It was her way of teaching that mauri, that interconnectedness – we need every part of that coastline to be as we found it.”

Tacobell2

KaiNovember 11, 2019

We ate everything at New Zealand’s first Taco Bell

Tacobell2

Taco Bell is here. Alex Casey, Madeleine Chapman, and Alice Webb-Liddall give the first review.

There’s nothing more American than drinking a frozen margarita out of a plastic cup with a comically large straw. And that means America has come to West Auckland.

New Zealand’s first-ever Taco Bell opens tomorrow at New Lynn’s Brickworks in LynnMall. I (Mad Chapman) have had Taco Bell once before, in Las Vegas after drinking a yard glass of strawberry daiquiri. My memory of the experience is limited but I do recall thinking that Taco Bell must’ve been specially designed to absorb alcohol.

After attending the VIP early opening today, my stance hasn’t changed, and that’s a good thing.

Taco Bell’s strong suit in the US has always been its price point. It’s almost incomprehensible how much food can be purchased for so little money. At the New Zealand store, the price point isn’t comically low but it’s still a lot cheaper than the other Mexican-style fast food.

While introducing the menu, Restaurant Brands CEO Russel Creedy said “the tacos I had [here] were the best I’ve had in the world”. OK, I will die on the defending-KFC-against-fancy-chicken hill, but come on. No one is going to Taco Bell expecting the best tacos in the world.

He also said, “I love guacamole. Nacho chips and guacamole? Just great.” You can’t argue with that.

Here’s what we ate, how much it costs, and whether (in our opinion) it’s worth it.

The menu at New Lynn Taco Bell

STARTERS

Nacho chips Not much to say. It’s hard to do a nacho chip wrong. Crunchy, fresh, coated in “Mexican seasoning”.

Worth it? Yes.

Guacamole There was a lot of high praise floating around about the guacamole. Considering how good a fresh avocado sprinkled with salt and pepper is, I was expecting big things. It was just fine.

Worth it? Not really.

Nacho cheese sauce I laugh every time I see melted orange goo and hear Americans call it cheese. It’s not cheese. And yet as soon as I started eating it, I couldn’t stop.

Worth it? Yes. It is objectively a gross concept but yes.

Yes, that cheese dip does have a skin on it

Fiesta salsa Extraordinary amount of onion and slightly slimy coriander. An offering of freshness next to a vat of hot melted cheese but let’s not pretend we are trying to be balanced here.

Worth it? If you are Shrek, then yes.

Frozen margarita You read that correctly. They serve alcohol at Taco Bell. More specifically, they serve beer and frozen margaritas. The marg was delicious. I had two alongside the pile of food I ate and now I’m typing this with my eyes closed.

Worth it? Yes, but it comes in very wasteful plastic. Reusable cups exist!

MAINS

Crunchy taco supreme ($4.50 each or $12.49 for a two-taco combo) The crunchy taco supreme is the staple of Taco Bell. The cheeseburger, if you will. And it’s as simple. Mince, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream is the entirety of the taco. Like literally what you make budget-style at home with Old El Paso taco shells. It was yum, and Alice Webb-Liddall can confirm that the vegetarian option was also yum. Alex Casey noted that the taco shell itself was cold, which felt weird with the hot mince. But ultimately it was the sauce that carried it over the line. Each table also has mild sauce and hot sauce sachets. The hot sauce goes well with the crunchy taco supreme.

Worth it? Yeah.

Cheesy gordita crunch ($6.99 or $10.49 for a combo) This was listed as a must-have and we all still don’t know exactly what it is. It was a hard-shell taco (like the supreme) but the taco was wrapped in a soft flatbread. And it had a lot of cheese. It was nice, and the sauce was good, but the random textures was jarring. There’s a reason chip sandwiches (crunchy and bread) are only made at home.

Worth it? Nah.

Taco and gordita, together at last

Grilled stuft burrito ($8.99 or $12.48 for a combo) It’s a no from Alex Casey. The pork was too overpowering and looked like tuna. I personally didn’t mind it. I tend to think burritos are always too stuffed (don’t know why Taco Bell spells it “stuft”) and this version is a bit more dainty. Not so much rice action and again, a lot going on with the sauce.

Worth it? Sure.

Chicken quesadilla ($6.99 or $10.49 for a combo) The best item on the menu. Spread some guacamole on it with one of your nacho chips (sustainable), add some of the hot sauce on the table, and bond apple tithe, you’ve got yourself a meal.

Worth it? Absolutely.

The quesadilla and stuft burrito

DESSERT

Cinnamon twists ($2.50) In a world where Lil Orbit’s cinnamon doughnuts exist, these don’t stand a chance.

Worth it? Nah.

Chocodilla ($2.50) Chocolate quesadilla. We daren’t try one after eating as much as we already had, but this is crazy. To be honest, I’d probably love it. It’s only $2.50, might as well give it a go I reckon.

Worth it? It’s so funny, yes.

MISC.

There’s a kiosk there that lets you choose the music to play for everyone to listen. It’ll absolutely be hijacked by people playing the worst music and I can’t wait for the news reports of people having one outs over a Backstreet Boys song.

There’s a literal bell in Taco Bell. It’s by the entrance and diners are encouraged to ring it when they’ve enjoyed the food and or service. Be warned, it’s huge, and it’s not a heavy ringer. You’re gonna have to do the work. I suspect not a single adult will ring it. But Alex had fun with it.

Is Taco Bell worth it overall? For the frozen margaritas alone, you gotta try it at least once.