Soil health and security are key components of our wellbeing. Even so, soil is faced with many environmental challenges under the current iteration of capitalism. A paradigm shift is needed to encourage care for this resource. In te ao Maori, soil is taonga. It is also whanaunga - it holds ancestral connections and is the root of turangawaewae and whakapapa. It is the source of shelter, kai and manaakitanga.
Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Maori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook shines a light on Maori relationships with soil, as well as the connections between soil and food security, and frames these links within the wider discourse of tino rangatiratanga from a variety of Maori perspectives. Through a range of essays, profiles and recipes, it seeks to promote wellbeing and elevate the mana of the soil by drawing on the hua parakore Maori organics framework as a means for understanding these wide-ranging, diverse and interwoven relationships with soil.
