Mātauranga Māori and Kai in Schools: An Exploration of Traditional Māori Knowledge and Food in Five Primary Schools in Regional New Zealand

Māori (Indigenous people of New Zealand (NZ)) suffer food insecurity disproportionately in New Zealand. Some research suggests that Māori value mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) when it comes to the collection, preparation and eating of kai (food). This study explores the connections between mātauranga Māori and kai in regional NZ schools for potential pathways to impact food security for children. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with five primary school principals in the Hawke’s Bay region. Principals were purposively selected on commitments to proactively incorporating mātauranga Māori into their school environment. Reflective thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Three main themes were identified: teaching and learning around mātauranga Māori and kai; environmental sustainability and the sustainability of kai initiatives; and school values. A strong emphasis was placed on the learning of traditional Māori values around kai and the whenua (land) and the sustainability of teaching programs. School values were invariably bound in Te Ao Māori (a Māori worldview) however, schools felt challenged in aligning their values and their mātauranga Māori-bound teaching practices with the current food provision programme in their schools (Ka Ora, Ka Ako). The programme’s strict nutritional guidelines appeared to challenge traditional Māori approaches to kai. Schools remain an ideal environment for the incorporation of mātauranga Māori to support food security and food education, and future work should explore a demonstration project that incorporates the knowledge gained in this study and ways to integrate mātauranga Māori into Ka Ora, Ka Ako.


Introduction
Food insecurity exists where an individual, family or community do not have physical and economic access to safe, nutritious and adequate food (Food and Argicultural Organization 2002).Māori (Indigenous people of New Zealand) children in New Zealand (NZ) are 1.8 times more likely to live in food insecure households compared to non-Māori (Ministry of Health 2019) and this has serious ramifications for a number of health issues, including childhood obesity (Utter et al. 2018), asthma, eczema (Ministry of Health 2019), and mental health (Carter et al. 2011).Food insecurity as a child can have long lasting impacts into adulthood, particularly as taste preferences and satiety biomarkers are established in childhood (Beavis et al. 2019).
Traditionally, food has important cultural standing to Māori and it is not surprising that researchers have found some Māori families value mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) and traditional kai (food) when asked about food security (Beavis et al. 2019;Huambachano 2018;McKerchar et al. 2015;Moeke-Pickering et al. 2015).Mātauranga Māori is the body of Māori knowledge attributed from Māori ancestors and oral histories, but it also includes knowledge developed by contemporary generations.Mātauranga Māori is described by Hikuroa (2017) as the past, present and future of traditional Māori knowledge.It incorporates the understanding of tikanga (customary and cultural practices) encompassing both physical and non-physical elements, such as wairua (the spiritual aspect).There is strong support for the acknowledgement of mātauranga Māori in today's society, as it has been found to be crucial to Māori identity, particularly for young people (Webber 2012).It has gained acceptance as an educational tool and the pursuit of mātauranga Māori is now a credible research outcome in NZ.
Mātauranga Māori provides support for holistic perspectives of health and wellbeing for Māori (Durie 2004) and more specifically, wellbeing with respect to food (Wham et al. 2012).For Māori, food often has a relationship with, community, whānau (family), ritual and the environment.Food can create connections between whānau, is used to show manaakitanga (hospitality and generosity) and exemplify mana (pride).Conversely, a lack of food or the ability to provide can create a sense of whakamā (embarrassment) (Wiremu et al. 2022) leading to impacts upon wellbeing.
There is a documented perspective in the literature that indicates Māori families value mātauranga Māori in the form of teaching, sharing and passing on of traditional kai knowledge to future generations, such as māra kai (traditional food garden) and the use of the māramataka (Māori lunar calendar).In these families, high importance is placed on retaining mātauranga Māori around kai, valuing childhood experiences, such as growing and preparing food for whānau (Moeke-Pickering et al. 2015).Beavis et al. (2019) also found a relationship between positive effects on hauora (wellbeing) when families are able to display manaakitanga.In a similar fashion worldwide, other Indigenous peoples also value traditional knowledge with respect to food and food security (Johnson-Jennings et al. 2020;Lunga and Musarurwa 2016;Oniang'o et al. 2004).
