Plants and whakapapa

Keri Thompson, General Manager for the Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust, explains eco-sourcing from a Māori perspective.

Questions for discussion:

• What does Keri mean when she says, “As that parent leaves, its children still remain”?
• Why is eco-sourcing important for ecological restoration projects?

Transcript

KERI THOMPSON

You could consider us boutique. So we’re not looking at becoming one of those big, huge nurseries pumping out all these beautiful trees. The whakapapa – where they come from, where those seeds are eco-sourced – for us are important because every native plant has a whakapapa, where they have come from. So it’s a whānau thing for us too, because along with their whakapapa of whatever reason that tree was there, there was a whakapapa of people that would have travelled that way too. So we have the stories of where our kaumātua back in the days sourced their rongoā, sourced their kawakawa. So we know why they grow there, but to know that we’re actually taking those trips back with people but you’re also taking those trips back with the plants that you’re going to grow.

We aim to go seed sourcing from that tree where that seed dropped to take the children – once we’ve grown them to plant them again – back to their parents, as close to the whānau that we can find. Because as that parent leaves, its children still remain. That’s one of our big goals that we’re trying to do.

Acknowledgements

Keri Thompson
Ngāti Hauā Iwi Trust
Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust
Still of young kaimahi teaching school children, Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust
Footage of karakia near tī kōuka (cabbage) tree, Ākina Foundation