Background on Vote for kai / Toiora Whakapūmau Kai

Te Tiriti o Waitangi 

Te Tiriti obligations include recognition of tino rangatiratanga over taonga, including kai, and of iwi and hapū authority over the whenua, moana and takutai. Many of the actions in this document focus on Crown mechanisms. A Tiriti-honouring approach requires more than consultation, it requires genuine Māori decision-making authority within any food system governance. 

Kai Motuhake 

While this document largely speaks for the people in Aotearoa who access kai through commercial or market-based systems, we also acknowledge that many whānau, hapū, and communities, both Maori and Tāngata o Te Tiriti continue to meet some or most of their kai needs through hunting, gathering, fishing, growing kai and other customary and community-based initiatives outside commercial channels.  

Māori kai sovereignty already exists.  These living systems have sustained Māori for hundreds of years, and continue to carry mātauranga, resilience and sustainability.  What is needed now are the conditions to protect, reclaim and exercise kai motuhake, as guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

Customary kai practices including the role of rāhui and kaitiakitanga carry rights, responsibilities, and knowledge systems, for managing taonga like mātaitai sustainably across generations. 

Kai Motuhake also carries a fundamental challenge to the commodification of kai by affirming kai as relationship, whakapapa, nourishment and kawenga..

Selected kupu Māori are used in this document as kaupapa anchors. A full Te Reo Māori translation and review should be undertaken by a licensed translator so that a full version in both reo stand with integrity and mana.

Return to the full Vote for Kai - Toiora Whakapūmau Kai here.