A study by researchers in regional NZ explored the food system in their local area reporting that participants valued 'building in mātauranga Māori', 'children's hauora' and 'food in schools' when asked about improving food environments for children (McKelvie-Sebileau et al. 2021).Furthermore, they identified that, during COVID-19 lockdowns, schools were better able to provide food and other necessities to children and whānau in need because of their intimate knowledge of school whānau and networks, in comparison to a slow to act, "one-size-fits-all" systemic response (Tipene-Leach and McKelvie-Sebileau 2021).This highlights the importance of schools in the food system to support food security.
Literature on Indigenous knowledge and food insecurity for children in schools anywhere in the world is scarce.Researchers in Nepal (Gartaula et al. 2020) explored whether the school environment might foster a positive relationship between Indigenous knowledge and food literacy (proficiency in food knowledge and skills) (Truman et al. 2017) and thereby, food security.They acknowledged that implementation of Indigenous knowledge for this purpose in schools would be a challenge in a developing country.Others however, thought schools are a prime environment for the incorporation of traditional knowledge and food literacy for children (Smith et al. 2022).Particularly because schools offer a coordinated learning environment where food habits are formed and this impact upon food literacy can create strengthened health, wellbeing and resilience for children and their families (Food and Argiculture Organization 2019).
In NZ, the Ka Ora, Ka Ako healthy school lunch programme was implemented in schools during 2019 as a pilot in 120 schools to provide nutritious school lunches and reduce food insecurity.The programme was expanded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic to include 25% of schools -those considered least advantaged (Ministry of Education 2023).Ka Ora, Ka Ako is by far the biggest nutrition and food security intervention for children in NZ for many decades.It does however appear that mātauranga Māori does not feature strongly in the binding principles of this programme (Ministry of Education 2023) and there is to date no current data which explores mātauranga Māori in the context of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme.Evaluation reports have shown programme benefits include 'fullness after lunch' for children who previously had insufficient food and an increase in wellbeing among secondary students, although not necessarily for Māori students (Vermillion Peirce et al. 2022).This finding sits starkly alongside the findings of others where acknowledgement and inclusion of mātauranga Māori with respect to food positively impacts wellbeing for Māori (Beavis et al. 2019;Wham et al. 2012).
There is a premise that Indigenous food knowledge paired with a formal learning environment could lead to increased food literacy and in turn, an increase in food security.Furthermore, it is reasonable based upon previous findings to also suggest that there could be positive benefits with respect to health and wellbeing for Māori children by taking a mātauranga Māori approach to kai in schools.This study aims to ascertain how mātauranga Māori and kai are connected in low advantage primary schools in the Hawke's Bay (HB) region of NZ.

Methods
This study is part of the Nourishing Hawke's Bay (NHB) research project, which was established to examine reasons for and solutions to the poor nutrition and health outcomes of children in the HB region (McKelvie-Sebileau et al. 2021).The design of this study was qualitative, semi-structured interviews with local primary school principals from schools in low socio-economic areas.Purposive sampling of primary schools known to the research team to be systematically incorporating mātauranga Māori into their school environment was undertaken to ensure a sample of subjects rich in information (Palinkas et al. 2015).The schools included were mainstream state schools, no private schools or kura kaupapa (Māori state schools) participated.
Schools were contacted directly via email and invited to participate.Participants were provided with an information sheet and consent form which was completed prior to the interview.The interviews were undertaken in person by the first author and each took approximately one hour.Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim.Quantitative data from Education Counts (Ministry of Education 2022) provided ethnicity of schools student population for context.Ethics approval was obtained from the Eastern Institute of Technology (Ref: EA05220422).
Māori researchers executed this work comprising a Māori research professor, a Māori postdoctoral researcher and a Māori research assistant (authors 1, 3 and 6).This research is considered Māori-centric, and consistent with the principles of Kaupapa Māori (Māori consistent approach) research (Smith 2015).However, we acknowledge that these schools were all kura auraki (mainstream English-language school) and it was unlikely that all principals would be Māori.Nevertheless, this study puts Māori views at the forefront and its outcomes are of importance to Māori tamariki (children), rangatahi (adolescents) and whānau (Beavis et al. 2019;McKelvie-Sebileau et al. 2021).

