Te Ara o te Hue- Journey of Hue
Te Ara o te Hue Poster
This project is enabling schools and ECEs in Tāmaki Makaurau to come on a journey to learn about and to grow hue.
Seeds or seedlings are being shared to schools and ECEs that have been grown at the ko’anga nursery at Boundary 274 in Ōtara. The seeds come from one hue grown by Therese Mangos which had 500+ seeds. It was shaped like a balloon, hence the name pūangi was given, as Therese shares “like our ancestors, we name things how we see them’.
At the end of the growing season a celebration event will be organised to celebrate hue that schools and ECEs have grown.
Hue - Aotearoa, New Zealand
‘Ue - Cook Islands
Ipu - Hawai’i
Bottle Gourd
Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.
Pumpkin Family (Cucurbitaceae)
“Pikipiki hama kae vaevaemanava”
Bind our outriggers together so that we may share life.
Partners on this vaka:
PVA crew with Maangere Mountain Education Centre General Manager Zane Wedding
Maangere Mountain Education Centre: “Our kaupapa is focused on kaitiakitanga of Maangere Mountain through quality education and partnership with our communities.”
Have generously provided seeds and Mātauranga of hue to PVA. The kaimahi are growing different varieties of hue this season that have been sown during Rakanui and they are carefully tracking their growth. This expertise and dedication is inspiring and a toanga for us all and generation to come.
Enviroschools is an environmental action based programme with guiding principles that schools and early learning centres set their own goals and aspirations according to their local environment and community. Environschools have provided space during their cluster hui for PVA to present hue kuapapa and are promoting Te Ara o te Hue as an action and learning opportunity.
KaiWaka is a kai resilience movement grounded in our wayfinding knowledge as People of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa led by PVA. A ko’anga (nursery) at Boundary 274 raises seeds and plants that have cultural relevance to our communities. Hue are being grown in the ko’anga with care and shared to schools to plant out in their māra.
Therese with an ‘OG water bottle’.
Beginnings…
Therese is leading the Te Ara o te Hue - Journey of Hue Project, she has been on a journey learning and growing after she was gifted hue seeds from Maangere Mountain Education Centre. Alongside this journey she has been on the Caring for Creation vaka with PVA which has included being involved in ASB Polyfest since 2017, supporting the event to be plastic free and providing an educational stall each year since PVA’s involvement. One year PVA ran a container return programme at the event where young people were encouraged to collect plastic bottles in return for 20cents per container. Therese shares the motivation behind this was to get young people to think about and to have conversations about “What was the OG water bottle? What did we use before plastic?” The answer was hue and it led to interest from schools and Therese’s growing journey to grow an ‘OG water bottle’. Therese shares growing and drying hue is a long process, patience and appreciation comes with this process which gives value and mana to the ‘OG water bottle’ aka hue.
Themes that schools and ECEs will be encouraged to explore during Te Ara o te Hue are:
Whakapapa, Climate Resilience, Creativity, Seed Sovereignty and Wairua.
Whakapapa
Bottle gourds are native to Africa however they found their way to Asia, Europe, and the Americas where they were also cultivated. In Aotearoa, bottle gourds were brought from Eastern Polynesia (Hawai’i, Cook Islands and Rapanui) by the ancestors of Māori.
“The Bottle Gourd was anciently only on the high islands of Eastern Polynesia, from Hawai‘i in the north, to Easter Island in the southeast, to New Zealand in the southwest, and the Cook Islands in the tropical east.”
“The ancient presence of Bottle Gourds in Eastern Polynesia and not Western Polynesia is strong evidence that it arrived here from the Americas. It was here, with the Sweet Potato, at around 1000AD when it was introduced to New Zealand.”
http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/showarticle.asp?id=16
In Māori tradition, the hue originated with Pū-te-hue, a child of the god Tāne.
Hine Pū Te Hue was the daughter of Tāne and Hine Rauamoa. In the great war of the brothers, Hine took their anger and placed it into the gourd to be in turn replaced by peace.
Image from an Enviroschools Resource Hine-putehue.
Climate Resilience
Being a plant that has grown in Aotearoa since the arrival around 1000AD, its adaptation to the climate and its growing history speaks to its climate resilience.
