Taranaki gardeners say growing a tonne-and-a-half of potatoes for Te Matatini was inspired by their forbears feeding war refugees who flocked to Parihaka 150 years ago.
Organisers of Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga expect 40,000 visitors over the five days of the national kapa haka championships.
Te Matatini is in Ngāmotu at Pukekura Park’s Bowl of Brooklands from February 25 and the throngs will be staying all over Taranaki, including at Parihaka Pā.
Parihaka gardener Jasmine Koroheke said the idea to plant potatoes came naturally.
“I think it’s a little bit in Parihaka’s blood to feed the masses. Quite used to it.
“This was a brain fart last year. And then we all brain-farted together and the hapū was happy for us to do that and so yeah, we just ran with it.
“And we got in 32 rows of spuds.”
Some of the 1.65 tonnes of Agria will be served at the festival pōwhiri but most will go to feed performers and supporters hosted at more than 20 marae around the Maunga.
The potato plot used to be the rugby field of Pungarehu School, closed in 2003 and returned to Taranaki iwi in its Treaty settlement in 2015.
“I went to Pungarehu School and you couldn’t have told me years ago that I was going to be ploughing spuds up from here,” laughed Koroheke.
“This is where the Barretts grew up.”
But long before the coast’s famous All Black brothers ran on this piece of land, Parihaka was set up as a home and a hope for those dispossessed by imperial then colonial invasions across the motu.
Pitching in to the harvest, Wiki Mānu said with so many guests on the way it felt good “to be back home on our own whenua, doing what our tūpuna did”.
“They’re coming in from outside the rohe, coming in and then feeling the manaakitanga (mana-enhancing hospitality) of Taranaki iwi, of Taranaki.”
‘The best mahi’
Many of the harvesters are kaimahi for their iwi agency Te Kāhui o Taranaki, seconded for the day from their usual work like Koroheke in the main Parihaka māra (gardens), or Manu controlling pests on the Maunga.
Manu said his tūpuna all helped each other out, growing food and sharing kai.
“It goes back to Te Whiti and Tohu Kākahi – they’ve ploughed these fields, when the land was getting confiscated.
“This is all land that’s been given back, so we’re just trying to take it back to what it used to be – useful. It makes sense to grow gardens and feed the people.”
His whanaunga Tyler Raven is studying kai-growing with Urs Signer and drove from Waitara when he heard the call to harvest.
“I just love being here – good people on the same waka.
“Just doing something for someone else for nothing is the best mahi, I reckon.”
“And for your mauri as well, it’s good for your mauri. Like, just feel good, feel good about it,” said Raven.
“With the māra, you give love to it, it gives it back to you, direct. There’s not that many things in life, that give it right back to you.”
Planted back in spring, the potatoes show hapū well ahead of many South Taranaki businesses, recently exhorted by councillor Tuteri Rangihaeata to step up from having “no clue” about the scale of Te Matatini o te Kāhui Maunga.
Also lifting and sorting spuds was Libby Taylor, who’s been studying food-growing and kai sovereignty with Pounamu Skelton.
She thought the Parihaka founders would approve.
“I think they’d be proud of us, you know? I reckon, yeah. Stuck into the kaupapa, feed the people.
“That’s our kaupapa, manaakitanga. All of those beautiful, wonderful things.”
LDR is local body reporting co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
