Offstage at Te Matatini, it’s the kai that sings
A look at what people are eating this week at the "Olympics" of kapa haka.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter produced in partnership with Boring Oat Milk. Written by me, Charlotte Muru-Lanning. It’s lovely to have you here!
Having the opportunity to watch kapa haka in person is always a joy. When it’s the best of the best – unbeatable. I’ve spent the last two days immersed in the world of Te Matatini (often described as the Olympics of kapa haka). And it has been a delight.
On Tuesday, Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei, hosts of this year’s competition, welcomed over 1000 manuhiri, including competing kapa haka groups, onto Ōkahu Bay Reserve with a pōwhiri to mark the beginning of the competition. And, yesterday the competition kicked off in style, with the first 15 kapa haka rōpu. Thirty more groups will take the stage at Eden Park over today and tomorrow in the hopes of making it to the finals this Saturday.
When I spoke to Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei Trust Board Chair Marama Royal earlier in the week about the logistics of hosting, she underscored the significance of kai throughout. “When you go to the marae you always remember what you get fed, you don’t remember much else,” Royal said. “Your reputation hangs on your kai.”
While the real stars of Te Matatini are on stage, along with their backstage support and whānau in the crowd, the sparkle of Te Matatini, like any event in te ao Māori, has been punctuated by its abundant and delicious kai: mussel fritters, kina shots, hāngi steamed buns and so much more. To celebrate that, nothing but a picture essay will do. Here are images of just some of the kai on the first day of Te Matatini.
“Quick, take a picture before it’s all gone.” Te Matatini first-timers Steve and Philippa Fitzsimons are visiting from Vancouver. They’re eating steamed pudding with custard and banoffee pie.
Rob Anderson, Sian Roberts and Terina Anderson rehydrate with tall cups of ōtai.
Watermelon and ice-cream.
Te Whai Ao Manga and Te Amiorangi Manga with their kaimoana and fry bread lunch from Toby’s Seafood stall.
Left: Mussel fritters and a Cook Island steak and mushroom sauce roll. Right: A rainbow shaved ice.
Students Claudia and Jessica take a break between performances with sweet and sour pork and fried noodle boxes. They take te reo Māori as a subject at school and this is their first time at Te Matatini.
Rainbow shaved ice in the making.
Boring is a New Zealand oat milk company making oat milk in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.
Thankfully everyone at Boring is safe and accounted for in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, but their local community is hurting.
If you, like many others, are looking for the best way to offer support from afar, financial donations and volunteering locally in any of the affected regions tend to be the most useful type of donation. Here is a list of places in need of your support.
Weekly bites:
It’s been more than a week since Cyclone Gabrielle rolled through the country, and the scale of the devastation is immense. There have been eleven confirmed deaths, thousands of people lost their homes and everything they own, many remain without power or reception. And as the water has receded, news stories trickling out of these regions paint a bleak picture of the widespread impact this will have on our food systems going forward. Pacific seasonal farm workers who are bunking in emergency shelters on Hawke’s Bay have described fears over whether there will still be work available to them. There's a high risk of E coli contamination at some kiwifruit orchards in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, with around 70 hectares of Gisborne's 381 hectares of kiwifruit vines severely compromised. There’s concern that some farmers have had their winter feed crops totally destroyed. In some cases, vineyards in the most affected regions have been completely wiped out. In Northland, farmers have warned of a potential kūmara shortage this year, telling RNZ that up to 90 percent of kūmara crops have been destroyed by flooding.
It can be horrifying to think about the routinely bare shelves at local supermarkets, that food prices have reached record highs and that growing numbers of New Zealanders face food insecurity. Even more horrifying when you reflect upon the fact that we produce enough food to feed 40 million people each year in Aotearoa. In an article published earlier this week, Stuff asks, quite simply, “why?”.
AFB, a bacterial disease that’s fatal to bees, was first recorded in New Zealand in 1877, 38 years after honey bees were introduced. Within 10 years, the disease had spread to almost all parts of the country, and at the time was blamed for a 70% reduction in local honey production. Rēkohu Chatham Islands has the only large bee population in Aotearoa that is free from the disease. Scientists at the University of Waikato are testing honey from Rēkohu to understand whether the composition of honey produced on the island has unique properties – and so far, the results look promising, reports RNZ. The government is backing the project with $61,000 of funding from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund. Which reminds me that I should order a stash of this freeze dried honey produced in Rēkohu.
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Talk next week!
Hei kōnā mai, Charlotte
