Kai Māori Kai Ora

When we talk about what it means to be well through kai, not only for this generation but for many generations to come, whakapapa asks us to think beyond ourselves as individuals.

Through whakapapa, we expand our view outwards, to the many relations who play a part in giving sustenance to the food we eat  – from atua, to taiao, ngahere, soil, hapū and whānau etc.

To be well through kai for many generations becomes a question of how we might nurture our wider relations.

Kōrero tuku iho can guide us in answering these questions, reminding us that we have enduring intergenerational legacies with kai. As Māori, our relationships with kai are foundational to who we are.

Kai is deeply woven into our language, our identities and our conceptions of time and space. Advocating for and enabling access to these kōrero tuku iho and their transformative potential drives our mahi within the Kai Maori space.

Toi Tangata continues to reorient conversations around kai to reflect and centre our own (Māori) understandings of what it means to be well through kai.

As well as grounding ourselves in kōrero tuku iho, this means grappling with the harms of settler colonialism – the ways that it has damaged, disrupted, and redefined our relationships with kai, as well as the impacts this has had and continues to have on our well-being as whānau, hapū, and iwi. 

Intergenerational Intimacies:
A Whakapapa Conceptualisation of Kai

Written by Hana Burgess (Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa, Te Ātihaunui a Pāpārangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa)  and Haylee Koroi (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu), Intergenerational Intimacies: A Whakapapa Conceptualisation of Kai explores the deep ties between food, whakapapa, and the well-being of past and future generations.

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For more information, contact haylee@toitangata.co.nz.