CREATION NARRATIVES OF MAHINGA KAI Mäori customary food-gathering sites and practices Chanel Phillips* Anne- Marie Jackson† Hauiti Hakopa‡ Abstract Mahinga kai, Mäori customary food-gathering sites and practices, emerged at the beginning of the creation narratives when the Mäori world was fi rst formed and atua roamed upon the face of the land. This paper critically evaluates the emergent discourses of mahinga kai within key Mäori creation narratives that stem from the Mäori worldview. The narratives selected for analysis were the following three creation narratives: the separation of Ranginui and Papa-tü- ä- nuku, the retribution of Tü- mata- uenga and the creation of humanity. The multiple discourses that emerge from these narratives involved mahinga kai as whakapapa, whanaungatanga, tikanga with the subsequent discourse of tapu, kaitiakitanga with the subsequent discourse of mauri and mätauranga. A discursive analysis of mahinga kai in Mäori creation narratives confi rms mahinga kai as an expression of Mäori worldview and reveals a myriad of understandings. Keywords mahinga kai, customary food gathering, creation narratives, Mäori worldview * Ngäti Hine, Ngäpuhi. PhD Candidate, School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Email: [email protected] † Ngäti Whätua, Ngäpuhi, Ngäti Wai, Ngäti Kahu o Whangaroa. Senior Lecturer, Mäori Physical Education and Health, School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. ‡ Ngäti Tüwharetoa. Teaching Fellow, Mäori Physical Education and Health, School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. DOI: 10.20507/MAIJournal.2016.5.1.5 64 C. PHILLIPS ET AL. Introduction The worldview is the central systemisation of conceptions of reality to which members Customary food- gathering sites and practices of its culture assent and from which stems are fundamental to many Indigenous peoples their value system. The worldview lies at the worldwide (United Nations, 2009). The ability heart of the culture, touching, interacting with for Indigenous peoples to collect and main- and strongly infl uencing every aspect of the tain their connection to and sustainable use of culture. (p. 56) these practices underpins positive conceptuali- sations of identity, health and wellbeing (King, Essential to a Mäori worldview are creation Smith, & Gracey, 2009; Panelli & Tipa, 2009). narratives (Jackson, 2011; Marsden, 2003b). Furthermore, these practices are underpinned Creation narratives convey myth messages that by unique worldviews, from which diverse form the belief and value system of people, knowledge systems and cultural paradigms governing their everyday practices and norms emerge. Within an Aotearoa New Zealand (Ka’ai & Higgins, 2004; Marsden, 2003b). (hereafter referred to as New Zealand) context, Jackson (2011) warns that multiple versions of an example of customary food- gathering sites creation narratives exist among iwi and hapü; and practices is encapsulated in the phrase however, “the stories that revolve around mahinga kai. them have a common thread or theme running Mahinga kai has multiple interpretations. through them” (Marsden, 2003b, p. 55). Broadly, mahinga kai is described as a tra- The American scholar Joseph Campbell ditional Mäori food- gathering practice with (2004) provides another layer of understanding significance also attached to food-gathering of the roles of myth and narrative, and identi- sites, with “mahinga” meaning “sites denoting fi es four functions of myth: (1) “to reconcile work” and “kai” meaning “food”. “Mahinga” consciousness to the preconditions of its own incorporates the verb “mahi”, meaning “to existence . to evoke in the individual a sense work”; “ngä” is a suffi x that converts a verb into of grateful, affi rmative awe before the mon- a noun and thus “mahinga” literally means “the strous mystery that is existence”; (2) “to present work” (“Mahinga”, 2003). Another interpreta- an image of the cosmos . that will maintain tion divides “mahinga” into its three syllables: and elicit the experience of awe”; (3) “to vali- “mä” means “white” or “light”, “hï” means to date and maintain a certain sociological system, draw up and “ngä” is linked with “kai” to form a shared set of rights and wrongs”; and (4) “to a plural (“the foods”). This interpretation sees carry the individual through the stages of life mahinga kai as an unearthing and drawing up from birth through maturity through senility to of the light to feed our bodies physically and death” (pp. 5–8). This paper is concerned with spiritually (R. Davis, personal communication, the fi rst three of Campbell’s functions. May 19, 2014). The importance of mahinga While the connections between mahinga kai, kai to iwi, hapü and whänau goes beyond any the Mäori worldview and creation