Mātauranga Kai

Kai Māori – the evolution of indigenous foodway in Aotearoa

Our chapter Kai Māori: The Evolution of an Indigenous Foodway in Aotearoa features in Exploring Indigenous Foodways amidst Global Shifts. It traces the development of Māori foodways from Pacific origins, showing how food practices emerged from deep spiritual, cultural, and environmental relationships with land and sea. The chapter details how Māori adapted to a new and challenging food landscape through hunting, gathering, and cultivation guided by tikanga, seasonal knowledge, and collective organisation. It then explores how European arrival and colonisation reshaped kai Māori through introduced foods, land loss, environmental degradation, and socioeconomic change. The chapter concludes by highlighting the resilience of kai Māori and contemporary food sovereignty movements that are revitalising Indigenous food knowledge, relationships with the environment, and cultural wellbeing.

Kai Māori - the evolution of an indigenous foodway in Aotearoa

Te Morenga, L., & Renall, N. (2025). Kai Māori – the evolution of an indigenous foodway in Aotearoa.. In R. Tupai-Firestone (Ed.) Exploring Indigenous Foodways amidst Global Shifts. (pp. 131 - 171). Wellington, New Zealand: Ala Le Manuia

Māori health and nutrition

Our chapter ‘Māori Health and Nutrition’ features in the second edition of Food and Nutrition Throughout Life, an international nutrition textbook. It introduces readers to Māori as the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand and explains how history, colonisation, and social conditions have shaped Māori food practices, diets, and health. The chapter connects traditional and contemporary Māori foodways with present‑day nutrition‑related health outcomes and places nutrition within Māori understandings of holistic wellbeing. It also highlights Māori‑led initiatives that support food security, cultural identity, and wellbeing for future generations.

Food and Nutrition Throughout Life - 2nd Edition (In Press)

Indigenous Foodways in Transition: A Qualitative Study with Māori Elders in Aotearoa New Zealand

Our research explored how Māori foodways have changed over the past 70 years through the lived experiences of Māori kaumātua (elders). Their stories reveal how colonisation, land loss, urbanisation and environmental change reshaped Māori food systems and access to traditional kai sources, influencing the ways people obtain, share and experience kai today.

Despite these changes, Māori foodways have remained resilient and adaptive. Across diverse rural and urban experiences, kaumātua described enduring values such as respecting kai, avoiding waste, sharing with others, and caring for people and place. These values persisted across generations, even as the food environment changed.

Participants also reflected on how childhood experiences with kai shaped their relationships with food throughout life. Whānau practices, access to resources and opportunities to learn about kai contributed to distinct food identities and influenced how people understand and engage with kai today.

The study highlights that kai Māori is much more than nutrition. Kai connects people to culture, whānau, whenua and whakapapa, while supporting identity, belonging and wellbeing. Understanding these connections can help inform more meaningful and culturally responsive approaches to health and nutrition in contemporary Aotearoa.

Indigenous Foodways in Transition: A Qualitative Study With Māori Elders in Aotearoa New Zealand

Conceptualising Indigenous food sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand

Our study explored how revitalising mahinga kai - the traditional Māori practices of growing, gathering and caring for food – can strengthen wellbeing, promote equity and support food sovereignty.

Guided by whānau and community voices, the research examined Māori aspirations for food sovereignty and the practical steps that can be supported through policy, research and tribal initiatives. Working with whānau involved in a māra kai initiative, the study showed that mahinga kai is far more than producing food.

Māori food sovereignty was described not as returning to the past, but as a living, adaptable practice grounded in values, relationships and collective decision-making.

This inclusive approach reflects resilience and may resonate with other Indigenous communities navigating the balance between cultural continuity and contemporary life.

These insights informed the Mahinga Kai Framework: Enacting Food Sovereignty, which brings together four interconnected areas - cultural identity, environmental stewardship, participation in systems and decision making, and healthy everyday lifestyles - to show how mahinga kai supports oranga (holistic wellbeing).

Conceptualizing indigenous food sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand

Māori food culture and wellbeing on TikTok: a content and thematic analysis

Our research explored how Māori use TikTok to share and celebrate kai Māori – the traditional foods, practices and values of Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand.

On TikTok, people taught, joked, reminisced and shared everyday moments involving kai Māori. These posts showed Māori connecting with each other, learning from each other and expressing pride in who they are.

Kai Māori was shown not just as food, but as something that strengthens identity, relationships and connection to Te Ao Māori. It was a source of pride, a way of keeping traditions alive and a way of strengthening connections to whānau and whenua. In this way, kai Māori acted as a form of positive cultural communication and nourishment.

These insights reveal that kai is more than nutrients. Health promotion approaches that reflect this understanding are better placed to support Māori wellbeing.

Māori food culture and wellbeing on TikTok: a content and thematic analysis