A new course in gathering seafood is being launched to help whanau to feed their families mouthwatering delicacies from the sea’s bounty.
An initial three-day seafood gathering wānanga held in Te Whānau a Apanui over the past three days was led by masters graduate in kaimoana gathering, Deane Gage.
The wānanga taught fishing, diving, and hunting, customs, and protocols
Gage grew up diving and fishing in the Te Whānau a Apanui and Whānau a Pararaki hapu. He was taught the practices and customs by his parents, grandparents and extended whānau.
He applied these life lessons to his masters’s thesis at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and has developed a programme to help connect people to the ocean and land, with an emphasis on practising tikanga.
Another driver of the wānanga was water safety, during kaimoana gathering and, by following tikanga, a good catch and safety.
“The drownings and deaths in Aotearoa are very high and there is a need to do something to fix it. What a better way is there to bring people back to the sea and show them what we do,” Gage said.
Leading crayfishers Moana and Ross Jamieson have supported this kaupapa by offering two of their commercial crayfish vessels to take the wānanga participants out to fish and dive using permits. For many, it was a first time.
“When Dean came to us with the idea of a wānanga we told him to go and see the kaumatua, and they agreed to this new idea,” Moana said.
Cheaper food
“We want our families to come home, our children and mokopuna to embrace more about our tikanga.”
Gage knows supermarkets and seafood places are more convenient to buy kaimoana but he points out it’s not the cheapest way.
“And how do whānau build on whanaungatanga and connection while at a supermarket?
“We have got a beautiful country so why can’t we come here to our moana? We are going to have a feed of kina, koura and fresh fish we caught today,” he said.
Rongomaianiwaniwa Milroy who participated said it was about learning how to fish and dive for their families and also an opportunity to learn about gods such as Tangaroa of the ocean.
Kramer Ronaki saw it as an opportunity to participate in a physical wānanga about gathering kaimoana.
He says face to face training is better in this “Zoom” era.
The attendees were also able to exercise the values being upheld such as manaakitanga by providing to the community.
“During the wānanga there was a tangihanga, and yes very sad, but they asked if we could gather kaimoana.," Gage said. "We felt privileged that we were asked and we gave them some sacks of kina, well, not some, a lot of sacks of kina and this is a way of giving back to our community – it’s all part of tikanga.”
Gage will now be putting an even better kaimoana gathering programme together and offering it to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa as a course.
“Why not learn the fundamentals for gathering kai for our marae, hapu,and for our kaumātua?” he said.