Analysis
The interviews were analysed by the first author using reflective thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2021).An inductive approach was taken, in that there were no pre-determined themes, the themes were derived from the data.The thematic analysis involved reading each transcript in their entirety and then re-reading a second time making written notes in the left-hand margin.The notes formed codes capturing meaning, and themes were developed from codes that clustered together.Codes between transcripts were connected, compared and contrasted for repeating patterns between all transcripts, finalising the themes (Braun and Clarke 2012).The first author, an experienced qualitative researcher, conducted the interviews, completed the transcriptions and analysed the data, allowing full immersion in and reflection upon the data.The immersion of researchers into their data allows for exploration of all possible interpretations, reflections and perspectives of the data to generate descriptive themes (Maher et al. 2018).Liamputtong (2009) suggests that to be fully immersed in the data, researchers ought to transcribe their own data as part of the analysis process to enable them to be as familiar as possible with the content.This contributes to the processes of reflection, allowing researchers to engage thoughtfully with their data and to query and question their interpretations and assumptions (Braun and Clarke 2019).Author RMH assisted in the interviews and analysis, and was in agreeance with the first author on the identified themes, suggesting our interpretation of this data is trustworthy and well-grounded.
Information power (Malterud et al. 2016) was used in determining the size of the sample The underlying theory behind information power is that the more information held by the sample, a lower number of participants is required.Malterud et al. (2016) describes a framework for information power that considers the aim (narrow or broad), specificity (dense or sparse), theory (applied or none), dialogue (strong or weak) and analysis (case or cross-case) to determine if sufficient information power has been obtained.Using this framework as a guide it is considered this study obtains sufficient information power evidenced by the narrow aim of the study, dense specificity detailed by the purposive sampling method used, strong interview dialogue and in-depth exploration of interview narratives.The authors utilised rigorous and robust reflective analysis processes described here to ensure our interpretation of the data is rich, well-grounded, and trustworthy.
Page 5 of 15 17 Findings Five primary school principals from low socioeconomic communities in the HB region were interviewed.Schools had a high Māori population 55-100% (mean = 74%).All schools were part of the government's free, healthy school lunch programme, Ka Ora, Ka Ako.For context, three schools had their lunches supplied from an external provider (lunches prepared off site and delivered to the school) and two schools were part of the internal model (lunches cooked onsite).Three main themes were identified; teaching and learning around mātauranga Māori and kai, sustainability of kai initiatives and environmental sustainability, and school values.Principals are identified using pseudonyms.

Teaching and Learning Around Mātauranga Māori and Kai
This theme describes that applying mātauranga Māori to kai was at the forefront of all schools' current initiatives and also visions for the future.Strong emphasis was placed on teaching the connections between mātauranga Māori and kai to children in their day-to-day learning.Schools modelled how this occurred in their school' environment using cultural traditions and tikanga.A challenge for schools was the continuation of their teaching and learning about kai and mātauranga Māori within the bounds of the current food provision programme in their schools, Ka Ora, Ka Ako.
Principals' future visions for their schools involved teaching and learning around kai from a mātauranga Māori perspective: It will be all mātauranga Māori learning around māra kai, and we've been putting together a plan with some of the kids around how we're going to approach the planting, so we've been going through the Maramataka and Matariki (Pleiades) but also having experts come in and teach our kids how to plant properly.(Nikau).
Principals had plans to incorporate learning about mātauranga Māori kai into their school curriculum so they were able to utilise this for learning opportunities: We want to be able to utilise our school curriculum, the kaupapa (subjects) or kaitiaki (guardian/caregiver), using whakatauki (proverb) around tohu (sign) and signs when the whenua (land) is well, then the people are well.So around that comes food sovereignty, around that comes opportunities exploring more in our curriculum the Māramataka and the different phases for gathering kai and planting kai.All of those parts will be incorporated into our curriculum so that our kids are a part of the kai that we are serving.(Rimu).
