History of Aotearoa New Zealand Podcast

48 – How to Plant a Garden

Today we talk about a few different things around Māori horticulture from how gardens were made up, fertiliser, tools, gods and planting!

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All pictures below taken from: Best, E. (1931) ‘Maori agriculture. Cultivated food-plants of the Maori and native methods of agriculture (continued)’, The Journal Of The Polynesian Society, 40(1(157)), pp. 1-22.

Please note all photos use original captions from the article.

“Four forms of kaheru or spades. Third from left
has a detachable blade.” – Elsdon Best
Three forms of kaheru (1, 2, and 3) and a cultivating ko (4). – Elsdon Best
Collection of ko or digging-sticks, some with teka, or tread,
attached; some without. – Elsdon Best
Two ketu, used for loosening soil, crop-lifting, etc.
One side-view, one face-view. – Elsdon Best
Young Maori woman using timo (grubber). – Elsdon Best
A so-called kumara-god. At the time of working in the field the image
was displayed there as a taumata atua (resting-place for the deity)
and removed when the crop was lifted. – Elsdon Best

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About the Podcast

In this “unashamedly homegrown” podcast we tell the story of our islands from the time before people arrived all the way up to the year 2000.

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