I was watching this koroua on Māori TV tonight and he was sharing his knowledge about how our people used to live. He talked about a special way of preserving kumara and in the end I figured out it was the same process (but done in a different way) of dehydrating food that we know today. So food was dehydrated and preserved in a special way where the food literally lasts forever.

So whenever our people went hunting for food they could carry these dry kumara in their pockets as snacks. Dried shark was another food.

He mentioned the fact that we have gone away from our traditional kai – eating from the land and sea and our daily exercise regimes don’t exist anymore because we are no longer hunting and gathering our kai but going to the supermarket. Or we’ve “thrown it in for KFC!”

So it was great to hear this elder speak as a reminder of what was once health and wellbeing for our people and what we should get back to in order to sustain ourselves into the future.
The photo shows a clear picture of winter on its way. I love it when the leaves fall, most people would sweep these off the driveway but I go out and take photos of them instead. We’ve had lots of rain over the past two days so everything is looking wet and fresh!
Arohanui,
Jo x