This ‘Food Road Map’ project will create the practical outcome of a ‘regional food system map and collective action plan’ that will include mātauranga Māori-based food sovereignty principles for enhanced food security for whānau Māori.

We will map how the food system operating in the ‘fruit bowl of the nation’ can be re-oriented towards improved food security, health, social equity and sustainable environments. Informed and led by local community groups, the emphasis will be on the blending of Western and Māori knowledge to develop a food system which reconnects whānau to kai and the whenua in a mana-enhancing fashion.

Building on Nourishing Hawke’s Bay’s existing community and Iwi relationships, mātauranga Māori and tikanga will inform the re-orientation of existing food systems so that they better serve whānau food security, hauora and sustainable environments. All processes from planning to collective actions will involve and strengthen the region’s broad food stakeholder networks. 

A community-centred re-orientation of the food system will improve medium term food security for Māori but, more importantly, it will lead to longer term food sovereignty. This will reduce health inequity for Māori, improving health and wellbeing and will likely impact household prosperity.

It will enable Māori to reconnect with the whakapapa of kai and re-establish lost traditional knowledge around kai, such as growing, maintaining, collecting and harvesting nutritious kai from māra kai, moana and whenua. By engaging vanguard food growers, manufacturers, and retailers as well as schools, we expect multiple additional benefits on environmental sustainability, community prosperity and school engagement.