Hot off the press for 2025: Pātaka Kai
Pātaka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty by Jo Smith and Jessica Hutchings with Johnson Witehira and Yvonne Taura was blessed and launched at Papatūānuku Kōkiri marae in Māngere on Friday 21 March.
Heralded as a powerful, inspiring story of growing food sovereignty for our times, this 320-page book from Massey University Press, is dedicated to the late Dr Moana Jackson and packs a punch across its elegantly vibrant chapters:
Introducing kai sovereignty
Agricultural colonisation and Māori resistance struggles
Resistance in the face of global agribusiness
Food stories from Tamaki Makarau
Food stories from across Aotearoa
Food stories from Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
See more pagespreads below.
Written by verified hua parakore farmers, activists, Indigenous researchers and Indigenous food sovereignty leaders it salutes Indigenous food heroes from across Aotearoa and neighbouring islands in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa who take a holistic approach that considers the interconnectedness of people, land and food. As publicised by Massey University Press, their inspiring stories show how change begins locally and on a small scale.
Back in January an author Q&A elicited this comment on the kaupapa of the book from Jo Smith:
Previous writings have focused on academic audiences but this book addresses a wider audience to help stimulate change in how we perceive food and food growing activities. The book is designed to inspire whanau and communities to think of kai growing as not simply an activity to feed family but also as a pathway to connect with our wider natural environments and communities. We talk about kai as whanaunga — as a relation, something we are connected to. This is a key pillar of kai sovereignty to reconnect with our cultural foodscapes.
Interest in the book has been, and will likely continue to be, widespread as befits such a fundamental topic - for foodscapes and landscapes alike.
Interviews since the launch have been broadcast on 95bfm and Radio New Zealand. Press coverage has appeared in the Sunday Star Times and the Waiheke Weekender (in which it earnt the commendation of being a “manifesto for change”.
LAA will be on the lookout for a landscape architect to review Pātaka Kai: Growing kai sovereignty.
It really is a beaut book to behold - with credits for design going to Anna Brown, Johnson Witehira with support from Hanna van HeugtenBreurkes. An added note for book nerds is that the typeface used is Matarongo, developed by Johnson Witehira and Kris Sowersby from Klim Type Foundry.
Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu.
Author Acknowledgements
Dr Jessica Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati) is a research leader, author, activist and hua parakore grower who lives on a small whānau farm north of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She is an active member of Te Waka Kai Ora (National Māori Organics Authority) and holds a PhD in Environmental Studies. She leads and supports Kaupapa Māori research to deliver transformation across diverse Māori communities. She is the author of Te Mahi Māra Hua Parakore: a Māori Food Sovereignty Handbook (2016) and, with Jenny Lee-Morgan, Decolonisation in Aotearoa: Education, Research and Practice (2016). She has also co-edited, with Jo Smith, Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook (2020) and, with Jo Smith and Fiona Cram, Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: Maōri Housing Realities and Aspirations (2022).
Dr Jo Smith (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) is a senior kairangahau Māori for Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust and works part-time at Te Herenga Waka. She has a PhD in Film and Media Studies and is the author of Māori Television: the first ten years (2016) and co-editor, with Jessica Hutchings, of Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook (2020) and Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: Maōri Housing Realities and Aspirations (2022) coedited with Jessica Hutchings and Fiona Cram.
Dr Johnson Witehira (Tamahaki, Ngāti Hinekura, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tūteauru, Ngāti Hāmoa) is a leading Māori innovator working across art, design, technology and game development.
Yvonne Taura (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Uenuku, Ngāti Hauā) is a kairangahau Māori for Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research, Hamilton, and is completing her PhD with the University of Waikato.