Traditional Māori values, such as connection to the land, to kai, and to wider whānau in the community, alongside sharing kai, appeared to be important considerations for schools when considering their school environment around kai in the future: We want to be able to look at kai that we know is important to us, that is connected to Tupuānuku (Matariki star) and the whenua.We still have the idea that if my whānau, we've grown all this kai and we've got too much, I want to be able to koha it to the school and I want the school to be able to turn it into kai that is then consumed by our kids, with our kids so that the kids are a part of bringing the kai in . . .that they're able to be a part of the process of cooking it, so that the kai is connected to the kids.We don't want anything that is brought in and given, because I have no connection to it, I don't eat it" (Rimu).
Teaching the mana of kai was something that schools held in high regard.They held the belief that you need to respect kai and the land, and understand it in order to be able to work with it effectively from a mātauranga perspective: We want our kura (school) to be that community kura and to have days where it's a cooking kai day, this is what we have in our garden and this is what we're going to cook.So, having our māra (garden) being a community māra like the Te Āranga (place name) one was, it would bring more emphasis on our parents coming into kura and looking after our garden.We have to get all this kind of curriculum stuff up and running and our kids in a space where they can look at kai and respect kai for what it is because we still have kids that shift that green thing over there [on their plate] but if we get our kids to a space where their learning is very deliberate and purposeful [they understand] that when I get something like kai cause I am ready for that learning and I am going to understand what it is, and when I go into our māra I am not just taking out the weeds, but I am planting seeds and I am going to go back and have a look at it, water it, look after it, maintain it.(Kowhai).
Principals shared what the teaching of kai from a mātauranga Māori perspective looked like: There are certain things like why do we sing the waiata (song) of Te Kāroro (name of song) because it's about kai, it's about the places that the kina (sea urchin) were, the pātiki (flounder), what aspects in there tell us about, a) we've sung a waiata about it so kai is pretty important, it's about manaaki tangata (to take care of people), it's about a deeper connection with places, with land, with the sea, with the mahinga kai (place for collecting food) because that was a huge, cause I mean if you didn't have enough kai by now then you weren't going to survive the winter.(Kauri).
Applying mātauranga Māori to traditional Māori methods of preparing, growing and cooking food was important for schools: We are building our rongoa (medicine) garden that is going to be a great space because they've [children] grown all of our seedlings and then they'll be able to use that to make kawakawa (pepper tree) balms to fix skin things or make teas that do digestive systems stuff, and then hopefully we can get our māra kai up and running.We're hoping that we can also have our permanent hangi (earth oven) pit out there and so [teacher] and them they're doing a umu (earth oven) next week so all of that preparing of kai we'll be able to do things like that, (Kowhai).
Following traditional Māori values, schools valued whānau or local community members to teach their traditional knowledge: We've got one or two Nannies that still know how to do kumara (sweet potato) and one of the teacher's sisters is a garden freak so does all alternative kai and pretty much grows everything and she runs a course on it so we're trying to humbug her to come and share some of her expertise.We've got one or two staff who are really interested in incorporating the Māramataka into what they do so we're just investigating how we can do that in a logical and pragmatic kind of a way, what do we know about our own local one here, Kahungunu (an East Coast Iwi (tribal group) and just gathering that info, that mātauranga together.(Kauri).
One principal felt there were few opportunities for teaching and learning within the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme in the context of their environment (a school in a low socioeconomic area) and that education about food to support food security outside of the school environment is needed: I think it should be a bit more realistic in terms of our tamariki, especially in low decile schools [low socioeconomic] who go home and they've got something totally different in their cupboard.We have to use brown rice, brown pasta, brown everything but that's not in their cupboards that's not what they have at home, they don't have fresh veggies, they don't have fruit so how are we meant to close that gap between our kids opening up their cupboards and seeing a meal from noodles and some veggies in the fridge.The amount of kids that have siblings that they take care of when they go home because Mum doesn't get back home till 5 or 6 or Dad goes to work at 6 and so I have to do kai, they might have a bread and they might have a margarine a jam, so it's the Ministry allowing us to have opportunities for us to teach our kids how to make something out of nothing, how to make something nutritional.There are not enough opportunities to teach and to teach from where our kids are at, so again they're starting the goal posts here and you go that way but our kids are actually here in reality and its only when they come to kura that they get a good decent kai and so you think about the holidays, they've got 12 weeks over the whole year when they're not at school.(Kowhai).
