November 15, 2022
Kūmara sweet subject for research
Husband and wife academics Paora Tapsell from Takarangi Research and University of Otago Professor Merata Kawharu have won a Marsden Fund grant to research stories about kūmara.
Professor Tapsell of Ngāti Whakaue and Ngāti Raukawa says his interest in kūmara goes back to growing up at Maketu where his kuia talked of kūmara as a status kai.
“She always ensured all the whānau received kūmara but there was also kūmara set aside for the hakari for those special guests and the way it was prepared to make it very beautiful and sweet through the hāngī, that was how you honoured and the manaaki you gave your manuhiri,” Professor Tapsell says.
Archaeology indicates kūmara arrived on the second wave of waka and made it possible for Māori to build pā and stay in one place.