UPDATE: Due to the recent change in Alert Levels across Aotearoa, this event will now be held online, and no longer at The Dowse. Please visit our Facebook event page for details of the live stream: https://fb.me/e/d03if4EPj

How do our food systems impact our lands, waters and whānau wellbeing? Join Jared Hiakita, Kelly Marie Francis and Dr Jessica Hutchings to discuss approaches to food in Aotearoa that prioritise self-reliance and self-sustaining practices and promote indigenous food security.

Addressing the current broken food systems, hear how an indigenous food sovereignty movement is using Mātauranga Māori and principles of hua parakore and kaitiakitanga to increase availability and cultivation of kai, and heal both land and people.

Jared Hiakita (Ngāi Tūhoe) is the founder of ŌNuku food forest in Panguru, Hokianga, a Māori organisation using land restoration and permaculture principles as a way to empower Māori communities with the knowledge, skills, motivation and resources to create and expand on local food systems. In 2019 he was the recipient of a humanitarian award from the Muhammad Ali Center in the United States, and was named one of the world's 30 top change-makers aged under 30 by the North American Association for Environmental Education in 2018.

Kelly Marie Francis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wharara, Ngāti Korokoro) is the creator of the charitable trust, Whenua Warrior, a social enterprise movement with the vision of having a harvestable garden available to every person in the country. She works with whanau, hapu, marae, iwi, schools, community groups, and agencies to encourage self-reliance and self-sustaining practices that contribute to indigenous food security and food sovereignty in Aotearoa. She lives at Ihumātao where she has been a core member of SOUL’s occupation for the past three years.

Dr Jessica Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujurati) is a hua parakore gardener and kaupapa Māori researcher. She is skilled in biodynamics, and is a devotee and teacher of Ashtanga Yoga. She helps steer Te Waka Kai Ora, the National Māori Organics Authority of Aotearoa, an organisation committed to environmental and cultural sustainability. Her book Te Mahi Māra Hua Parakore: A Food Sovereignty Handbook explores the practice of ensuring food-secure futures for whānau.

This programme is part of From the Ground Up: Community, Cultivation and Commensality, an exhibition bringing together seven different approaches and perspectives to food cultivation and its consumption. Featured artworks look at the interdependent nature of food and people and specifically the conditions and ecologies of growing, making and sharing food. On until 7 March 2021.