They felt the learning opportunities around healthy kai in schools could extend to wider whānau:

When they [kids] go shopping with Mum or Dad they can say 'Mum can we get this frozen pack and a mince and an onion', so us being able to take them to the supermarket, get staple things that don't cost. Mum might only have $20 but 'oh Mum we can get this and this brand and this thing and this can do 3 nights', those things are really powerful tools and real tools that would speak volumes. It might be under $20
a meal that could feed 10 people; we've got so many Mums here that can make something out of nothing and make it go a long way, and teaching our kids how to prepare meals and things like that if they've got left overs or you know, so from this you can make this, got some potatoes, make a mash potato.(Kowhai).

Sustainability of Kai Initiatives and Environmental Sustainability
This theme encapsulates that environmental sustainability and sustainability of kai initiatives in terms of longevity were central factors of consideration for school principals with respect to teaching and learning, and ensuring the implementation of mātauranga Māori in their schools would be sustainable: "we have to think from the very beginning for it to be really sustainable [referring to kai initiatives in their school]".(Kowhai).
One school used mātauranga Māori through pūrākau (creation story) to teach their tamariki about environmental sustainability: We tipped out all the rubbish on the ground to show the kids the amount of waste we were having and that affects Pāpatūānuku (earth mother), that goes into the ocean and that affects Tangaroa (sea god) and that was the purpose of our mural was to share that enviro-sustainability.Then we showed kids what healthy kai is, we talked about yoghurts, you know you have the single container, if Mum and Dad buy the big one, you just pour it in this [reusable container] and close the lid.(Totara).17 Page 8 of 15 Sustainability of kai initiatives in schools was considered in the redevelopment of one school's curriculum: If that funding stops [Ka Ora, Ka Ako] ka pai (it is good) we don't need you anyway, cause we've got it ourselves, we own this, we run it, we've got our relationships, our whānau, so if, the funding system ever were to change all those people that are pulling outside [have external providers] have got nothing set, you're gone, what are you going to do.Unless you've got something internally set up for your school you're susceptible to everybody else, you don't have control yourself and we've always talked about, let's put the control in our hands, so we can do it the best way possible, knowing that we can only do this for whānau and community.(Rimu).Some principals acknowledged that the sustainability of initiatives, such as māra kai, relied heavily on the support of passionate teachers: We've got variable uptake in that, I would say in terms of the interest and the passion from teachers, some of them are keen gardeners and want to grow stuff and some of them just don't like getting their hands dirty.It's really individual teachers and their passion for gardening which is whether they get off their bums and do that with the kids.It's pretty dependent on the drive and the passion of a couple of teachers to make that sort of thing happen.(Kauri).

School Values
This theme captures that all schools' philosophies and values were bound in Te Ao Māori (Māori worldview) and food in their schools was approached from the same perspective.Schools valued supporting food security for their children however, it appeared that some principals felt challenged in aligning Ka Ora, Ka Ako with their schools' values and commitment to mātauranga Māori.
Schools placed a strong emphasis on their children being food secure whilst in school and used their relationships with whānau to assist outside of school where possible: Kids get kai when they need it . . .if whānau need kai then we do food drop offs, we make sure that kids get what they need, whānau get what they need, cause they are part of our family, and because we have built that trust and relationships over so many years . . .if someone passes away we make sure that there is extra kai, cause we know that the pressure is going to go on the household so we make sure that we do massive kai drop offs for the whānau so that they are able to sustain that.(Nikau).
