Discover the Traditional Māori Diet: Essential Foods and Their Deep Cultural Meaning

Māori cuisine, known as kai, is deeply rooted in the natural resources of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the traditions of its indigenous people. The traditional Māori diet was a blend of cultivated, hunted, and gathered foods, showcasing a profound connection to the land and sea. This article explores the diverse food list of the traditional Māori diet, highlighting the preparation methods, cultural significance, and the influence of both Polynesian heritage and European contact.

Adaptation and Cultivation

The ancestors of the Māori brought edible plants from their homeland, including kūmara (sweet potato), yam, and taro. Recognizing that Aotearoa's climate was significantly colder than their original homeland, Māori developed sophisticated techniques for adapting these crops to the new environment. They cultivated these plants in huge communal māra (gardens), sometimes enriching the soil with gravel, sand, shell, and charcoal. Lieutenant James Cook, during his 1769 voyage, noted that the Māori gardens were meticulously maintained, with the ground cleared of weeds and the soil carefully tilled.

Some native trees, flax, and flowering shrubs were also brought into cultivation closer to human settlements to attract birds, adding another layer to their food sources.

Native Bush and Foraged Foods

New Zealand was originally covered with dense native bush, and its ferns, vines, palms, fungi, berries, fruit, and seeds became important foods. Aruhe - the rhizomes of the bracken fern (Pteridium esculentum) - were especially important to Māori. Pikopiko (fern shoots) are also a significant part of the diet. Mouku (Asplenium bulbiferum, commonly known as hen and chickens fern) is the most widely eaten. Expert users of traditional Māori wild foods only harvest from plants showing re-growth of three or more full leaves, to ensure that they survive to feed later generations.

Harore (bootlace mushroom), hakeka (wood ear), and pukurau (puffballs) were among the edible fungi known to Māori. These mushrooms grow in moist, humid environments and appear for a short time each year.

Hunting and Gathering

The Māori were hunters, crop farmers, fishermen, and gatherers, and they harvested food from every source - forest, garden, ocean, and stream. The huge flightless birds known as moa were hunted for meat until their extinction. Māori introduced kiore (the Polynesian rat) and kurī (the Polynesian dog), both valuable sources of meat. They hunted a wide range of birds, and seafood was vital to their diet.

Seafood: Kai Moana

Kai moana (food from the sea) was a critical component of the traditional Māori diet, providing essential protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals. The oceans, lakes, and waterways provided fish, seals, whales, dolphins, shellfish, crustaceans and more, and these became especially important after the extinction of the moa. Seafood was also used in social occasions as it demonstrated hospitality (manaakitanga) and generosity at hui or tangi.

Shellfish included tuatua, toheroa, pipi, tuangi, pāua (abalone), kina (sea urchin), titiko (mud snails), pūpū (cat’s eyes), and kuku or kākahi (mussels). On James Cook’s first voyage, the scale of tribally organised fishing impressed the naturalist Joseph Banks. Each tribe had its own named fishing grounds and diving rocks protected by kaitiaki (guardians). These sites were very important, and in some cases tapu (sacred) to the tribes which relied on them for their survival.

Paua is a meaty sea snail, best found along the coast of the South Island. It is considered a delicacy within Māori culture, and its commercial harvesting is regulated by law in order to preserve the species. Paua are prepared in a variety of ways, including creamed, eaten raw, steamed as part of a hāngī, and diced alongside onion and fried into a much-loved fritter.

Whitebait, small freshwater fish, are plentiful in spring when they run upstream. There are six native species, including īnanga, kōaro and kōkopu. In Spring Māori caught whitebait at Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) using nets made from stripped flax, driving the fish into gravel groynes or catching them in nets. Whitebait (inaka or inanga) fishing was a well-established tradition before European settlement at places such as Puari. Mill Island, near the corner of Hereford Street and Oxford Terrace, was another well-known local spot.

Other seafood includes eel and whitebait taken from inland or estuarine waters.

Preparation and Cooking

Māori never cooked in the same buildings that they slept in. The hāngī or earth oven is a traditional Māori method of cooking, especially suited to preparing food for large numbers of people. The elements of the hangi are gifts from the gods - firewood comes from Tane (forests and birds), while Papa (Earthmother) provides the land on which the oven is used. The goddess Mahuika gives the gift of fire, Hineawaawa (streams) and Ranginui (Skyfather) deliver the water needed for steam. Near Rotorua, Maori use the natural pools of boiling water and steam.

Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in a shallow pit dug into the earth. The food is layered on top of the rock (meat first, then vegetables) and covered with leaves, whāriki (flax matting) or, in more recent times, sacking or cloth. The soil is then replaced to trap the steam for a few hours. Smaller quantities of food such as fish and birds were grilled on sticks over glowing embers.

Māori did not make pottery, so their only means of boiling was to place a red-hot stone in a wooden bowl of liquid.

Preservation Techniques

Understanding the effect of the moon on preservation and preparation of kai was very important. Food could be dried in embers or, in the geothermal Rotorua area, spread on hot rocks. Foods commonly dried included kūmara, shellfish (such as pipi) and fish (such as shark and eels). Shellfish were threaded onto long lengths of twisted flax and hung from lines or whata (platforms) to dry in the sun and wind.

Read also: A Taste of Poland: Diet and Dishes

Fatty birds such as tītī (muttonbirds) were preserved in their own fat. After cooking, the hot fat was set aside. The meat was packed into hue (gourds), and the fat poured in to set around it. The harvest of Tītī from islands surrounding Rakiura (Stewart Island) is of great economic, social and cultural importance to Ngāi Tahu. When the hot fat retained from cooking the birds is poured in and allowed to set, the flesh of the birds inside the pōhā is preserved for a very long time. The pōhā are protected with a covering of bark from the tōtara tree.

Mara kai is a traditional fermentation process for food such as crayfish and fish. After European arrival, it was also used for kānga (corn). The kai is placed in a kete (flax basket) and steeped in very slow-running water for days or weeks until the kōpiro (inner flesh) settles to the bottom of the kete. If the kūmara did start to rot, they could be preserved by fermentation, producing kōtero.

Whata were elevated platforms to hold or hang kai from until it could be stored more permanently in pātaka (storehouses) or rua kūmara (underground storage pits). Rua kūmara were sited on slopes or other free-draining places so water never sat inside them. Whole kūmara were carefully placed on shelves cut into the inner walls of the pit. The kūmara were regularly checked for rot and rotated to ensure they stayed dry.

Key Ingredients in the Traditional Māori Diet

Kūmara (Sweet Potato): A staple crop brought from Polynesia, cultivated with great care. The varieties of kūmara eaten today are quite different from the varieties eaten before-Europeans arrived. The most common modern kūmara, Ōwairaka Red, was introduced by a whaling ship, the Rainbow, moored at Ōpōtiki in the 1850s.
Aruhe (Bracken Fern Rhizomes): An essential foraged food, providing starch.
Seafood: A wide variety of fish and shellfish, including pāua, kina, and whitebait.
Birds: Various native birds, including muttonbirds, were hunted and preserved.
Pikopiko (Fern Shoots): Young fern shoots, harvested and prepared as a vegetable. Like asparagus, pikopiko have a natural snapping point. Rub your hand up the back of a stalk, bending it slightly until it snaps at the weakest point. Carefully wash the tips in cold water and use your fingers to rub off the brown speckles along the stalk. Also remove the small fern-shaped leaves.
Karaka Berries: Fleshy berries that require careful processing to remove toxins. The fleshy berry of the karaka tree is initially green, then ripens to bright orange in summer. Its ripe texture is like that of a date and it has a light mango flavour. The kernel is poisonous and can cause paralysis. After removing the berry’s flesh, Māori made the kernel safe to eat by steeping it in water and cooking it for up to 12 hours. To make flour, the processed kernels were sundried until the husk came apart.
Karengo (Seaweed): A versatile seaweed used for food, medicine, and storage. Karengo, sometimes known as parengo (Porphyra species), is a seaweed with exceptional eating qualities, also used as medicine and as a storage container or a steaming vessel for fish, kōura (crayfish) and other kaimoana (seafood).

Impact of Introduced Foods

The potato was introduced to Māori in the 1780s by visiting sailors. It was easier to grow than kūmara and became established throughout the country. Because it helped feed war parties, some historians have suggested that the New Zealand wars of the 1810s to 1830s (sometimes called the ‘musket wars’) should be renamed the ‘potato wars’. Early potatoes looked different from modern varieties.

Europeans introduced a variety of foods after they began to arrive. One such item was the pig. Europeans introduced pigs, sheep, chickens and goats. Maori discovered pigs could be fattened quickly, so the boil-up was created - pork, puha and potatoes boiled together for a one pot meal. Pork, pūhā and potatoes became a new staple meal for Māori. Both pork and bacon bones are popular ingredients but other meats such as brisket or sausages can be substituted, and pumpkin, kūmara, kamokamo (sweet marrow) and watercress can be added.