“These methods were brought to New Zealand, where the Polynesian colonists quickly learned to adapt their planting regimes and techniques to the cooler climate. The growing season was restricted to the warmer months, and they added coarse sand and gravel to soil – probably to improve drainage, increase the temperature and extend the period of plant growth.”
https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-tupu-mai-i-hawaiki-plants-from-polynesia/page-1
Hue being one of several plants bought on waka to Aotearoa alongside:
kūmara (sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas)
hue (bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria)
aute (paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera)
taro (Colocasia esulenta)
uwhi (yam, Dioscorea species)
tī pore (Pacific cabbage tree, Cordyline fruticosa)
Brendan Corbett, hue enthusiast and teacher shared that these plants when grown together have climate resilience:
“The beauty of them is the continuity of food production, the hue the first one to grow in the Spring, you’ve got the young fruit available if you require it, and then the kuumara will come in… then the uwhi can be ready right through… the tii is more of a survival plant, it still good food value, its resilient can survive any catastrophe…”
Creativity
Artist Numa MacKenzie sharing the many uses of hue with ākonga at Ōrākei School.
What we may consider creative ways to use a dried hue was the way of life for our ancestors.
“The Lagenaria gourd was a carefully cultivated and economically important plant throughout Eastern Polynesia, and especially so in Aotearoa, where it needed special care to grow well, and was a critically important source of containers for water and preserved birds.”
Musical instruments:
Small hue can be made into kōauau ponga ihu - small nose flutes that make delicate sounds.
Small hue are also made into hue poi āwhiowhio, these have two holes on either side and a string attached, when spun - make a sound that mimic native birds from the ngahere.
Hue with seeds left inside or replaced with small pebbles can become rhythmic shakers known as hue puruwai.
The tops of large hue can be removed and when blown into from the top make a deep sound.
Seed sovereignty
“Food Sovereignty begins with Seed Sovereignty. To nurture seed is to nurture the future”. Dr Jessica Hutchings
Seeds carry their own ancestry of earlier generations of plants and over time they have naturally adapted to local climates. Hue seeds were bought across oceans and were carefully cultivated to suit the climate in Aotearoa. Hue seeds whakapapa to these early seeds bought on waka, for us today they are a gift to learn about the past and our connections to Te Moana a nui a Kiwa.
KaiWaka have started their seed bank. Hue seeds have been packed into seed envelopes with the date seeds were harvested and whakapapa.
Some varieties have been recorded by Te Māori Reo - The Language Garden.
Hue varieties grown at Maangere Mountain Education Centre
Wairua
Hue growing becomes a living karakia, reminding us that every seed holds mauri (life force). Tending to the growing of hue, is like tending to our earth Mother, reminding us of her mana, her mauri and her fragility. Its a forever learning cycle.
Hine Pū te Hue is the atua of the hue, she bought peace to her raging brothers Tāwhirimātea (Atua of the winds) and Tūmatauenga (Atua of war) by breathing in the turmoil and when she exhaled the sounds was a peaceful and calming melody. In todays chaotic world the power of growing hue, brings about connection to the divine, a settling of oneself, and once dry can be created into taonga puoro, for just these purposes.
Growing Tips:
Growing hue starts in the leading up to Kōanga - Spring, where seeds can be planted and/or germinated. Maangere Mountain Education Centre began sowing hue seeds during Rakanui (full moon) from July. Seedlings will need a warm place to grow and water when needed, this growth stage takes 4-6 weeks. When the hue seedling has 4-5 leaves and looks strong and healthy it is ready to be planted out.
Seeds germinating at Maangere Mountain Education Centre
Hue love sun so plant in a sunny spot, away from other cucubits eg. courgettes, pumpkins etc. If you have a climbing variety erect a trellis for the hue to climb or else have space available if you have a sprawling variety.
Hue have white male and female flowers that are pollinated by the native hīhue - moth at night time.
Leave to grow over the summer period and leave the hue on the vine as long as possible until the vine starts to die back. The hue can then be dried in a light and airy place until the skin hardens. You may need to wipe the skin from time to time to wipe moisture or mould.