The value of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme for principals appeared to be the impact upon food security within in the school environment: "it's cool that a couple of kids who didn't have kai have kai every day now, that's obviously huge".(Totara) and [Name] talks about kai security and I think if we take that as a basis of why we we're doing kai in schools, that's the whakaaroa (thought/thinking) for me you know, it's about making sure that our kids get fed, it's about okay this kid has had no breakfast, if we don't feed them something now, the pie they had on the way to school is the only kai they're going to get till tonight or till tomorrow mornings pie so whatever we are Page 9 of 15 17 able to feed them is a bonus and if it happens to be a healthy kai or there is more fruit and veggies in there then all the better.(Kauri).
However, it seemed that some principals felt the rules and regulations of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme (often the nutritional guidelines) did not directly align with their school values bound in a Te Ao Māori worldview and mātauranga Māori: "the system just puts so much regulations and things that they have to tick, it means that our kids can't be a part of the kai, which is again a white system".(Kowhai).
We don't fit in with the middle-class white serving portions and ratios . . .it's like here Māori school have something but you have to abide by our rules, that doesn't sit well with us.We've probably got kids getting more veggies now than they have ever eaten in their life but we still can't meet the exact guidelines or we're still doing too much processed food or something else, those nutritional guidelines are problematic.(Kauri).
Schools appeared to value intergenerational approaches grounded in Te Ao Māori and one school principal felt that their efforts prior to the implementation of Ka Ora, Ka Ako were extending to wider whānau and those gains were lost as a result of their initiation into the programme: It could have been a generational change . . .we were actually making really good head way with the way we were doing it, inclusive way, based around Te Ao Māori practices.It changed the philosophy, someone brings you your lunch, you consume it but you're not involved in any of the preparation, which was the part of it that you made your own lunch at home, you poured the yoghurt yourself, you helped Mum with the shopping, it was all that rich learning that is gone and someone just gives it to you.(Totara).
It seemed that kids could only be involved in traditional food in school for special occasions outside of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme: Because of what the government has put on schools now so at the moment the nutritional value in things is just kept there, when we have our Matariki etc, that's when we bring out our traditional kai and that process so our kids were involved in the peeling of the kumara, potatoes, cabbage and stuffing and then the rest of our kids were able to pack their own hangi, so its only times like that where we have been able to bring in that mātauranga Māori.(Kowhai).

Discussion
This paper presents a novel look into how a small number of schools in a regional area of NZ are applying mātauranga Māori to kai in their school environment.The schools involved were well on their way in this quest, although a lot of their discussions were predicated upon visions for the future.All schools placed a heavy emphasis on teaching traditional knowledge whilst acknowledging environmental sustainability, sustainability of initiatives and current challenges around kai in their school environment.School values and commitment to mātauranga Māori were challenged working within the bounds of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme, which often did not align with schools Te Ao Māori worldview.
To our knowledge this is the first study exploring the pairing of mātauranga Māori and kai in schools.These findings support both international and NZ literature that Indigenous knowledge can and is being used to support kai initiatives, but further shows support that this can also occur in a school environment (Beavis et al. 2019;Gartaula et al. 2020;Huambachano 2018;Johnson-Jennings et al. 2020;Lunga and Musarurwa 2016;McKerchar et al. 2015;Moeke-Pickering et al. 2015;Oniang'o et al. 2004;Smith et al. 2022).Indigenous knowledge and kai in the school environment should be proactively combined with formal school learning to enhance education about food.This can have multiple benefits from establishing food literacy to enhancing food security (Gartaula et al. 2020;Smith et al. 2022).Furthermore, there is the potential for the intergenerational transfer of food knowledge as evidenced in this study.Children can be teachers as well as learners, and this leads to wider family and systemic effects on multiple generations (Johnson-Jennings et al. 2020).
With the right approach, applying mātauranga Māori to teaching around kai could extend further into the food sovereignty domain where whānau develop, amongst other things, an increasing influence over food procurement (Wiremu et al. 2022).Huambachano (2018) has suggested that a movement toward food sovereignty resonates closely with Māori Indigenous knowledge.For Māori, food is valued and symbolises history, culture and community, creating a shared environment to nurture and respect the whenua to provide food for the whānau.In comparison, food security initiatives and frameworks can often revolve heavily around industry and agricultural systems, negating Indigenous knowledge.A move toward food sovereignty needs to include careful consideration of sustainability (both environmental and of initiatives) as found in this study and previous research (Huambachano 2015).