Corn and maize grew easily and Māori soon applied their traditional cooking and preservation methods to them, producing dishes such as kānga pirau (fermented corn). Kānga pungarehu was a dish of corn kernels mixed with pungarehu (cleaned ash from the fire) and boiled until the husks came away. The swollen kernels were then eaten with sugar and cream or milk, like porridge. Kānga waru was a grated corn dish mixed with mashed kūmara or sugar and wrapped in corn husks then either boiled or cooked in a hāngī.

Rewena bread is a large oven-baked loaf that is leavened with a culture made from the juice of boiled potato. Paraoa parai (fried bread) is made from a simple dough, kneaded and cut or rolled into individual buns and deep-fried in fat or cooking oil until golden. Takakau, also called flatbread or cartwheel bread because of its shape, is a simple damper cooked in the oven or the fire.

Traditional Māori Recipes: A Taste of the Past

Hāngī: A cooking method and dish involving steaming food in an underground oven with heated rocks.
Boil-up: A stew of pork, potatoes, kūmara, pūhā, and other vegetables.
Kānga Pirau: Fermented corn, a dish created after European settlement. By fermenting the corn's kernels, the food was able to last long past its summer growing season, stretching through winter. The porridge has a deeply savory flavor and sour smell with strong notes of blue cheese created during the corn's fermentation process. Those not accustomed to eating this dish may find the smell challenging.
Rewena Paraoa: A sourdough potato bread with a unique flavor and texture.
Toroi: A dish of fresh mussels served with pūhā juice.
Paua Fritters: Diced paua mixed with onion and fried.
Whitebait Fritters: A popular way to prepare whitebait, often served as a snack.
Pork and Puha: Root vegetables like potatoes or kumara are boiled with puha (watercress) and spinach in a pork stock. Foods are seasoned with items like horopito (which replaces traditional pepper) and kawakawa, which has a mint flavor. Seaweed is also used as seasoning, and pikopiko fern tips are added to dishes.

Contemporary Māori Cuisine

From the late 20th century there was a marked resurgence of interest in traditional and regional foods globally, as well as in healthier and more sustainable ways of eating. As Māori became adept at cooking with pots and ovens, the hāngī was used less frequently, although it is still used for special occasions and large gatherings such as tangihanga. As Māori became a largely urbanised people after the Second World War, they began to buy most of their food instead of purchasing basics such as flour and sugar, and hunting and harvesting the rest.

Since the late 20th century traditional Māori foods have been prepared and presented in new ways to suit the modern palate. Today, the hangi meal is used mostly for large gatherings and special occasions - after all, it takes many hours to steam food in an earthen oven-fueled steaming rocks. Like many cultures, food accompanies most Maori celebrations, including those held on Waitangi Day. Each year on Feb. 6, the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 is celebrated. That was the year the representatives of the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs signed what is now considered the country’s founding document. It is a great day to try kai at the treaty grounds because there are numerous food stalls serving traditional Maori foods such as hangi, a pot of kina, fry bread, tuatua fritters, and so much more. Even better, you can go on a Maori cultural experience, like a visit to the Tamaki Maori Village south of Rotorua. There you can see a recreated traditional village in an ancient native Tawa forest. Enjoy traditions, stories and performing arts … and … food.

Traditional food is connected to the land or the sea. Māori cuisine, known as kai, distinguishes itself with its fundamental pillars, including kai whanau, food from the land, and kai moana, meaning food from the sea.

The Cultural Significance of Food

New Zealand’s indigenous Maori have a culture that seamlessly blends the sacred with the practical. This also applies to food (kai) and how it is served. The sacred and the ordinary must not mix, and serving food is no exception. The traditional food tray must be carefully managed during serving. Since food is noa and the head is tapu, a plate of food should never be passed over a Maori person’s head. To do so will strip the person of tapu. A Maori food tray could hold something like paua (abalone) or tio (oysters), rewena paraoa (potato bread) and korengo (seaweed).

Kai was an important part of festivals such as Matariki when people would gather to share entertainment, hospitality and knowledge at feasts. The Moon (marama) is central to the of harvesting kai on the land and at sea. Specific areas rich in food resources for hunting or gathering are known as mahinga kai or mahika kai.

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