Mastering traditional Māori methods of gardening — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Septuagenarian Rob Small may have retired from his career managing parks but he certainly isn’t done challenging himself. The Aucklander has just completed his Masters in Landscape Architecture at Unitec, where his research project looked at how to design a garden that would display the ethnobotany of the Māori people of Aotearoa.

“I’ve had a number of quite senior roles in the parks world and I’ve also been the CEO of a council and in that work I became concerned about how councils create liveable communities for all its citizens,” he said.l “I think as landscaping became more sophisticated in the world generally, but certainly in New Zealand, we thought more about urban design and urban planning and how the landscape was intrinsic to that.

“I have always had an interest in design and I’ve also had a strong interest in how people’s environments and landscapes affect their health and wellbeing. In fact I was one of a couple of people who came up with the concept of “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” which has become a worldwide concept.

“I’ve completed my career but I wanted to keep contributing in some way, and I honestly believe if we can create this model (around traditional Māori gardening) it will assist other groups.”

Rob Small, who is Ngāpuhi, already had a strong relationship with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei having been on their Whai Māia board (their operational board) for three years. He knew they were keen to create a range of gardens on their land at Pourewa Reserve in East Auckland, and so their project became his.

He says the project is important because it’s connected inextricably to the language, customs, and art of Māori. “Just as the revival of the Māori language has become an urgent agenda in New Zealand, so too is the revival of those traditional uses of our native forests and our Māori gardening.

“It’s important to reflect on the diminishing knowledge among our older Māori and the potential loss of these traditions and culture.”

He says developing a garden from an ethnobotanic point of view means it’s essential it’s built from a Māori point of view. “There is a Māori ontology which is Kaupapa Māori Rangahau which is Māori research agendas which is about presenting research from a Māori point of view rather than from a colonial point of view.”

The garden consists of a community vegetable garden, a Māori wellness garden with plants used in Rongoā (traditional healing) and weaving, and a pre-colonial kumara garden.

Māori garden by Maramataka - their lunar calendar. “That was simply because they had brought a range of crops to New Zealand from the islands and they had no way of ensuring they would produce productively,” Small told Radio New Zealand’s Jesse Mulligan. “They developed an understanding of times when things worked and times when they didn’t.

Rob Small says developing a garden from an ethnobotanic point of view means it’s essential it’s built from a Māori point of view.

“So the centre of the garden, which is a circular garden, has what I call a Maramataka compass. It has the 30 lunar houses on the outside, and on the inside it is a typical gregorian calendar one to 31 which you can just turn to whatever phase the moon is in. That will tell you in very very broad terms ‘yes this is a good time to be planting, or this is a good time to harvest or we shouldn't be doing too much in the way of sowing or complex work at this time.’”

The second guiding principle is that Māori believe everything has a spirit - the soil, organisms, the plants. And everything has a family tree or whakapapa. So to honour Papatūānuku (mother earth) and Rongomātāne (deity of agriculture) it’s important to farm organically.

The vegetable garden is now producing over 100 kg of green produce a week. That’s given to the older people of the hapu, and families connected to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. “The kaupapa is to get people eating better and to understand how to be more sustainable in the way they operate.”

Ngāti Whātua are working on carvings to go with each particular garden.

Rob Small says he’s been fortunate to be guided through his masters by Matthew Bradbury from Unitec, and Di Lucas who was his main overseer.

If you’re keen to explore how landscape architects can address some of pressing social and environmental issues of the day then contact Unitec. Work with leading Auckland practices and agencies to develop collaborate research projects that have practical outcomes . Enrolments for the MLA programme are now open now as are scholarships application Any questions please contact Matthew Bradbury on mbradbury@unitec.ac.nz