Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust was set up in 2021 with a founding purpose to undertake kaupapa Māori; research, education and development in relation to Māori food sovereignty, Hua Parakore and tino rangatiratanga activities .
Founding Trustees Dr Jessica Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati) and Associate Professor Jo Smith (Waitaha, Kati Māmoe, Kai Tahu) are passionate about seeding and growing Māori food sovereignty and tino rangatiratanga through kaupapa Māori and Indigenous pathways. Previous collaborative work includes the publication of Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook (2020: Freerange Press) and the project Storying Kaitiakitanga. Jessica and Jo are currently co-leading a three year project called Kai Atua: Food for Hope and Wellbeing.
The Papawhakaritorito Trust acknowledges the support of the Todd Foundation in our mahi and supporting kaupapa Māori.
We are also pleased to have Pounamu Skelton (Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki Iwi, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Raukawa) join the Trust to support our work and the development of our on-line Māori food and soil sovereignty education platform coming soon. You can listen to a recent interview by Pounamu on RNZ.
Papawhakaritorito is the name of the whānau food farm that Jessica and Jo live on. The small scale Hua Parakore food farm nourishes soil, food and whānau and provides an opportunity to live Indigenous Food Sovereignty through the Hua Parakore principles.
The name was given in 2007 by the late Dr Huirangi Waikerepuru a Māori language activist and trade unionist of Taranaki and Ngāpuhi whakapapa. Papawhakaritorito refers to the place where the heart of the flaxbush sings. It is a metaphor for whānau and collective wellbeing through holding fast to kaupapa Māori and ways of being on the land in an Indigenous way.
He Whenua Rongo is a 7 month kaupapa Māori research project that has been conducted by Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust led by Dr. Jessica Hutchings in partnership wih Te Waka Kai Ora (National Māori Organics Authority) with support from Aatea Solutions, a kaupapa Māori research, facilitation and translation consultancy. The project has been resourced by the Ministry for the Environment and the Todd Foundation.
The purpose of the He Whenua Rongo project was to provide Māori and Kāwanatanga (primarily the Ministry for the Environment) with insights into te ao Māori views on Māori food systems, including aspects of resilience, sustainability, and kaupapa Māori approaches to soil and kai stewardship.
From the project we have produced a kaupapa Māori research report, He Whenua Rongo, that will be freely available on-line in July 2022.
Videos of the speakers at He Whenua Rongo Wānanga are available to watch here.
Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust have been nominated and selected as a finalist in the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards 2022 for Upper Hutt.
The awards recognise the valuable contribution of volunteers to community groups and organisations across the Wellington Region, across five categories – Art & Culture, Education & Child Youth Development, Health & Wellbeing, Heritage & Environment and Sport & Leisure, and our Rising Star award celebrates new and emerging groups.
We are more than honoured to be considered after less than 1 year of being established.
Listen to the latest episode of the Cultural Survival podcast to hear Dr. Jessica Hutchings speak about Hua
Parakore and honouring Aotearoa’s soil. You can read the article and listen to the episode here.
Check out our latest Stuff feature article, we talk about how Papawhakaritorito is an opportunity to live and demonstrate Māori food sovereignty through hua parakore principles. You can read more here.
If you are interested in supporting Papawhakaritorito, please be in touch.
Papawhakaritorito Trust has been supporting the establishment of an urban farm at a high school in Lower Hutt. Lani Rotzler Purewa has been working alongside students of the
Ahi Ka class, who have been working with the whenua over the last years.
Our project intends to support rangatahi (youth) leadership and skills in seedling production through a partnership with the Feed the Whānau project and by providing seedlings to help establish a māra at Taita College. We hope to eventually extend our seedling resource guide to include tips on native seedling propagation to help re-cloak Papatūānuku.
In October 2021 Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust hosted a one day hui with Māori food growers based in Te Awakairangi (Hutt Valley). The aim of the hui was to share kōrero about how to support, instigate and sustain flaxroots-led kai and soil growing practices. From the hui emerged a name for our roopū, “Feed the Whanau”.
In December 2021 the Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust hosted a wānanga on behalf of the Wellington City Council to explore existing and potential Māori kai initiatives in Wellington city. The event offered an invaluable opportunity for whakawhanaungatanga and produced some high level outcomes based on the Hua Parakore framework that have fed into the WCC Sustainable Food Action Plan.
In late November 2021 a two day Hua Parakore and Biodynamic Workshop was held at Papawhakaritorito, a Hua Parakore-verified food farm in Kaitoke, just north of Wellington.
Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook shines a light on Māori relationships with soil, as well as the connections between soil and food security, and frames these links within the wider discourse of tino rangatiratanga from a variety of Māori perspectives.
Storying Kaitiakitanga is a 15 month kaupapa Māori project funded from the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge, which fosters fresh thinking about economic productivity and environmental wellbeing. Storying Kaitiakitanga focuses on one specific outcome of agricultural and horticultural practices – the production and consumption of food.