Holistic farming methods used by Māori for hundreds of years outdo today’s organic production, claims a venture promoting the added values of traditional production.

Te Waka Kai Ora is the collective that created the Hua Parakore brand and the world’s first indigenous Maori verification system for kai atua – pure, healthy kai .

Percy Tipene (Ngāti Hine) is the chairman and founding member of Te Waka Kai Ora. He says he wanted to go a step further than simply organic production.

“We looked at organics and we found that it didn’t give the full integrity we were looking for.”

That integrity comes through tikanga, whakapapa and kaitiakitanga, he says.

“Hua Parakore is a reflection of how a product is produced in the story that embraces it,” says Tipene.

Tipene is also one of the auditors for Te Waka Kai Ora, validating farms that may then use the Hua Parakore Kai Atua label on their products.

Palmerston North farmer Cathy Tait-Jamieson (Ngāti Tukorehe) had her latest Hua Parakore audit recently and says the story of a product is relevant to its integrity.

“It’s about traceability – having knowledge about where the seeds you sow, your ingredients come from.” She says all her animals were born on her land. “That’s what whakapapa is about.”

Tait-Jamieson’s farm, BioFarm, has been organically certified since 1986 but Tait-Jamieson says Hua Parakore is a korowai that takes the whole farming process into account.

Organic farmer Brendan Hoare says in contrast to organics, which doesn’t include the people, Hua Parakore is also about the relationship the people have with the land.

Hoare is the founding director of Organic Systems, a company that specialises in creating networks and an environment for organic and ecologically-focussed growers and traders.

“Māori in New Zealand access a lot of natural resources. There is a market advantage in traditional and indigenous products and services.”

But for Hoare, this has to be an open, not Māori-only, market.

“I want the country organic. I would never back a race-based standard.”

Tait-Jamieson agrees. She says it’s all about education and creating awareness. She says the consumer must be able to identify himself or herself with the food he or she is eating.

However, she says New Zealand is a difficult market to sell natural products to. Because the country has such a rich natural wildlife she says “New Zealanders think everything is natural anyways”.

Tipene says Hua Parakore is appealing to Māori in particular but open to anybody who wants to live a safe, healthy and sustainable life.

“If you expose yourself to kaitangata, you expose yourself to diabetes and what else you see at the moment. The food is turning around and eating you.”

In the long run, Tipene doesn’t want to focus on a New Zealand market alone.

“If other indigenous countries pick it up, I’m hoping that we can create an international market for Hua Parakore.”

But within New Zealand, he says the development of Hua Parakore shows a new development in the way Māori use their land.

“It’s a milestone for us to look at ourselves not only as treaty partners, but also to critically look at our own land.”