Boutique potato varieties
Taewa Maori



Before the primary European settlement of Aotearoa, around 1840, the taewa (riwai) was a staple food crop of the Maori. Taewa is a collective noun referring to the ‘Maori’ potato; a collection of varieties of Solanum tuberosum now cultivated by Maori for at least 200 years. Maori acknowledge that some varieties arrived with early explorers, sealers and whalers during the eighteenth century. They also have traditions that relate the existence of taewa well before this period. By the 1800’s, taewa had become a commercial crop for Maori playing an important role in their introduction to European economics. The sustenance of the people was perhaps of primary importance and the success or otherwise of staple foods such as taewa impacted on the daily lives of Maori prior to modern times.

Courtesy of Nick Roskruge
Maori grower collective, Massey University.

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