HUA PARAKORE – REBUILDING OUR BROKEN FOOD SYSTEMS premieres on Monday 4 November at 7.30PM on Whakaata Māori and MĀORI+.

Dr Jessica Hutchings says the current industrialised food system is broken.

“What we have at the moment is corporate greed and corporate control sitting right at the heart of our food system,” says Dr Hutchings.

“Growing food and restoring the soil is an act of tino rangatiratanga, and this will really help us as indigenous peoples to be able to turn around our food systems, so we can move away from globalised industrial agriculture.”

“The possibility of change lies in smallness.”

“Māori food sovereignty empowers whānau and hapū driven food production, distribution and consumption, based on environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability,” says Dr Hutchings.

HUA PARAKORE – REBUILDING OUR BROKEN FOOD SYSTEMS tells stories of regeneration, of engaging and inspiring rangatahi and the wider community through growing, farming, gathering, composting, cooking and eating kai.

“Interwoven with the social and political context of the Food Sovereignty movement, our aim is to connect viewers with the ancient vibrations of this land, and the food-growing and earth-caring practices of our tūpuna,” says Dr Hutchings.

Hua parakore is a kaupapa Māori system and framework for growing kai developed by Te Waka Kai Ora (National Maori Organics Authority).

“There are six key hua parakore kaupapa that we work with in the māra; whakapapa, wairua, mana, māramatanga, mauri and Te Ao Tūroa. All of these kaupapa (principles) are interconnected and are drawn from the mātauranga (Māori knowledge) continuum,” says Dr Hutchings.

The series was produced by Storybox Ltd with funding from NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho.

Coming up on HUA PARAKORE – REBUILDING OUR BROKEN FOOD SYSTEMS:

EPISODE 1 – Monday 4 November 2024 at 7.30PM: Whakapapa – Dr Jessica Hutchings, a Hua Parakore food farmer, researcher, author and leader in food sovereignty movements tells us about the origins of the Hua Parakore movement.

EPISODE 2 – Monday 11 November at 7.30PM: Māramatanga – Jessica meets Māori organic farm champion Cathy Tait Jamieson and her husband Jamie who run a thriving farm without the industrial practices of the farms that surround them.

EPISODE 3 – Monday 18 November at 7.30PM: Mana – Jessica travels to Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae and meets the generations who are caring for the soil and growing organic kai in urban Māngere South Auckland.

EPISODE 4 – Monday 25 November at 7.30PM: Mauri – Jessica travels to Taranaki to meet Pounamu Skelton and her whānau, who have returned to live communally on their ancestral whenua.

EPISODE 5 – Monday 2 December at 7.30PM: India – Jessica travels to India, part of her own whakapapa. Jessica has come to meet Dr Vandana Shiva, one of the most important environmentalists in the world.

EPISODE 6 – Monday 9 December at 7.30PM: Wairua – Jessica Hutchings travels to Te Tai Tokerau to meet Ngāti Hine leaders Tohe Ashby and Heeni Hōterene. It’s here that the Hua Parakore movement began with the guidance of Percy Tipene.

EPISODE 7 – Monday 16 December at 7.30PM: Te Ao Tūroa – Jessica travels to Te Waipounamu to learn from Edward Ellison, Paulette Tamati-Elliffe and Tūmai Cassidy about the food gathering practises that the Ōtākou rūnanga are revitalising.

EPISODE 8 – Monday 23 December at 7.30PM: Kāinga – At her home, Jessica shares her mātauranga with a group of tauira from Te Wānanga o Raukawa. She reflects on the series and the people she has met who are committed to Hua Parakore.

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