Where traditional crops, modern horticulture & local knowledge come together

Kia tau te mauri o te kai te raro. Let the talisman of the food rest below.

Taumarunui is a town which services a large and diverse community, many with longstanding whakapapa associations to the region and others who have settled there more recently.

There are also a number of community driven activities aligned to māra kai or food production and nursery work.

The Ngā Hau e Whā māra kai, on the southern boundary of the town as you head towards Manunui, does not affiliate to any one tribe or hapū; instead the people here represent a collective of local whānau.

The māra or gardens are situated within an urban environment and contribute primarily to the Taumarunui region through fresh produce (for a koha system). Aside from fresh produce, the team also grows several crops for seed which are shared or sold on a first-come-first-served basis and juvenile native plants for sale from their self-established nursery area.

The māra functions as a type of marae with facilities to host manuhiri (visitors) and volunteer workers including Wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms, which matches volunteers looking for hands-on practical and cultural experiences with farms, lifestyle blocks, self-sufficient homesteads and organic gardens).

The gardens also contribute to a wider community benefit through the distribution of fresh vegetables, contribution of kai as koha to local hui including tangi, and provide a place for people to interact and experience horticulture where it is practised.

They share seedlings and knowledge to encourage families to grow their own vegetables, and to come to the garden to gain insight on how beneficial it is to grow your own food. Further, this enhances the mana of the māra.

The origins of Ngā Hau e Whā go back to around 2012, when Pal Toroa and Joy (Pip) Meihana started the Ngā Hau e Whā Māra Kai Charitable Trust with a bag of seeds. Their vision: to provide the community and future generations with the skills to be self-sustainable. Lack of access to local whenua meant they needed to look elsewhere.

The whenua where the current māra is located had been used by BP and was considered a waste area. Because of this, all gardens are grown in raised beds filled with locally made compost and other materials as needed. The production systems rely on volunteer help, so are purposefully low-input and as close to a traditional regime as is possible.

They also draw on support from local experts and other groups such as Tahuri Whenua.

All types of kai are grown at this māra: fruit, vegetables, traditional crops and novelty type crops. Nothing is wasted and any unsold or unused kai is processed into jams or pickles which are distributed alongside the fresh produce.

The objective is to contribute to the local community ahead of anyone else. Fresh produce is available daily and various seeds, seedlings or cuttings are available seasonally. For example, seed tubers of taewa and potatoes or kūmara cuttings during the spring.

This initiative showcases a contemporary Māori entity drawing from tradition to achieve some strategic goals. From the perspective of the whānau, they are retaining their practices and contributing to the retention of traditional crops supported by local knowledge.

Every so often the gardens host overseas visitors and tourists who come to give a hand and learn about gardening, or arts and crafts, and aspects of te ao Māori.

Professor Nick Roskruge (Ātiawa and Ngāti Tama) is the chair of Tahuri Whenua, the National Māori Horticultural Collective. He is also an ethnobotanist and lecturer in horticulture at Massey University with a particular interest in traditional crops, root crops and vegetables. He has published a number of books on traditional foods and crop management.