Some school principals in this study acknowledged the contribution of Ka Ora, Ka Ako to food security for children however, they advocated a move towards teachings related to kai from a mātauranga Māori perspective and felt that the usefulness of the school lunch programme was limited in this regard.One example of this is around, the sharing of food which was identified in this study as important to principals and has similarly been identified in previous research as an important value for Māori families (Beavis et al. 2019).Sharing food is a very common practice in many Indigenous cultures, however food safety may become a risk (Anyogu et al. 2021;Mercado et al. 2018;Sikhiram 2014).NZ has strict food safety regulations with very narrow bacteriological and toxicological definitions of risk.Food which is supplied for others to eat must have come from a registered commercial kitchen or a registered hunter (Ministry of Primary Industries 2021, 2022).These regulations exclude the sharing of food for the purposes of commercial distribution and consumption which would rule out whānau sharing excess food or food they had grown or caught, with their local school for consumption by school students.Bordeleau et al. (2016) proposes that traditional values should be considered in risk assessments of food safety because they are valued so highly with Indigenous populations, and such an approach often leads to more nutritious meals and less associated long-term disease.
The ability of such programmes to have the flexibility to align with schools' philosophies is an important consideration for programme design in the future.This is crucial considering previous research shows initiatives with high cultural emphasis and promotion of identity can decrease health behaviour risk and increase wellbeing (Johnson-Jennings et al. 2020).The apparent lack of mātauranga Māori within Ka Ora, Ka Ako alongside the findings that there is no improvement in wellbeing for Māori students warrants further investigation (Vermillion Peirce et al. 2022).It would be worthwhile for programme designers to consider including mātauranga Māori and for future research to repeat the evaluation by Vermillion Peirce et al. (2022) to consider any impacts.
The principals in this study highlighted that the school environment can be used not only to incorporate Indigenous knowledge about kai, but to teach children, in effect, Indigenous food literacy.Focused on this concept, a framework could be developed to teach children from their own cultural narratives with an emphasis on valuable education around food.A demonstration Page 11 of 15 17 project incorporating mātauranga Māori and kai with a wide definition of food risks could show further support for these findings without compromising food safety.This could also further contribute to an improvement in school food environments (Chote et al. 2022).It would be worthwhile to explore in further detail the notions of food security versus food sovereignty in NZ to establish if efforts for Māori food security should rather be focused on food sovereignty.
Limitations of this study include the small sample size and the possibility of sampling bias due to the purposive sampling method based upon known application of mātauranga in the school environment.The researchers acknowledge therefore, that these views may not be those of all school principals in the HB region.Secondly, the region in which this study was conducted is a small regional area of NZ.In addition, these are the findings of primary school principals and may not be shared by secondary school principals.The authors acknowledge that this study is not an evaluation of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme, but an exploration of principals thoughts on mātauranga Māori and kai in their schools.Neither does this study measure food security; it explores mātauranga Māori and kai in schools as a means of supporting food security.Considering that this region has an identified high need, the schools in this study could lead the way for other areas in the provision of insight into how mātauranga Māori can be used in a school environment to support teaching about kai, with a vision to support food security and possibly, wider food sovereignty.
The teaching and learning about kai and mātauranga Māori from a Te Ao Māori perspective is at the forefront for these participating schools.Challenges lie in aligning Ka Ora, Ka Ako to a fit-for-purpose curricula built around mātauranga Māori that utilises this practical food security programme in learning.NZ educational authorities encourage mātauranga Māori as a vehicle for learning and existing and future kai initiatives in schools need flexibility to promote the connection to mātauranga Māori.The reduction of barriers for incorporating mātauranga Māori into school food practices and education requires further exploration.The pairing of mātauranga Māori and education or food literacy will preserve and teach traditional Māori knowledge, customs, traditions and values around kai, and contribute to healthy and meaningful lives for our tamariki and rangatahi as they progress to adulthood.