In these posts, we’re exploring whakaaro from the Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone and Hua Parakore. This post will focus on one of the fundamental laws of nature that serves as a guiding principle for the Declaration’s call for resistance and restoration: the Indigenous Māori concept of Whakapapa.
An important reminder: this is written by our governance member Kristina. Her ancestral braid includes Deutschland, Éire, Alba, England, O‘ahu and Turtle Island. She is not Māori and does not assert that these concepts are her own. She explicitly prioritises and quotes the Indigenous authors of the Declaration – using their own words as experts. All wisdom is their own, and any errors are hers.
Whakapapa
“The natural connections between nga atua, whenua, te kai and te tangata. Encompassed within the kauae runga and the kauae raro. Waiporoporo represents pedigree, genealogy. connection, understanding and knowing.” - Hua Parakore
“We demand that soil and seed be honoured as the heart of biodiversity and
our commons. This would allow Indigenous and local food and farming
systems to flourish, leaving behind global capitalist food systems as the
dominant pathway for feeding people.” - The Declaration
The authors of the Declaration write, “Soil and seeds are part of our whakapapa (genealogical) relationships that begin with Ranginui (Sky Deity), Papatūānuku (Earth Deity) and Hineahuone (Soil Deity). We need to renew our whakapapa connections to nature and fulfil our obligations as mokopuna (grandchildren) to the natural world.”
As a predominantly Tangata Tiriti organisation, many of us do not have whakapapa relationships to this whenua. Our whakapapa connections to the natural world are grounded in relationships from other shores. We are indigenous to other places, and either ourselves or our ancestors came here as manuhiri (guests) thanks to te Tiriti. As Eddie Taihakurei Durie (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kauwhata, Rangitāne), in his capacity as Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal, argued in a speech given at the 1989 Waitangi Day commemorations, Te Tiriti relates to non-Māori, whom he labelled ‘Tangata Tiriti’ (‘people of the Treaty’):
We must remember that if we [Māori] are the tangata whenua, the original people, then the Pākehā [New Zealanders of European descent] are the tangata tiriti, those who belong to the land by right of [the] Treaty.
As part of be(com)ing Tangata Tiriti, we must understand our own histories and recognise that our relationship with this whenua is uniquely different and distinct from that of tangata whenua. As manuhiri, tikanga (indigenous law) guides our relationships here and informs what is tika (ethical) and pono (true).
Today, the dominant pathway for feeding people is not guided by tikanga. As part of be(com)ing Tangata Tiriti, a tikanga-based land relationship must be restored. The authors of the Declaration write:
Moana Jackson reminds us of the importance of whakapapa and Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the horizons we should set our sights towards when thinking about social transformation:
“[An ethic of restoration] derived from the lessons in the stories of the land about the potential to whaka-tika, or to make right even the most egregious wrong, and to then whaka-papa, or build new relationships. To adapt it as a tool to create non-colonising relationships is to rekindle faith in the 'ought to be' in this land; to draw upon the same land and tikanga-centered way of ordering society that was envisaged in Te Tiriti.”
A tikanga approach to soil and seeds flows from the understanding that food is our rongoā (medicine), and that the act of growing, harvesting and distributing food is also our rongoā.
It is possible to have food systems that prioritise tikanga-based land relationships. The mahi (work) has already begun and there is much more to do.
** Feeling inspired? Check out these awesome resources and actions you can take! **
Indigenous Knowledge as First Law of Aotearoa: watch here or listen here.
Gathering at the Gate