What Mātauranga means to Milli Kumar #ManaKai

Eat NZ Kaitaki and Food Technologist - Milli Kumar @milli.kumar explores the Mana Kai concept of Mātauranga and shares what it means to her...

MĀTAURANGA: Precious knowledge, wisdom, technology and innovation we have learnt (and continue to learn) on how to harvest, farm fish, forage, gather, cook and package our food.

This is an example of what mātauranga means to me:

One of my favourite parts of visiting my grandparents in India has to be the food. My Nani makes delicious achars (pickles), which are eaten as condiments with most dishes. In the photo above she has made a lemon and mango achar from scratch. My Nani never went to school, however she has a herbal cure for most health concerns, including the lemon achar being one for overall tummy health and digestion.

These days with the buzz around probiotics, and lacto-fermentation we have the science to back up how the lemon achar is beneficial for our tummy. Potentially due to the fermentation process introducing probiotic lactobacilli bacteria.

However, this makes me wonder about all the mātauranga (traditional knowledge) and wisdom that is often dismissed (I have been guilty of this), due to a lack of science to back it up? It might be time to flip the narrative, and let mātauranga drive science to solve our global problems.

I'm personally making more of an effort to reconnect with my heritage, harness my Nani’s knowledge and share it with my friends and family.

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