Our Maara team

Elishka Graham & Tania Hakaraia

Māoriland is committed to

-Kaitiakitanga – Being good caretakers
-Para Kore – Zero Waste
-Tikanga Māori – practices to achieve ecological sustainability
-Hauora – Better kai means better health
-Mana motuhake – Food sovereignty `

Nau mai Haere mai…
Join us in the maara!

Maara Noticeboard

For all your community notices and handy hints in the garden!

BRING YOUR COMPOST TO US

KAIBOSH

Māoriland has partnered with Kaibosh to share quality surplus food that would otherwise have gone to landfill with our community.

One day every week we set up outside Toi Matarau Gallery. We try to ensure everyone can get a little something, and at times when people need extra we can usually help. This whole event depends on manaakitanga and engaging in respectful, sharing and caring way.

ELISKHA'S PARSLEY PESTO
Pesto can be made from any green, but here’s Elishka’s Parsley Pesto Recipe…

Parsley 2 packed cups roughly

Chopped Cashews 3/4 cup (can substitute with any seeds or nuts you have)

Oil 3/4 cup (I strongly prefer cold pressed olive oil)

Grated rind half lemon

Salt and Pepper to taste (more is good!)

Mix well and enjoy with bread or crackers!

SLUG AND SNAIL TRAP

This little contraption, filled with beer, in every bed has changed my gardening life, check out the photos of my slug and snail traps and I totally recommend you make your own!

Safe from slugs and snails, tomatoes and cucumbers are taking up space in the kitchen while we wait for the soil to warm up, not long now and I will have the dining table back.

Maara News

keep up to date with the maara

Matariki in the Maara

June 20, 2024

In the Māoriland Maara it is Matariki. The Matariki holiday made official and consequential busy-ness contrasts with the quiet grounding of winter in the maara, a slow time of reflection and planning. Tania dreamed up a lovely community ‘whanau kai’ shared lunch event we held yesterday, a Sunday afternoon. Whanau traditions walked in the door, with scones wrapped […]

Ngahuru in the Maara

May 3, 2023

Corn Harvest! Late in 2022 I planted corn, placing some in the centre row of the long bed by the Māoriland Hub back door, a reliably visible and busy spot during film festivals. Knowing that corn is culturally significant, a taonga, for our Indigenous Turtle Island friends, I wanted it to be prominent and visible. […]

April in the Maara

April 22, 2022

Keeping on top of regular planting is keeping me busy in the maara with the seedlings all requiring attention and somewhere to grow i.e. ongoing transplantation! Charlie and I planted the garlic gifted by Raureka Cook and are feeling optimistic…garlic is rumoured to be easy to grow the first year you ever put it in, […]

Summer’s end in the Māoriland Maara

March 2, 2022

Our willow fence line is establishing and beautifies the dilapidated tin fence, but this willow does need attention and weaving while it is still supple to develop its shape. This is a creative and somewhat meditative opportunity to enhance a living breathing fence line. I welcome anyone who wants to spend time plaiting and weaving, […]

November in the Maara

November 22, 2021

Te Ao Tūroa – The natural order Tūroa: established, of long standing, enduring, long-lasting Ao tūroa: enduring world, earth, nature I have been thinking about the acts we can engage in to maintain community and endure, support our whānau and protect our whakapapa. This was evident at Raukawa Marae on Saturday 13 November as vaccinations […]

Māoriland and Kaibosh to distribute FREE surplus kai to Ōtaki community

October 26, 2021

On Tuesdays Māoriland has kai available for those who need it outside our Toi Matarau Gallery on Main Street, Ōtaki. The surplus kai comes from Kaibosh, an charity that collects and distributes food to those who need it in the Wellington region. Māoriland Māra and Kaibosh have the common goal of Zero Food Poverty and Zero […]

October in the Maara

October 22, 2021

There really is nothing quite like this time of the year in the māra… The joys and rites of spring… Seeds are sprouting merrily on windowsills and being transferred optimistically to the māra where ngā manu are maniacal, digging out every new tipu they find. We find ourselves in the act of ongoing and creative […]

September in the Maara

September 17, 2021

Kia ora koutou, one of the things I have been considering in level two lockdown is the ability of our community to re-emerge safely, reconnect and rebuild our sense of community connection. I have been contemplating ways we can get together in the Māoriland Māra at level two, and have some safe social contact and […]