narratives are cursory defi nition, however; it was a livelihood, known anecdotally, there are few papers where an identity, a part of the people. these connections are made explicit. Patterson Mahinga kai is therefore an expression of (1994) examines the concept of whanaunga- a Mäori worldview. The Mäori worldview tanga embedded in Mäori creation narratives, is a paradigm of Mäori culture from which while Jackson (2011) analyses the connection stems the Mäori belief and value system (Royal, between creation narratives and the Mäori 1998); it is how Mäori perceive the “ultimate worldview within a fi sheries context. Marsden reality and meaning” (Marsden, 2003a, p. 3). (2003a, 2003b, 2003c) similarly highlights the Marsden (2003a) explains further: importance of creation narratives for framing a MAI JOURNAL VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, 2016 CREATION NARRATIVES OF MAHINGA KAI 65 Mäori worldview; however, a deep understand- this worldview (Smith, 2003). Kaupapa Mäori ing of mahinga kai is not gained from these theory is grounded in advancing Mäori beliefs works. This paper therefore contributes to our and knowledge systems and creates a safe space understanding of the depth and breadth of mahi- to explore things Mäori within the academy nga kai, which emerges from Mäori creation (Smith, 2003, 2012). CDA is similar to kau- narratives that stem from a Mäori worldview. papa Mäori theory in that it has shared aims The three creation narratives examined here of transformation and social change (Jackson, are the separation of Ranginui and Papa- tü- ä- 2011, 2015). The use of CDA in conjunction nuku, the retribution of Tü- mata- uenga and the with kaupapa Mäori theory builds on Jackson’s creation of humanity. The discussion that fol- (2011, 2013, 2015) research that confi rms the lows is our interpretation of these narratives in validity of employing these methods of research relation to their discourses of mahinga kai. The in order to “further the aspirations of the Mäori narratives were analysed utilising Fairclough’s community” she worked with (Jackson, 2015, (2003) concept of emergence, which derives p. 2). from critical discourse analysis (CDA), in con- CDA is both a theory and a method, which junction with whakapapa, which derives from interrogates ideologies and power relations kaupapa Mäori theory. Mahinga kai is embed- involved in discourse (Fairclough, 2010). This ded in a framework of cosmogonic whakapapa paper utilises Fairclough’s interpretation of encoded within Mäori creation narratives that CDA (Fairclough, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2010; express a Mäori worldview. The aim of this Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Weiss & Wodak, paper is to identify the emergent discourses of 2003; Wodak & Meyer, 2009), which analyses mahinga kai within these three creation narra- discourses or “ways of representing aspects of tives to provide a platform for interpreting a the world” that emerge from texts (Fairclough, Mäori worldview. 2003, p. 124). Furthermore, CDA researchers tackle resistance and imagine ways and pos- sibilities for social change and emancipation Methodological approach: Kaupapa (Fairclough, 2009)—a similar goal to that of Mäori theory and CDA kaupapa Mäori theory (Jackson, 2011, 2013, 2015). Kaupapa Mäori theory and CDA were used as both the theoretical and the methodologi- Whakapapa and emergence of cal frameworks of the study. Specifi cally, the discourse concept of whakapapa (deriving from kaupapa Mäori theory) and emergence (deriving from Whakapapa as a methodology has been CDA) were employed to interpret the creation described as an analytical tool Mäori use to narratives as they pertain to the discourses of make sense of the nature, origin, connection, mahinga kai. Fairclough (2003) describes how relationship and locating of phenomena (Royal, discourses within texts emerge through themes. 1998); as “a basis for the organisation of knowl- The narratives were analysed to identify the edge in respect of the creation and development main themes and these were then categorised of all things” (Barlow, 1991, p. 173); and as into discourses—the emergent discourses of a way of ordering, thinking, storing, debating mahinga kai. and acquiring new knowledge which links the Kaupapa Mäori theory is “a distinctive past, present and future (Graham, 2005, 2009). approach which stems from a Mäori world- Whakapapa therefore examines the origin of view” (Moewaka Barnes, 2000, p. 9) and refl ects all things and thus their connectedness across the underlying principles or aspects based on time and space. MAI JOURNAL VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, 2016 66 C. PHILLIPS ET AL. Fairclough’s (2009, 2010) concept of interpretation of CDA,