"Our māra is the one thing we really did together to establish our identity as whānau Māori" Māra kai and urban kai rangatiratanga

Kai rangatiratanga is intrinsically connected to tino rangatiratanga over land and the ability for Māori to exercise the right to define kai systems and practices. The expression of kai rangatiratanga inherently relies on access to land and resources. The urban environment in Aotearoa New Zealand presents many challenges regarding the expression of kai rangatiratanga. This thesis explores māra kai and kai rangatiratanga as facilitators for connecting to te ao Māori in urban settings. The existing literature gave a foundational understanding of the impacts of colonisation and capitalism on kai rangatiratanga in Aotearoa New Zealand, and international food sovereignty across the globe. The role of gardens and māra kai in urban settings to enable kai rangatiratanga was explored, which gave a broader context to understanding urban māra kai such as He Puāwai Trust, where this research was based. He Puāwai Trust are a community organisation affiliated with Kōkiri Marae Hauora in the Lower Hutt and Wainuiomata suburbs of Wellington. This māra kai has a specific operating model which supports a number of whānau, and this research seeks to explore the effectiveness of this māra kai programme. Specifically, this research explored the following questions: How have Māori living in Lower Hutt and Wainuiomata engaged with the māra kai programme run through Kōkiri Marae Hauora and He Puāwai Trust?What factors have facilitated engagement with the programme?How was the māra kai programme established? And how can the māra kai programme continue and become self-sustaining?Is there a role for māra kai facilitating urban kai rangatiratanga for whānau? Qualitative participatory methods grounded in critical theory guided the data collection, which included semi-structured interviews with 14 participants associated with He Puāwai Trust and Kōkiri Marae Hauora. The findings of this research demonstrated how the lack of funding from government along with neoliberal capitalism are creating barriers for whānau. These barriers continue to displace knowledge and promote reliance on services, which is inhibiting kai rangatiratanga. Despite this, there remain areas where He Puāwai Trust are facilitating kai rangatiratanga through developing knowledge in the māra and connection to whānau and the environment. Moreover, this research described how He Puāwai Trust envision their kaupapa being continued by the community themselves through enhancing whānau mana and creating kai networks centred around the māra. The discussion of this thesis emphasised the vision of He Puāwai Trust and how they are operating to fill the gaps left by a neoliberal capitalist food system through decolonising approaches. These approaches focus on providing whānau with the resources in the way of seedlings, teaching whānau how to build their own māra for free and pairing this with knowledge to sustain these practices. Currently there are various challenges for He Puāwai Trust and whānau to exercise kai rangatiratanga. However, this research presents opportunity for sufficient funding to expand the practices of He Puāwai Trust. Moreover, these findings may inform the wider community of urban māra kai approaches they can integrate into their own whānau to build kai rangatiratanga.