Stories & Pānui

welcome to our august pānui
“Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata, haere whakamua”.
By caring for the land and the people the future will be prosperous.
As we huddled together across Aotearoa during the crisp Matariki nights, gazing towards the stars and remembering those who have shaped us, the Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger strategic leadership and kaimahi team were taking a few tentative steps into that newness. We give thanks and offer our dreams for the year ahead:

matariki - te tau hau māori
Behold Tupuānuku, of the fertile soil, spread your plenty across the land.
Reveal the bounty of Rongoā, Indeed!
We see and feel heartened by Tupuānuku, one of the nine Matariki stars connected to our kai and our rongoā that are grown in the soil or harvested from the ground. At this time we gently remind ourselves of, and reflect on, the importance of our soil and all the life forces it contains that contribute to our harvests, nurturing and producing our kai atua.

Welcome to our June 2023 Pānui
Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata,
ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tina.
Seek out distant horizons and cherish those you attain.
It has been an incredible privilege to journey with you all during these last four years of the Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective, as we’ve explored our shared purpose, partnerships, and deep relationships to create meaningful systemic change around food security.

The power of local and community initiatives
Heria te taura tangata.
Weave the people.
Within our communities there lies remarkable potential—there is power in locals coming together to make transformative change. These pockets of individuals and local stakeholders have the ability to weave the people in their rohe, cultivating the relationships and spaces necessary to make behavioural and structural change.

Welcome to our May 2023 Pānui
He kai kei āku ringaringa.
There is food at the end of my hands.
Amongst the wonderful diversity found all across Aotearoa there’s a commonality in our shared visions around kai – we all want food at the end of everyone’s hands.

realising food secure communities
He kai kei aku ringaringa.
There is food at the ends of my hands.
In Aotearoa, food prices are soaring, contributing to a cost-of-living crisis, while some of our most productive food producing regions are struggling to provide their staples, following the natural disasters we experienced earlier this year. This is just the latest in what has now been years of crisis response – which some are now calling a poly-crisis. Continuing to focus on fighting the fires is only going to get us so far.

Welcome to our April 2023 Pānui
Heria te taura tāngata.
Weave the people.
Kotahitanga is about togetherness, solidarity, and collective action. It’s the bringing together of all threads in order to weave the best outcomes – something we’ve all given witness to this year, as we stood in solidarity with all we weathered.

response, recovery and realising a food secure aotearoa
Mā whero, mā pango ka oti ai te mahi.
With red and black the work will be complete.
This is a pivotal yet imaginative moment for Aotearoa, as we move from an immediate crisis response in the wake of pandemic and natural disasters towards longer-term recovery – there is the prospect of realising something better.

Welcome to our March 2023 Pānui
Ki te Kotahi te kākaho, ka whati;
ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati
If a reed stands alone, it can be broken;
if it is in a group, it cannot.
So often during a crisis our communities come together, bonded through adversity that gives rise to care and compassion. We have witnessed collective strength during our most challenging times – whatever it is we’re facing, as we’ve stood in solidarity so that we can respond and heal. Together we cannot be broken.

Welcome to our February 2023 Pānui
He hono tangata e kore e motu; kāpā he taura waka e motu
Connections between people cannot be severed whereas those of a canoe-rope can
Welcome to the start of our journey for 2023! It is said invisible threads are often the strongest ties. This certainly bears truths for many of us at the start of this new year as we reconnect to champion food security together.

Welcome to our December 2022 Pānui
Kia tu nonu i te aroha.
To always stand in love.
As 2022 draws to a close we cast our thoughts and hearts back across the year and the journey we have made together. Our Kore Hiakai kaimahi whānau are struck by the number of inspiring individuals, thoughtful leaders, organisations, collaborations, innovations, mārae, iwi and hapū, funders, decision makers and producers deeply committed to a food secure Aotearoa. It is such a privilege to be a part of all your mahi!

Welcome to our November 2022 Pānui
Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai.
Nurture the seed and it will bloom
In Te Ao Māori, hauora – a holistic view of wellbeing, promotes a wide concept of total health. Our whakatauki this month speaks of the care and continued nurturing we all need to fully realise our potential and to flourish. Kai, and all the aspects of kai, is part of that cultivation. We invite you to explore the hauora realm with us – particularly through a nutritional lens, and the impacts good kai can have on our physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being.

the importance of nutrition
He taonga te hauora.
Health is wealth.
Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective has a vision of a healthy population where all people thrive and have access to enough nutritious food that not only nourishes our bodies but feeds our souls too.

Welcome to our October 2022 Pānui
Ma te Kotahitanga, e whai kaha ai tātau
In unity we have strength
Part of our mahi at Kore Hiakai is naming the current reality of what it means to be food insecure, giving witness to the incredible innovation and resilience of whānau doing it hard by amplifying their insights to those in power, as well as championing those working towards food secure solutions.

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou and welcome to our Mahuru 2022 Pānui
He kai kei āku ringaringa.
There is food at the end of my own hands.
Te Wiki o te Reo. 12-18 Mahuru 2022.
Back on the 1st of August 1980 many marched the Capital streets with a determined call for equality. As the hikoi in Te Whanganui-a-Tara unfolded, passionate pleas were heard across the motu, ultimately landing in a buzz at Beehive. Those who marched were fiercely advocating for Māori language to have equal status with English – although it would take another seven years before Te Reo Māori would become recognised as an official language of Aotearoa. (English does not have this status. There are two official languages in Aotearoa New Zealand – Māori and New Zealand Sign Language).

Championing Te Rēo over the weeks of Mahuru Māori
Te Wiki o te Reo. 12-18 Mahuru 2022.
Whakanuia ō tātou toa reo Māori, e 50 tau ki muri nei.
Honouring our Māori language champions, 50 years on.

Welcome to our August 2022 Pānui
Mā te whiritahi, ka whakatutuki ai ngā pūmanawa ā tāngata
Together weaving the realisation of potential
They say coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success. The strength of any collective is its individual members, and the strength of each member is the collective. Together WE weave the realisation of our country’s potential because we are more powerful when we empower each other.

what is food security?
Me te wai korari.
Like the nectar of the flax flower.
At the heart of any community in Aotearoa you will find a strong sense of hospitality and compassion – manaakitanga and arohatanga. When mishaps happen with our neighbours we tend to reach out and offer what we have to uphold them during their time of need. We might make a meal or soup; drop in kai or share from our gardens; or sometimes donate to a foodbank. This has always been evident in our nationwide DNA and collective sense of identity, and it was especially evident through our responses to COVID 19.

Welcome to our July 2022 Pānui
Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu.
Although it is small, it is precious.
On most week days the Kore Hiakai kaimahi gather for morning karakia at 9.30am. This is a special time for our mahi whānau – assembling for the ascent of each new day, because it’s a time to pause, share, and be present as our whole selves with each other (and sometimes with manuhiri too). A small, purposeful, act with big intent.

the sowing machine
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora a mua
Those who lead give sight to those who follow,
those who follow give life to those who lead
There is more than one way to cook a potato – and there is more than one way to create a food resilient community.