Healthy foods for healthy planet

For Māori, autonomy in healthy foods will be critical

If there’s a new wave of dietitians, Summer Wright is surfing it.

A Wellingtonian who’s a champion of plant-based eating, Ms Wright has her eye on food’s role in the health of the planet as well as its people – and, in particular, Māori people.

The nutrition researcher is exploring how Māori businesses can develop healthy, sustainable plant-based foods that contribute to social, cultural and environmental wellbeing.

Ms Wright (Ngāti Maniapoto) is working towards a food science PhD at Massey University and is also the Māori co-convenor of Ora Taiao: New Zealand Climate and Health Council; she has been a board member for three years.

She says Ora Taiao recognises that food, all the way from field to distribution to waste disposal, is placing the greatest pressure on the environment.

“We know food is one of the largest drivers of climate change and poor health globally and in Aotearoa.

“For Māori, who disproportionately suffer chronic illness often grounded in nutrition, but who also will suffer disproportionately from environmental disasters like climate change…autonomy in healthy foods will be critical.”

History tells us expansion of European settlement and the subsequent “unfettered economic growth” came at the expense of Māori sovereignty, including the ability to grow and choose their own foods, says Ms Wright.

“Before any European contact, all land was Māori land. It went from 100 per cent to now only about 5 per cent…

“I doubt that Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements cut it and, unless the constitutional structure of the country is properly enacted and the Treaty properly upheld, I don’t think any amount of Treaty settlements will be good enough for Māori wellbeing…

“If there was a true Treaty partnership, with the principles genuinely adhered to and a strong bi-directional and positive relationship between Māori and tauiwi, you would see good change, including on climate action…

“If there is no onus to include Māori participation…there will be climate action but it may not be equitable or effective,” says Ms Wright.

Considering climate change from a Māori perspective, leads to acknowledging whakapapa and the relationships humans have with nature and with one another, Ms Wright says.

“There is an onus to act, because climate change disrupts those relationships even more. Thinking about whakapapa when we think about climate change gives us motivation to act.”

Climate change itself is not the problem, she says: “It is a symptom of a set of problems. Climate change results from the same processes that pollute the rivers, make people unhealthy and degrade the soil and air.”