This article draws on research undertaken for the study Kaitiakitanga: Māori Experiences, Expressions, and Understandings (Beverland, 2022). Four main themes were identified: Whānau, Taiao, Taonga Tuku Iho and Tino Rangatiratanga. The research was undertaken through a Kaupapa Māori methodology that carried an obligation to apply Māori ways of knowing and being across all areas of the study. This article draws upon one component from the larger study that concerned taiao and mauri ora. Kaikōrero discussed how being on land, by their respective waterways or being able to access their own cultural resource brought them mauri ora such as balance, cultural connection and wellness.

Haka is a taonga that is steeped in whakapapa and has its origins in the creation of the universe, generating an abundance of meaning and value for Māori. On a national stage, haka is by far the most visible Indigenous ritual within the fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand’s national identity and continues to have a lasting legacy within the realm of sport. However, a major source of contention is the impact of globalisation on haka in sport, which has seen increasing issues of misuse, commodification, appropriation and tokenism.

Mana and kaitiakitanga capture the relationships essential to Māori perceptions of wellbeing. These relationships reflect the interconnectedness and interdependence of humans with the people, places and things in their worlds, and the responsibilities associated with these relationships. Mana is critical for mokopuna, as is the requirement to action it, through kaitiakitanga (Marsden, 2003; Paul-Burke & Rameka, 2015). Kaitiakitanga recognises the place of humans, including mokopuna, to assume guardianship roles and responsibilities.

Colonising processes, which led to the removal of many hapū and iwi from their whenua through conflict and dispossession, significantly altered Māori relationships with environments and associated tikanga. Mārakai, as a manifestation of ahi kaa, formed an important part of Māori resistance efforts to maintain occupation of their whenua. Large-scale disconnection of tangata whenua from whenua severely undermined their wellbeing and ability to maintain nature-culture relationships through continued practice of ahi kaa.

This article explores the Indigenous principle of kaitiakitanga as it relates to Māori agrifood practices. Our discussion is based on interviews with a small cross-section of Māori in the agrifood sector whose practices are informed by a long-standing appreciation of the interconnected realities of lands, food, people and waterways. We consider how the shared Kaupapa Māori principles underpinning these food practices form part of a wider Kaupapa Māori land, water and food systems approach which we call “Kai Ora”. As is evident in the stories that follow, Kaupapa Māori values are practised in diverse ways by different kaitiaki food producers.

Interviews with 22 kaitiaki (environmental guardians) from 14 tribes spread throughout the North Island of New Zealand revealed a common concern that the abundance and diversity of sea foods have declined along much of the coastline over the past 30–50 years. While Western conservationists have tended to emphasise ecological impacts, kaitiaki are concerned at both ecological and cultural consequences of the losses. Cultural consequences include severance of links between people and the food species, reduced connections between people in the community, erosion of ways that kinship is maintained, severed transmission of cultural knowledge, and impaired health and tribal development.

The paper argues that by the time of European contact southern Māori had developed a regime of sustainable practices for the management of natural resources. Some of these practices are described. As traditional society in the south is located in a rather different cultural milieu than that occupied by Māori who lived in areas where kūmera harvests were reliable, an attempt is made to position southern Ngāi Tahu in relation to the dominant anthropological paradigms.